Former United States Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, describes in an interview, published by Russia Today 2 on Youtube on 17 Sep 2013, how sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United States and its allies, including Australia, since 1990 (when former dictator Saddam Hussein invaded neighbouring Kuwait to stop Iraqi oil fields from being 'slant drilled' into from Kuwait 1) have killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
One estimate puts the death toll from the sanctions and two illegal wars against Iraq, the first in 1991 and the second beginning in 2003 at 3,300,000. As a result of these wars and sanctions, 1.3 million Iraqis fled to neighboring Syria, according to Wikipedia. As a result of fraudulent claims that Syrian government had massacred 108 of its own citizens at Houla on 25 May 2012, then Australian 'Labor' Foreign Minister Bob Carr increased existing sanctions against Syria and expelled Syria's ambassador. As of 12 January, these sanctions remain in force.
See, also, Australian sponsored genocide against Iraq 1990-2012 killed 3.3 million, including 750,000 children. That article was previously published on Global Research and, before that, on UK Progressive on 5 Dec 2012.
Footnote[s]
#fn1" id="fn1">1 #fn1txt">↑ As was confirmed by Wikileaks and Ron Paul's speech to Congress in 2012, the then United States ambassador to Kuwait, April Glaspie, led Saddam Hussein to believe that the US would not object to military action by Iraq against Kuwait.
#fn2" id="fn2">2 #fn2txt">↑ I am not able to find the link to the original RT story, but the YouTube video embedded above and the Breaking the Set channel are still there. - JS, 16 May 2015
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Geoffrey Taylor
Sun, 2014-01-19 03:31
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Keating imposed genocidal sanctions, idolised by Wikileaks Party
On 2 January 2014 Members of the the Wikileaks Party visited Syria to express solidarity with that country's fight against a terrorist invasion, which has so far cost 100,000 Syrian lives. For this couurageous and principled stand they were condemned by the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Labor Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen and much of the (link found to be broken, 30/8/14) corporate newsmedia.
However, also on the Wikleaks Party web-site is a curious article Homage to Paul Keating – Happy Birthday Paul!. This article largely accepts at face value the mythology that Keating helped Paul Watson to construct about himself in Confessions of a Bleeding Heart (2002) as well as his seemingly passionate and supposedly spontaneous 1993 Remembrance Day speech in favour of Aboriginal Rights embedded in the WikiLeaks Party article.
A more reliable guide to Keating's quality as a political leader would be his implementation of the genocidal sanctions against Iraq as described above by former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clarke when he was Australian Prime Minister from 1992 until 1996. Together with former 'Labor' Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, and former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser#fnMFraser1" id="txtMFraser1">1, he imposed, without any electoral mandate whatsoever, extremist neoliberal policies of privatisation and deregulation which have taken away many of the rights previously enjoyed by all native Australians including indigenous Australians.
Footnote[s]
#fnMFraser1" id="fnMFraser1">1. #txtMFraser1">↑ Whilst we should rightly be critical of former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser for the role he played in the CIA orchestrated coup against the Labor Government of Prime Minster Gough Whitlam on 11 November 1975, he has, in more recent years, demonstrated a commitment to justice and opposition to western military aggression that has been rare amongst Australian national political leaders since the 1970's. Examples can be found in the articles Oksana Boyko interviews former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser (21/3/14) and Video: Malcolm Fraser says US and NATO wrong on Russia - interview by Oksana Boyko on Russia Today (7/8/14). Other articles on candobetter, which are more critical of Malcolm Fraser, include Australia's return to a populationist development and housing policy under the Fraser Government (21/3/14) and Dismissal of charges against Bob Carnegie (18/8/13). The latter article refers to anti-union legislation which was implemented under the Fraser government, particularly Sections 45D and 45E of the Trade Practices act. These laws outlawed secondary boycotts and were never repealed by subsequent 'Labor' governments. These laws made unions, which took industrial action in support of other workers, liable to have crippling fines imposed. They drastically reduced the strength of the Australian Trade Union movement. Sections $45D and 45E of the Trade Practices Act were effective weapons that helped Australian and foreign corporations take away much from Australian workers in recent decades. I would be most interested to hear Malcolm Fraser discuss these issues, ideally with Oksana Boyko.
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