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Extreme Militarism on the Rise. Joseph Camilleri

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Extreme Militarism on the Rise. Joseph Camilleri Vol 44 No. 1 March 2019 ExtremeExtreme militarismmilitarism onon thethe rise.rise. Joseph Camilleri ear Friends, I am deeply concerned by the extreme militarism that is now in full swing. It has been with us for some D time, but has now reached frightening proportions - and bar a few voices - the silence is deafening - not just from the government, but the other parties as well, and, of course, our media. • Some weeks ago, the Trump Administration announced that it was withdrawing from the INF Treaty, the first major nuclear disarmament treaty that helped pave the way for the end of the Cold War. Soon after, the Rus- sian Government announced that it would retaliate by withdrawing as well. • in recent months, both the US and Russia have announced major plans for the expansions of their respec- tive military arsenals, including expensive nuclear modernisation plans • In the meantime, arms sales to some of the most explosive parts of the world continue unabated - abso- lutely no response from our political parties, and hardly a murmur in the media. • Last year the Australian government unveiled plans to become one of world’s top 10 arms exporters. The Defence Export Office is to work hand in hand with Austrade and the Centre for Defence Industry Capability to coordinate the commonwealth’s whole-of-government export efforts and provide a focal point for more arms exports. And, a $3.8 billion Defence Export Facility, to be administered by the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, is to provide the finance to Australian companies to help them sell their defence equipment over- seas. Just now, we've had the extraordinary announcement that Australian weapons system manufacturer EOS has received more than $36 million ingovernment assistance (taxpayers money). According to documents seen by the ABC, EOS has struck a deal which will see its sophisticated weapons mounts supplied to Saudi Arabia, the leader of a coalition in war-torn Yemen which has been accused of indiscriminate airstrikes on civilians. • And now the shocking revelation (arising from a US Congressional inquiry) based on whistleblower ac- counts and documents showing communications between Trump administration officials and nuclear power com- panies. It states that "within the US, strong private commercial interests have been pressing aggressively for the transfer of highly sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia". These commercial entities could "reap billions of dollars through contracts associated with constructing and operating nuclear facilities in Saudi Arabia". Mr Trump is reportedly "directly engaged in the effort". The implications of this would be horrific. Once Saudi Arabia is sus- pected of developing nuclear facilities capable of feeding nuclear weapons ambitions, Iran would immediately do the same. within a few years, the world's most unstable region would have three nuclear armed states: Israel, Saudi Arabia and Iran - a recipe if ever there were one for a regional nuclear conflict with incalculable global repercus- sions. What we are faced with is extreme militarism, and with that comes what E. P. Thompson famously described at the height of the Cold war as "exterminism". It seems we are back to square one. It is, I suggest, time, for the peace movement to face up to the new reality, but with a view to bringing this reality into full public view. May I suggest that we think creatively in coming months about ways in which this can done. I can think of no issue that is more relevant to our current efforts to promote a "just and ecologically sustainable peace" because the new militarism threatens not just endless bloodletting, but grave humanitarian catastrophes, and endless destruction of the environment. Lots to think about - I'm hopeful that collectively humanity we can rise to the new challenge. DISARMING Peace,Peace, JusticeJustice andand EcologyEcology TIMES Geoff Lacey ny exercise of power with- the Lawrence Livermore National out restraint is at once an Laboratory, the nuclear weapons A quarterly journal of Pax Christi Australia. It A assault on people, especially facility. Edward Teller, its co- aims to provide members and interested the poor, and an assault on nature. founder, was again a key figure. peacemakers with peace news and views both I would like to consider two global After the collapse of the USSR the local and international. We endeavour in each examples of this. leaders looked for new opportuni- edition to reflect the three-fold emphasis of Pax Christi which engages members in study, Non- First example: the historical ties to keep the Laboratory relevant violent action and prayer for peace, justice, human connection between the Man- and in the 1990s they expanded its rights, development and inter-faith and inter- hattan Project and the denial of capacity to study greenhouse effect. civilisation dialogue. climate change—along