GAAW March Bulletin

galway | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Friday March 09, 2012 23:32 by Galway Alliance Against War

Galway alliance against war - march 2012 bulletin

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Gaaw supported peace events

Sunday 11th march between 2-3pm
Mark the 9th anniversary of the start of the criminal iraq war
1,455,590 iraqis were slaughtered in us war and occupation of iraq

Peace vigil organised by shannonwatch at shannon airport
(please assemble at roundabout before airport)

Sunday 11th march radisson blu galway @ 8pm
Ó ghaillimh go gaza gig
Dónal lunny & friends
In aid of galway/palestine children’s charity concert
Tickets for the concert are €20/€10 and will be available on the door on the night.

Contents

1. Warplanes over galway - 8 reasons to oppose war shows
2. Binyam mohamed hasn’t gone away….
3. Bradley manning nominated for nobel peace prize…if obama can get it…
4. War scenarios for syria
5. Another war over libya’s oil?

1.
Warplanes over galway

The galway alliance against war has learnt that the british military display team, the red arrows, will perform during the volvo ocean race finale in galway on july 1st. Another war outfit – probably the us thunderbirds - has also been invited, but has not yet confirmed. As this ocean race festival will run from june 30th till july 8th, the organisers have planned a super day of celebration on the 4th of july to mark us independence day. Nothing would be more apt than to have us warplanes and their killer pilots performing war games overhead on that day. It really is obscene. One wonders will declan ganley object?

8 reasons to oppose war shows

1) the presence of warplanes and the fighter pilots who fly them sanitises and glorifies war.
2) pilots and planes that kill other people's children are not family entertainment. All of these pilots have been involved in illegal wars.
3) the raf’s red arrows are used as a recruiting sergeant by the british armed forces. At this time of mass unemployment our young people could easily fall prey to the “glamour” of signing up and becoming fodder for british imperialist wars.
4) war shows are an accident waiting to happen: the red arrows have had a series of accidents in the last few years. Two of their pilots were killed in 2011. Indeed, its only female pilot, flight lieutenant kirsty stewart, has moved to ground duties due to the “adverse effect” the deaths of those two fellow pilots had on her. Just imagine the devastation if there was a warplane crash over galway.
5) environmentally these war shows are a huge waste of energy and a major pollutant. The noise pollution is quite unbearable, in particular for the elderly, the very young and for people’s pets. The wildlife –in particular the birds – and farm animals suffer terribly.
6) just imagine what the reaction must be for people that are victims of these deadly weapons when they hear the roar of these planes. We are talking sheer terror not titillation. And let’s not forget that many asylum seekers and refugees, who know all too well that fear, are based in salthill.
7) last but not least, by allowing these war shows we are siding with those who perpetrate mass murder in afghanistan, iraq etc. – another bloody nail in irish neutrality’s coffin.
8) the finale of the volvo ocean race is supposed to be used to showcase galway and ireland. Foreign warplanes have nothing to do with ireland or irish culture.

99 years on: “romantic ireland’s” still “dead and gone”

A gaaw member attended a recent meeting hosted by the galway chamber of commerce where a presentation for business people was made by the organisers of let’s do it global – the body set up to prepare the volvo ocean race finale. The chairperson of this event enda ó coineen when asked by our colleague gleefully announced that there would certainly be one if not two war displays. Mr. Ó coineen was less forthcoming when our colleague asked him was he so “culturally retarded” that he could not think of anything other than warplanes to celebrate the event. While enda ó coineen is clearly culturally impoverished he is not financially so - according to the rich list of march 2012 he is the 224th richest person in ireland. Just goes to prove the saying “money isn’t everything".

There were jeers from members of galway’s business community when our colleague criticised the invitation. It certainly confirmed to that gaaw member that things hadn’t changed much in the 99 years since yeats penned “september 1913”:
What need you, being come to sense,

But fumble in a greasy till

And add the halfpence to the pence

And prayer to shivering prayer, until

You have dried the marrow from the bone?

For men were born to pray and save:
Romantic ireland's dead and gone,

It's with o'leary in the grave.

2.
Binyam mohamed hasn’t gone away

Remember binyam mohamed? he was one of the many victims of “extraordinary rendition”. His kidnappers travelled via shannon warport on two occasions – they even stayed overnight - as they were en route to bring him to be tortured in morocco and kabul’s dark prison. During his torture mohmed, a british citizen, was interrogated by mi5 and mi6.

Now released from guantanamo binyam mohamed is taking a case against the british state and its security services. This has caused considerable difficulties for the british government, which is trying to introduce secret hearings into the civil courts to prevent any unfortunate information coming to light. However, this is proving much more difficult than the old gagging orders used by the british in their shoot-to-kill cases in the six counties.

Who knows what mohamed’s and other similar cases will throw up? maybe a lot more details about the irish government’s sordid role in the “war on terror”. Time will tell.

3.
Bradley manning nominated for nobel peace prize…if obama can get it…

Bradley manning is threatened with life imprisonment if he is found guilty of leaking thousands of documents to wikileaks which exposed war crimes carried out by our governments.
He has been nominated for the 2012 nobel peace prize by an icelandic mp.
If president barack obama, who has waged war in six countries -- iraq, afghanistan, libya, pakistan, somalia and yemen -- can receive this prize, awarded to him in 2009, then why not the person who has done more than anyone to expose to expose the lies, the mass slaughter and the torture which have been hidden from us in ten years of the "war on terror"?

http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/bradley-manning-nominat...et-it

4.
War scenarios for syria

Berlin/damascus (a german foreign policy report) - government advisors in berlin are debating war scenarios for a possible western military intervention in syria. According to the german institute for international and security affairs (swp), a "full-blown civil war" is looming in that country, running "also along confessional lines."
This raises pressure on the west to intervene militarily. Whereas, middle east experts are urgently advising that an engagement of the armed forces be avoided and all arms deliveries to the insurgents be halted, an expert in
"security policy," on the other hand, is calling for german participation in an armed conflict. In combination with diplomatic steps, a "military engagement" would not be "the conclusion or even the breakdown of politics, but rather its essential component." In the midst of this ongoing debate over another eventual combat mission in syria, a former "german government coordinator of german-american cooperation" has substantiated that the west and russia's current dispute over the policy toward syria, is not at all about "human rights versus dictatorships," but geostrategic interests.

More
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/58285

5.
Another war over libya’s oil?

The new libyan “leader” mustafa abdul jalil said in recent days: “we are not prepared to divide libya. We are ready to deter them even with force.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/07/libya-vows-...=srch