Ben's Blog

Image – Chris Dyson

Penny and Albo have justified their involvement in the illegal Israeli/US attack on Iran by claiming that ‘ Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East, has one of the world’s worst human rights records and must never be allowed to obtain or develop nuclear weapons.’*

Let’s unpick these three inflammatory and dangerous ideas:

1. Iran is the source of instability and terror in the Middle East

Many would claim that Israel and the US are by far the main source of instability and terror in the middle east. Surely there is enough doubt here to refrain from destroying an entire country and terrorising its 90 million people based on a doubtful assumption.

2. ‘Iran has one of the worst human rights records in the world.’

This may well be true, but we should be very careful about judging Iran based on information supplied by Israeli surveillance, exceptional though it is. There are many independent sources that fiercely dispute the information supplied by the country that is hell bent on destroying Iran…and Lebanon and Palestine and anywhere else they can lay their hands on.

Iran has a very poor human rights record, especially in their attitude to women. But bear in mind that every Gulf nation operates on the same legal system as Iran, Sharia law. They are all Monarchies with woeful human rights records no better and often worse than Iran, yet they are all our friends and allies, hosting US bases and some also buying Australian weapons.

We are all aware this war is not about freedom and democracy.

3.‘Iran must never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.’

 Iran cannot have nuclear weapons because they may be tempted to  use them against Israel, and Israel is our friend and close military ally, no matter what barbaric atrocities they commit on a daily basis.

Some people actually remember that Sleepy Joe Biden signed a comprehensive agreement with Iran that removed US sanctions in return for a binding pledge that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons.

Donald Trump tore up that agreement on the day he took office. More recently he proceeded to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities, claiming that they were completely destroyed and Iran would no longer pose a nuclear threat.

Even more recently Trump began negotiations with Iran on the very topic of their nuclear capability. These negotiations were in extremely bad faith to say the least. Israel proceeded to kill any Iranian that stepped up to lead the negotiations, then Trump and Netanyahu launched their unprovoked attack just as the US and Iran were finalising a comprehensive agreement that Iran would not develop nuclear weapons.(we can now see that Iron has an even better deterrent, the straits of Hormuz)

So these are the flimsy pretexts that Trump texted to Albo and Penny at 3am the other night, in order to convince them to abandon their quaint and anachronist notion of a ‘rules based order.’ It didn’t take much convincing. The next morning Penny and Albo learnt the text ‘off -by-heart, just like they used to in Sunday school, and they’ve been repeating it ad infinitum at every opportunity, just like they used to bang on about ‘the rules based order’.

So what could bring two supposedly humanist politicians to abandon their most cherished beliefs and start parroting the exact opposite?

Learned folks who spend their time divining the entrails for paradigm shifts in in global politics, keep mentioning a ‘climate fortress’ that is being constructed by the western military alliance: NATO, the 5 Eyes(Canada, US,UK, Australia and NZ) and Israel. Our fortress must be well stocked with fossil fuels, needed to fight off our adversaries and the starving hoards climbing the walls and beating at the doors.

Only the most loyal subjects will be allowed in. Penny and Albo can expect gold passes.

*Penny and Albo claim that Australia is not one of the attackers, but our Wedge-tail surveillance aircraft stationed in the U.A.E.(our new bestie) tracks incoming missiles in order to intercept them and target their origins. This information is shared with the aggressors.