1. Superb article 👏
"Western leaders are experiencing two stunning events: defeat in Ukraine, genocide in Palestine. The first is humiliating, the other shameful. Yet, they feel no humiliation or shame"
Take note
#auspol
1/ Pepe:
'Xi is now reaching the exact same conclusion reached by 🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin earlier this year: the 🇺🇸 is “non-agreement capable,” & there’s no point in expecting it to respect diplomacy and/or rule of law in international relations.
What is wrong with
@abcnews
?
After everything that has happened with the ICJ over the last few days.
And they put a human interest story on 🇮🇱 up as their lead article?
Disgraceful editorial decision.
1/ A major reason why I left the 🇦🇺 Army was that I had come to the conclusion that the primary mission of Defence had morphed from 'defending 🇦🇺 & its national interests' to supporting 🇺🇸 imperialism.
I am part way through Clinton Fernandes' book 'Sub-Imperial Power'
I long for the day when the headlines read:
"Albanese says 🇦🇺 shouldn't follow the 🇺🇸 into a confrontation with 🇨🇳. The 🇦🇺 leader wants 'strategic autonomy' for 🇦🇺."
@AlboMP
Where Mr Albanese was your condemnation of 🇮🇱 flouting of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations when it knowingly and deliberately struck 🇮🇷 diplomatic premises in 🇸🇾, killing many people?
You condemn the effect, not the cause 🤔
Bizarre!
Having just watched the interview & then read
@abcnews
take on the interview, it just highlights how woeful the standards of journalism are at the ABC.
Juvenile, emotional & self-righteous.
These are not people to be taken seriously. Pathetic.
@PeterCronau
I'm one of those unhappy (to put it mildly) about the state of play at the ABC.
Particularly on foreign affairs, it fails dismally at meeting its own editorial standards whilst actively manipulating the 🇦🇺 public.
Sent 👇 as an email to my local
#auspol
MP this morning.
Subj: 🇦🇺: Complicity in Breaching International Law
I am writing to express my deepest concerns over 🇦🇺's involvement in supporting the recent attacks by the 🇺🇸 & 🇬🇧 against the Houthis in 🇾🇪.
1. 18 months after Nord Stream was 💣 the West still can't determine whodunnit.
But they can figure out who was responsible for the Crocus massacre in 24 hours. 🤔
It is amazing to see how they build a narrative in real time to frame events to further their own purposes.
I'm confused
@abcnews
😕
When is 'aggression' aggression?
Why is the threshold for 🇨🇳 aggression so low?
While the threshold for ubiquitous 🇺🇸 aggression is non existent?
🤔
🇦🇺 vassal state status deepens:
"🇺🇸 military analysts will soon be sent to work at the Defence Intelligence Organisation" so we get ""seamless" intelligence ties"
When the🎈goes up with 🇨🇳, be in no doubt that
#auspol
sovereign decision making power = 0
2/
'“The 🇷🇺🇺🇦 crisis has just let the 🌎 see the consequence of pushing a major power into a corner… 🇨🇳 will steadily speed up its process of reunification and declare the end of 🇺🇸 domination of the world order.'
1. Wow! Who would have thunk it! 🤔
The
#AUKUS
nuclear submarines program is in big trouble, facing 'program-killing' issues.
🇦🇺 needs to prepare a contingency plan.
How about 🇦🇺 embraces multipolarity
#auspol
? Security in Asia rather than from Asia
First statement of
@60MinutesAUS
segment on 🇹🇼
'Beijing thinks 🇹🇼 is part of 🇨🇳'
No mention that virtually the whole world recognises 🇹🇼 as part of 🇨🇳, including the 🇦🇺 Govt!
🤦♂️
Can't watch any more of this rubbish
I'm confused
@SenatorWong
😕
By what standard do you judge the 'right thing to do'
Was supporting/facilitating the 2014 coup, the original sin, that ultimately led to the 🇺🇦 proxy war the right thing to do?
Some questions
@RichardMarlesMP
?
Why?
How does such a provocative & totally unnecessary action further 🇦🇺 national security?
What games are you playing at?
1. Lots of takeaways from the
@CISOZ
Mearsheimer event tonight.
Perhaps most importantly for 🇦🇺 is that the 🇺🇸 has become so embroiled in Europe (🇺🇦) & the Middle East (🇮🇱 &🇵🇸) that it doesn't have the capacity to pivot against 🇨🇳.
"🇦🇺 two major political parties have conspired, in effect, to donate 🇦🇺 sovereignty to 🇺🇸, contractually and slyly"
A good summary of how
#auspol
handed over 🇦🇺 sovereignty to the 🇺🇸 setting us up for an unwinnable war against 🇨🇳.
