On Jan. 20, 2021, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network urges Australians to reflect on our relationship with the US during this inauguration and think deeply about how we may forge an independent and peaceful foreign policy in the coming years.
While President Biden promises to differ from former-President Donald Trump, Australia faces issues that will persist regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.
On-going conflicts in the Middle East, the growing power of China, the ramifications of global warming and many more issues necessitate an intelligent foreign policy informed by the need for peace, science and our national interests.
IPAN has established the People’s Inquiry exploring the costs and consequences of the US alliance and US-led wars to assist in the development of this foreign policy. The Inquiry is already receiving submissions which will result in a report covering the Australian public’s opinion on the US alliance and its alternatives.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s admission that Australia is “joined at the hip” to the US is a worrying prospect - a sentiment that has continued under Prime Minister Scott Morrison – and is one not supported by an Australian public that routinely disagrees with US foreign policy.
Australia needs to build a diplomatic and policy apparatus that can not only deviate from Washington but pursue the interests of the Australian people.
This will only happen when a cohesive and informed foreign policy approach is established. The People’s Inquiry will contribute to this through soliciting public submissions and expert opinion.
Details of this Inquiry can be found at the following link: https://www.independentpeacefulaustralia.com.au
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James Sinnamon
Mon, 2021-01-25 02:16
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21st Century Wire defends war criminal Donald Trump!?
I posted the following beneath President Donald Trump’s Farewell Address (20/1/21) | 21st Century Wire:
Some see former United States' President Trump's failure to pardon Julian Assange as an act of cowardice, under the threat by the U.S. deep state to make the outcome of impeachment proceedings against him as even more harsh. I see it as something worse - an act of malevolence towards Julian Assange.
Other crimes committed by former U.S. President Donald Trump include:
1. Failure to renew even one nuclear arms control treaty that expired during his term of office;
2. Abandonment of the 'Open Skies' policy, which even President Eisenhower spoke in favour of. This allowed reconnaissance planes of either superpower to overfly the territory of the other superpower in order to verify that the other superpower wasn't preparing for war;
3. The murder of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis the deputy chairman of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) on 3 January 2020. This was found to have been illegal by Dr. Agnes Callamard, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions;
4. Continued U.S. military occupation of Iraq in defiance of the wishes of Iraq's Parliament;
5. Continued U.S. presence of U.S. troops in Syria and the theft of Syria's oil;
6. Sanctions against Venezuela which have cost at least 40,000 lives;
7. Grotesque mishandling of the COVID19 pandemic causing the loss of over 414,000 U.S lives.
8. etc., etc, etc.
Those, including Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson (see The Final Hours of Donald Trump) who still claim that Trump was opposed to the U.S. establishment, including the U.S. military-industrial complex, are, at best, deluded.
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