Thread by @MaryKostakidis

Join me online (Facebook - Marrickville Peace Group)
or at Marrickville TowHall at 4.45pm today AEST
for a discussion on the lies that lead to war, #AUKUS, US ForeignPolicy, geopolitical shifts, and #China
We cross to Col L Wilkerson in the US, who has told me (thread)

‘China so far is not a belligerent nation — actually, it need not be as its manufacturing capacity & thus its industrial base already surpasses that of any other country in the world…
China's supreme diplomat Wang Yi's recent orchestration of a rapprochement between Teheran ..

‘and Riyadh testifies to this reality. Today, it is the U.S. empire that is the belligerent.’

And on #AUKUS

‘In the sad fashion of the lapdog London's current government has become, AUKUS represents not a bulwark to check the bellicose rise of Beijing but a U.S. imperial…

‘provocation to, at a minimum, create a new Cold War and, at a maximum, start a hot war that turns nuclear.  Of late and terrifyingly, the latter seems Washington's ultimate aim.’

And @bobjcarr

‘Australia should not go to war over Taiwan.  It’s not in our interest…

‘ANZUS doesn’t oblige it.  And it would make us a nuclear target.  We would be on either the losing side or the side that can only win after sustaining gruesome losses.  America loses wars, as former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser warned….

‘and has no compunction about dragging us to a defeat with them.  We should aim to build détente between China and the US and work on guard rails that would protect both sides from catastrophe.’

Alison Broinowski:

‘any threat from China is being manufactured by Australia..

‘to justify the government's complete surrender of independence in foreign and defence policy. The military aggression planned by Australia is designed to provoke a Chinese response. Its sole purpose is to support US global hegemony, which serves neither..

‘Australian interests nor those of our neighbours. That AUKUS has been devised in secret, without democratic process and without factual detail, shows the erosion of the very Australian sovereignty that our leaders keep claiming is paramount.’

David Shoebridge in Parliament:

“Right now, the most powerful forces in the media—the weapons industry and the political class—are baying for war, and we should all be alarmed. Twenty years ago the world went to war on a lie. This followed a concerted campaign from these …