☹️
Some of my thoughts on
#AUKUS
"What AUKUS highlights is that 🇦🇺 does not have a strategy. What we have is an ideology. An ideology so deeply ingrained that the further down the path of decline the 🇺🇸 progresses, the tighter 🇦🇺 embrace becomes"
#auspol
A clinical dissection of the absurdities of
#AUKUS
by Marianne Hanson! 👏 👏 👏
My Q for
#auspol
By the time these subs arrive, what exactly will we be 'defending' if healthcare, education, environment, infrastructure etc are all stuffed?
1. The irony
@AlboPM
makes the dubious claim that 🇦🇺 support to 🇺🇦 is to support 'democracy'
Yet, as confirmed by announcement of RAAF deployment, 🇦🇺 is effectively a partner to the proxy war against 🇷🇺 without a debate let alone vote by the Parliament
1. More evidence that
@ASPI_org
is the gravest that to 🇦🇺 security
Their headline: "Stabilising relations with 🇨🇳 mustn’t come at the expense of 🇦🇺 security"
The reality:
"Stabilising relations with 🇨🇳 is the surest path to 🇦🇺 security"
A damning & accurate assessment of
#auspol
.
"They are simply not interested in Australia as a nation in its own right and seek instead to use Australia and its resources as a vehicle for their own personal and partisan power and security"
The Minsk 2 agreement was an absolute bargain. 🇺🇦 would be whole, less Crimea, no war, no mass loss of life, no mass destruction of infrastructure.
But now the both predictable & inevitable is raised by the 🇺🇸 & 🇪🇺 - negotiations (read 🇺🇦 capitulation)
❤ the irony
In the same week that the
@smh
publishes the fearmongering 5s latest 🇨🇳 threat extravaganza, 🇨🇳 pulls off a huge diplomatic coup with 🇸🇦&🇮🇷
Maybe the 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 🇦🇺 could learn something from the 🇨🇳 approach?
1. Things are getting desperate in
#AUKUS
land
So desperate that they need to set up a propaganda/public diplomacy arm to convince us plebs as to why we need to spend $368B+ on subs we don't need & justify handling over of 🇦🇺 sovereignty to the 🇺🇸
🤔
Yesterday - breaking news that senior
#auspol
figures have been referred to the ICC for complicity in genocide
Surely newsworthy!
Yet can only find one 52 second clip on
@abcnews
Meanwhile they published ~50 pieces on Navalny from his death to his funeral
Whose ABC?
A repost from
@MaryKostakidis
, but can't be repeated often enough.
🇦🇺 is being stitched up for a war with 🇨🇳 at the behest of the 🇺🇸
Not in 🇦🇺 interests but 🇺🇸 corporate interests. Ultimately that is what members of the ADF will be sacrificed for.
IOW with 🇺🇸 unwilling to come to any arrangement with 🇷🇺 & 🇨🇳 that recognises their security & other concerns, they will create facts on the ground, by force if necessary, to suit their interests.
1. Fascinating
A senior
@ASPI_org
analyst arguing the case for 🇦🇺 to send a naval ship to the Red Sea in support of 🇺🇸 'Operation Prosperity Guardian'
The justifications boil down
- because the 🇺🇸 asked us, and it might risk
#AUKUS
if we don't 🤦♂️
&
1. We are on the slippery slope to nowhere good
Does anyone in
#auspol
think that this is not going to escalate?
And that escalation is likely to have far more negative impacts on the economy than the current disruption from the Houthis in the Red Sea.
1. At what point will 🇦🇺 wake up & realise that to be an 'ally' of the 🇺🇸 is to have signed up to a protection racket!
It is also blackmail.
If 🇦🇺 wants nukes, they will be used when & where the 🇺🇸 says.
If that involves going to war with 🇨🇳,
@RichardMarlesMP
1. The UNSC Resolution did not authorise military attacks against the Houthis.
It is therefore a breach of international law to which 🇦🇺 is complicit.
This means that the Govt has placed the ADF personnel who are deployed as part of this operation in a position where if they
@imetatronink
Great thread 👍
'I am convinced NATO will not survive the results of this war in 🇺🇦'
Agreed. I wouldn't be surprised if the 🇪🇺 falls apart as well as their economies unravel.
Momentous changes ahead!
"The superficial obsession with democracy, the rule-based order, fair competition, is simply a fig leaf to suppress the first nation to challenge the West in 500 years."
1. Reader beware. This is not satire 👇
If only it was. The fact that
@WarintheFuture
continues to be published by
@abcnews
highlights just how low the intellectual quality of debate in 🇦🇺 on defence & IR has fallen.