with In 1997 Teller published a paper proposals for geoengineering. on the ‘prospects for physics-based Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway modulation of global change’ and in their book, Merchants of doubt in 2002 another paper arguing that PAX CHRISTI AUSTRALIA (2010), have pointed out a connec- the world should regulate solar is an Australia-wide Christian Peace Movement, affiliated with Pax tion between nuclear weapons de- radiation instead of reducing green- Christi International. velopment and climate change de- house gas emissions, even in the Human rights, justice and integrity of nial. In fact the roots of climate absence of global warming. creation are central to its work. denial go right back to the Manhat- Second example: The global We take a stand against militarism, nuclear tan Project to make the atom conflict over genetically modi- weapons and the arms race. bomb. fied (GM) crops vs Agroecology As an ecumenical Christian movement In 1984 a number of scientists On December 17, 2018, the United Pax Christi fosters the spiritual and scriptural (including Edward Teller) who Nations General Assembly took a dimensions of peace-making. www.paxchristi.org.au worked on the bomb and related historic vote, approving the Decla- defence projects in America got ration on the Rights of Peasants together to found the General and other People Working in George C. Marshall Institute. A Rural Areas . The declaration, Disarming Times is compiled by a team of prime aim was to lobby in support which was the product of some 17 Pax Christi Australia members: of the Strategic Defence Initiative years of diplomatic work led by the Joe Camilleri, Rolf Sorenson, Harry Kerr, (‘Star Wars’) and to defend it from international peasant alliance La Rita Camilleri and Barbara Hadkinson (Vic) Claude Mostowik and Maggie Galley (N.S.W.) the critiques made by the Union of Via Campesina , formally extends Pancras Jordan and Claire Cooke (Qld) Concerned Scientists. human rights protections to farm- In the late 1980s the cold war ers whose seed sovereignty is INFORMATION ABOUT JOINING PAX came to an end and there was no threatened by corporate practices. CHRISTI longer an enemy that justified a While some countries ab- • Pax Christi Victoria Visit ourP.O. website: Box 31 Carlton www.paxchristi.org.au Sth Vic. 3053 Strategic Defense Initiative. How- stained, the only ‘no’ votes came ever, the team decided to fight on from the United States, United • Blog: http://paxchristi-or.blogspot.comTel: 03 9893 4946 Fax: 03 9379 1711 and they found a new enemy: envi- Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, • See Membershipemail: [email protected] Form on Notice Board ronmental ‘alarmists’. In 1989 the Hungary, Israel, and Sweden. • Contact a Pax Christi branch: Pax Christi New South Wales Marshall Institute issued its first To understand what is at stake, P.O. Box A 681 Sydney Sth 1235, report attacking climate science. consider an example (provided by Tel: 02 9550 3845 or 0411 450 953 Clive Hamilton, in his book Hugh Lacey) from the State of Pi- Fax: 02 9519 8471 email: mscjust @smartchat.net.au Earthmasters (2013), tells a similar auí in Brazil’s north-east. story about geoengineering. This is Until recently this area was Pax Christi Queensland the term used for a range of engi- renowned for its biodiversity. Fam- PO Box 305 Carina QLD 4152 neering proposals to reduce the ily farmers and indigenous and Tel: 0415 461 620 temperature of the earth without other traditional groups had prac- email: [email protected] reducing carbon emissions. These ticed agriculture and stock rais- proposals would subject the entire ing—in ways that kept the biodi- earth to technological control. The versity largely intact, and enabled a Unsourced material in Disarming Times may be most common proposal is to get healthy, self-reliant, stable life for copied with due acknowledgement. A copy of the sulphate aerosol particles into the the rural communities. Moreover, publication would be appreciated. Not all views upper atmosphere in order to re- many of them had begun to organ- expressed in this journal are equally shares by Pax flect back solar radiation into ize with movements that highlight Christi Australia. space. the practices of agroecology, which Disarning Times is printed by Arena Press Hamilton points out that many incorporate their traditional farm- 2-14 Kerr St. Fitzroy 3065 Ph 03 9416 0232 of the scientists working on geoen- ing methods. gineering have worked at or with Since their traditional methods Disarming Times Page 2 www.paxchristi.org.au Pax Christi Australia required little interaction with the Ecological conflicts and initiatives stock production. Many have found formal economy, their lands were offi- in rural Australia ways not only of retaining part of the cially regarded as ‘unproductive’. The Such issues, in which the assault on remnant woodland ecosystems but lands were expropriated, and sold to people is bound up with an assault on also of integrating native groundstorey agribusiness entrepreneurs.
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