The Age On-line National Times published an excellent article by former PM Malcolm Fraser entitled “Slavish devotion to US a foreign policy folly for Australia” ” (The Age One-line, 14 December 2010: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/slavish-devotion-to-the-us-a-foreign-policy-folly-for-australia-20101213-18vec.html?comments=110#comments ) re warmongering by Labor politicians revealed by Wikileaks..
Malcolm Fraser points out that while former Labor leader and now Australian Ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, offered Austrtalian troops ifd there were a war with China, former conservative PMs would not.
Thus the following key quotes : “We now know that Australian ministers or prime ministers have given commitments to the US that have been secretly withheld, probably from their own government and certainly from the Parliament. The idea of partnering the US in a war with China, which comes specifically from Kim Beazley's reported comments, is the ultimate example. A war over Taiwan would be an absurdity. The idea that we should participate in such a conflict is unconscionable and totally contrary to Australia's interests and indeed to Australian security… What I am saying is not particularly new for Australia. When China was shelling offshore islands close to Taiwan in the 1950s, the US moved its Pacific fleet in or close to the Taiwan Strait, and invasion of Taiwan from China was then feared. That likelihood is now increasingly remote. But in the middle of the 1950s, only a year or two after the ANZUS treaty had been signed, then Australian prime minister Robert Menzies told the US that if it went to war with China over Taiwan, Australia would not be part of it. Menzies had a longer-term understanding of the necessity of Australia's future than has been shown by any current leaders.”
It is important to note that former Labor PM Rudd has been revealed by WikiLeaks as suggesting that the US attack China. According to ABC News (; 6 December 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/06/3085195.htm ): “The Federal Government is refusing to comment on revelations that Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd suggested force may be needed if China could not be successfully integrated into the international community. ccording to a US diplomatic cable released by the WikiLeaks website, Mr Rudd made the comments during a conversation with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in March last year, while he was still prime minister. he document is the first to be released by WikiLeaks with a significant mention of Australia. According to the confidential cable, Ms Clinton asked for Mr Rudd's advice on dealing with the growing power of China, asking him: "How do you deal toughly with your banker?" He responded by saying he was a "brutal realist on China". He said China should be integrated into the international community but that countries should be prepared to "deploy force if everything goes wrong". ”
Federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie: “I'm wondering the degree to which Kevin Rudd was fair dinkum [truthful] about that. The prospect of using force against China or supporting the US using force against China just because it might be sitting slightly outside the international community from time to time - I think that is just an inconceivable notion. I suspect there was some posturing on Kevin Rudd's place at that time" (ABC News, 6 December 2010: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/06/3085195.htm ):
An informed and credentialled comment on this article from a 5-decade career academic scientist, Dr Gideon Polya, was secretly rejected by The Age, evidently as containing facts its readers should not be allowed to read about. In contrast, The Age published 110 comments from other readers, all but 1 anonymous (i.e. uncredentialled).
This is what The Age did not want its readers to read: “"Excellent article by Malcolm Fraser who has, together with Dr Bob Brown, been the conscience of Australia on fundamental human rights issues for many years.
When slavishly pro-US and pro-war Labor politicians like Kim Beazley and Kevin Rudd secretly advocate US war with China with Australian participation one realizes that the Australian Labor Party (aka the American Labor Party) is dangerously adrift from reality and fundamental decency - the more so when we are informed by Mr Fraser that back in the Cold War 1950s "then Australian prime minister Robert Menzies told the US that if it went to war with China over Taiwan, Australia would not be part of it."
Beazley should be immediately sacked as Australian Ambassador to the US and Rudd should be sacked as Foreign Minister.
There is a good case for both to be kicked out of the Labor Party for this appalling war-mongering directed at a peaceful giant neighbor which is also a major trading partner that has kept Australia remarkably unscathed by the GFC.
Enough is enough. Australia has been involved in all post-1950 US Asian wars, conflicts that have been associated so far with violent deaths and non-violent deaths from deprivation totalling 24 million, the breakdown being 1 million (Korea), 13 million (Indo-China i.e. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), 4.4 million (Iraq, 1990-2010), 4.9 million (Afghanistan) and 0.8 million global opiate drug-related deaths - 3,000 Australian, 100,000 American - due to US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry from 6% of world share in 2001 to over 90% today.
Decent pro-peace Australians must put warmonger Labor last.”