An apologist for 🇺🇸 imperialism
Brilliant
@bkampmark
👏
"How refreshing it would be for the 🇦🇺 Defence Minister, Richard Marles, to simply admit, without obfuscation, that Canberra has been annexed to the military and policy apparatus of another country"
#auspol
Former 🇦🇺 Ambassador John Lander:
"The 🇦🇺 people have been betrayed by their own Government, morally, legally, economically, financially, militarily and politically"
Well done
#auspol
! 🤦♂️
In whose interests do you govern?
@caitoz
Brilliant
'The status quo worldview requires two entirely contradictory positions to be held simultaneously: that Russian propaganda has a corrupting influence on public thought, but that orders of magnitude more wealthy and powerful oligarchic media institutions do not.'
1. The proponents of the 'rules-based 🌎 order' are losing their minds
The
@LowyInstitute
piece 👇 is an example
"It’s time to send a signal to Beijing that a crisis is approaching"
What is this crisis?
The crumbling of pax🇺🇸/rise of a multipolar 🌎?
What an eminently sensible position:
"Malaysia only recognises sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council and not by any individual country"
Why doesn't 🇦🇺 follow suit
@SenatorWong
?
An honour to be asked to speak at the Palm Sunday Rally in Brisbane this afternoon
We need to restore 🇦🇺 democracy & sovereignty over our land, & our decision-making processes before 🇺🇸 drags us into a war with 🇨🇳
@IPAusNet
@WarPowersReform
@wagepeaceau
Cameron Leckie
@leckie_cameron
on the goals the mainstream peace movement.
This is the central line. It's very basic. It's very doable. It's necessary. No AUKuS No War
#AUKuSwillFukus
#nowaronChina
@RnaudBertrand
@guardian
Who would have thought that applying sanctions against a country that provides a large proportion of your energy, food, minerals etc, and has alternate trade options would not go to 'plan'?
Will the geniuses who came up with this plan be held responsible?
Disturbing
In 2021 🇦🇺 abstained 👇 from the annual UNGA Resolution
on “combating glorification of Nazism"
This year we voted NO.
Why the change
@SenatorWong
,
@AlboMP
?
#auspol
1.
@AlboMP
,
@SenatorWong
,
@RichardMarlesMP
.
#auspol
The 🇺🇦 proxy war was 100% provoked 👇
History will prove your contrarian position to be either naively ignorant, or worse, deliberately deceptive.
🇦🇺 military support to 🇺🇦 is not doing 🇺🇦 any
A dying 'rules based order' is
#auspol
's deity
$368,000,000,000 is the sacrifice that must be made to please the deity, less its wrath targets 🇦🇺
A sacrifice made at the expense of health, education, infrastructure etc
"Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad"
Seymour Hersh - 🇺🇸, with 🇳🇴 support, blew up Nord Stream! 👇
According to his sources, planning for this commenced well before the 🇺🇦 proxy war started.
Interesting how 🇺🇸 has coopted 🇳🇴. It's not just happening in 🇦🇺.
With friends like this....
'in some respects, the game is up for ASPI. Its current leadership is being pushed into the model of the communist state it so reviles. Shameless propaganda when it can get away with it, and secretly meeting behind closed doors when it can’t'
Well said!
@RichardMarlesMP
Another $100M in tribute laid at the altar of the rules-based order God.
It won't change the outcome of course (🇷🇺 achieving its objectives/NATO defeat), whilst prolonging 🇺🇦 agony.
When will those AD systems be delivered? Do they exist? Or do they need to be manufactured?
I'm confused. From the same
@abcnews
article.
"RFA was "among the last independent news organisation reporting on events happening in Hong Kong""
&
"The US-funded radio station"
Independent & 🇺🇸 funded. 🤔
I would call that mutually exclusive...
1. Disingenuous & devoid of context by
@MichaelS_SAA
🇦🇺 can't sign up to a strategy with the 🇺🇸, AUKUS etc that aims to contain, constrain & ultimately weaken China on the one hand, & expect 🇨🇳 not to respond.
Further 🇨🇳 'aggression' pales into
@MoonofA
'It is high time for the 🇩🇪 government to wake up and to recognize that a war has been launched against its country.
And no. It is not 🇷🇺 that is waging it.'
🇩🇪 is not the only country that needs to wake up.
#auspol
@RichardMarlesMP
@mattkeogh
@MThistlethwaite
I left the 🇦🇺 Army after 24 yrs largely because I had come to realise that the primary mission of the ADF was to support 🇺🇸 imperialism rather than the defence of 🇦🇺.
Maybe if the Govt focused on the latter rather than the former there be fewer issues with recruitment/retention?
The rules based order vs the international order based on the UN Charter & international law
@SenatorWong
, what is your position on countries that threaten/intimidate the ICC for carrying out its mandate?
This sort of behaviour should be called out.
Quite a statement by the International Criminal Court, asking that they stop being "intimidated" and "threatened" (no brownie point for guessing by whom...)
We can only imagine the pressure they must be under...
And those threats are real: remember that the US has a law
2/ He brilliantly pulls together all the threads that led me to this point in a clear, logical & evidence backed manner.
It actually makes me feel sick in the guts when you reflect upon how an endeavour you commit your life too is basically a pack of lies
Bravo Clinton! 👏
1.
@abcnews
is an absolute disgrace.
Anyone with even a modicum of critical thinking skills & knowledge of military affairs could & should have predicted that the 🇺🇦 counter-offensive was doomed to failure.
Yet it's only 5 months after the fact &
Hard to believe these words are from the same person!
What happened to
@AlboMP
?
"I contend there is no more important decision than whether or not this country goes to war"
👍
@johnmenadue
#auspol
'Australia needs a stealth bomber as much as it needs
@ASPI_org
'
Great article by
@bruce_haigh
Time to defund ASPI, an organisation actively sabotaging 🇭🇲 future on behalf of a foreign power
1. Desperation leading to increasingly delusional ideas...
Do they really think they can do a Juan Guaido on Putin (& look how well that turned out)! 🤦♂️
1. Incredible stuff 👇
How much evidence is needed before it is accepted that the entire '🇨🇳 as threat' narrative is primarily contrived as a smokescreen by the 🇺🇸 to justify its own geopolitical objectives.
This is fascinating:
An Irish professor of international law - Anthony Carty - has spent considerable time looking through British and French archives, spanning from the 1880s until the late 1970s, to look at the historical understanding of sovereignty
My hypothesis, hot off the press today at
@johnmenadue
:
"The 🇺🇸 predicted 🇷🇺 invasion in January 2022 because it was actively involved in the planning of the upcoming surge in ceasefire violations to be launched by the 🇺🇦 Armed Forces"
Must read 👇
Very convincing evidence by eminently qualified authors that 🇷🇺 & 🇺🇦 all but had a peace deal in March 2022.
A deal which the 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 NATO would not allow.
Biden, Johnson, Stoltenberg et al have the blood of many 000 🇺🇦 on their hands.
1. I am concerned that the war in 🇺🇦 has caused a major drop in IQ amongst the majority of 🇦🇺 & 🇳🇿 IR academics.
Case in point 👇
Apparently 🇷🇺 relentless drone & missile strikes against 🇺🇦 are a sign of weakness.
🤦♂️
According to the Pentagon, $48 billion of the bill’s $60 billion in aid for "Ukraine" will go directly to US weapons manufacturers.
Will any progressive Democrats oppose this?
An excoriating analysis of the
#AUKUS
subs by
@Mirandaprorsus
👏
"AUKUS is where pipe dreams, castles in Spain & Shangri-la combine in a submarine La-la-land. How did we reach the point where the nation stumps up an indicative $368 billion on a fantasy?"
The gap between reality and
@abcnews
couldn't get much larger.
Still in the denial phase of the grief cycle, sprinkled with a dose of projection
🇷🇺 'with few allies left on the 🌎 stage' 🤦♂️
'International sanctions are strangling the 🇷🇺 economy' 🤦♂️
1. Two years on and
@abcnews
continues with the same trope:
"This weekend marks two years since 🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin ... launched a full-scale invasion of 🇺🇦"
A 'full-scale invasion'
A foundational Western lie of the whole war!
Having read the communique, I would disagree with
@AlboMP
statement that it has 'no credibility'
From a lay perspective, the claims appear credible, supported by evidence and eloquently argued.
Interesting times for
#auspol
.
Here is the media release from Birchgrove lawyers.
The 100 lawyers backing it apparently include retired judges, law Professors & other law academics and barristers.
1. The closer the 🇺🇸 empire comes to falling apart, the more that the simps for empire appear to be losing their minds
This
@ASPI_org
piece is an example focusing on a 'coordinated disinformation' campaign by 🇷🇺 & 🇨🇳 on the recent 🇸🇧 elections.
@KellieTranter
Amazing how
#auspol
could so quickly form a judgement about 🇷🇺 actions in 🇺🇦 without sitting in the 'control room' but can't for 🇮🇱.
Just confirms once again that 🇦🇺, as a sub-imperial power, has no independent power outside of what the overlords in DC allow us.
Disgraceful
1. Is this the nadir of 🇦🇺 strategic thinking?
Let's hope so.
The article 👇 by Paul Dibb, published both by
@australian
&
@ASPI_org
is a truly appalling piece full of projection and delusions.
An alternate reality.
"🇦🇺 has burned its credibility as a middle power. It is a sunken diplomatic shipwreck far off the continental shelf of the new multipolar 🌎"
I can think of no better way to describe 🇦🇺 current place in the 🌎 than the
@ArchiveBurning
has 👆.
@SenatorWong
take note!
"I do however doubt that most Australians support 🇦🇺 contributing to the funding of a war which cannot be won, when all that is happening is more death and more destruction and more profits for arms manufacturers"
What exactly will we be 'defending' in 30 or 40 years when these submarines are (maybe?) delivered?
The fundamental question remains - in whose interests is
#auspol
governing?
It no longer seems that it is for the benefit of the 🇦🇺 people.
😪
“Three meals a day? What am I, a millionaire?” This is contemporary Australia. Plenty of $ for the American military industrial complex. Meanwhile, young people are skipping meals to make ends meet. 🤔
1/ Today's propaganda lesson brought to you by
@abcnews
👇
When you want to frame a country, in this case 🇨🇳, as an aggressor, leave out important bits of context, in this case cause and effect.
It is oh so simple and effective
"The Kremlin, which accuses the 🇺🇸 of fighting against 🇷🇺 by supporting 🇺🇦 with money, weapons and intelligence"
🤔
That is exactly what the 🇺🇸 is doing, as numerous 🇺🇸 officials have acknowledged.
So why don't journalists just say that?
🤦♂️
I'm confused
@AlboMP
You say 🇦🇺 commitment to 🇺🇦 is about defending democracy
Yet the NATO communique puts democratic reform as one of the preconditions for 🇺🇦 to join NATO
🤔
#auspol
Australia joins 47 partner countries including the US, UK, France, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and Sweden to unequivocally condemn the 13 April attacks on Israel by Iran and its militant partners.
We call on all regional parties to take steps to avert further escalation.
Imagine writing an article on foreign interference, & citing
@ASPI_org
as an evidence source on foreign interference 🤦♂️
When will we wake up & realise that the biggest source of foreign interference comes from our so-called allies
That's okay I guess 🙄
1. Here you go folks (not satire unfortunately)
"What is required then is a government-led dialogue that is honest with the 🇦🇺 public & lays out the argument for AUKUS, while acknowledging the tradeoffs with other national priorities such as in healthcare, education, or housing"
1. Does
#auspol
take us for fools?
'No foreign bases on 🇦🇺 sovereign soil'
All in the definition I guess...
Disingenuous at best. An outright lie at worst.
#NationalDefenceStrategy
"McBride is appealing the ruling...
If he wins in the High Court it will be a huge victory for whistleblowing. If he doesn't, it will be a dark day for democracy"
This is what it is all about.
The future of democracy.
Irresponsible & misleading journalism from
@abcnews
- trying to create something out of nothing.
Xi has never attended - so no change
And 🇺🇸 President's are not regular attendees.
So why try to create a fading ASEAN relevance narrative?
🤔
My latest on the unconscionable behaviour of the 🇦🇺 Government.
ADF "personnel are now in a position where if they follow orders, they are complicit in committing a breach of international law"
#auspol
A great explanation by
@RnaudBertrand
of how the 🇺🇸 is destroying the international order as defined by the UN Charter
This highlights with crystal clarity why they speak of the rules based order
Who wants to be tied down by international law I guess...
Since the beginning, it's been obvious that Gaza was in many ways a fight between International Law and the US's "rules-based order".
This whole episode around the UN resolution is a perfect illustration of this. There is no debate amongst international
Very important analysis by
@RnaudBertrand
"the US clearly saw the ICJ ruling as an affront and responded by upping the ante. Which means it sees itself as an adversary of international law, with the latter a force that needs to be brought to heel."
I've been saying since the start of the war on Gaza that one key - if not THE key - prism through which one should read the conflict is that it's a fight between America's "rules-based order" and international law (see my original post👇)
Sadly, since
Brilliant 👏
#auspol
take note
"an insulated, out-of-touch ruling class protected from the ill effects of its own policies, and a general population that is sullenly withdrawing from public service and both mentally and physically “checking out”
Spot on
@bruce_haigh
:
'
@AlboMP
has thrown in his and our lot with a distant power removed from our region with no interest in our neighbours or us other than how we and they can help maintain 🇺🇸 hegemony'
#auspol