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Welcome to War Powers Reform Bulletin #62

 

Most favoured notions just take time


There are said to be no votes in defence or foreign affairs in Australia. Years of bipartisanship on both, and an Alliance that is unquestionable, have disempowered debate. The time for change may be in 2019.

Something like the rustle of spring was in the air as the ALP’s national conference approached in December. For Labor, as in 1971, it looked as if it was time. Time to show some leadership, take some risks. Time to stop listening reverentially to visiting US generals about the American burdens they want Australia to bear and the price we should pay. Time to stop just talking about an independent foreign and defence policy, and get one.

At the Adelaide conference, competing for attention with the cricket was the first thing. Getting everyone’s most favoured notions (MFN) the attention they deserved was the next. Australians for War Powers Reform has been at it since 2011, first trying to get Australia an independent inquiry into our role in the Iraq War – the UK had its Chilcot Report in 2016 – and subsequently trying by legislation to change the way Australian forces are sent to war.

We soon began to realise that if they thought about it at all, many politicians didn’t grasp the seriousness of the problem. Some assumed troop deployments are carefully considered by those who know all the facts, and that decisions are judiciously made by the right people. The history, going back through Howard to Menzies, suggests otherwise. The Australian Constitution effectively allows a prime minister alone to decide to dispatch armed forces abroad. This may happen in consultation with his/her closest colleagues but not necessarily, after first advising a governor-general but not in recent practice, and upon getting sound legal advice but not lately. Some politicians we spoke to thought a debate in Parliament was required: it is not. Some resisted the very idea of a vote; this in a country which claims to believe in democracy and an international rules-based order. (Less is heard about international law, which makes aggression a war crime.) We pressed on with our campaign, not realising that among the politicians we had seen, several had taken up our MFN.



On the third day of the ALP's conference, when speakers got five minutes to make their pitch, Tim Gartrell did that for the Be Sure On War campaign. The result was the following resolution:

"Conference resolves that a Shorten Labor Government will refer the issue of how Australia makes decisions to send service personnel into international armed conflict to an inquiry to be conducted by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. This inquiry would take submissions, hold public hearings and produce its findings during the term of the 46th Parliament."

Dr Alison Broinowski
Vice-President, Australians for War Powers Reform; Campaign Committee Member, Be Sure On War
This is an edited extract of an article that first appeared at Pearls & Irritations.
CAMPAIGN UPDATE
We put a lot of preparatory work into our participation at the ALP national conference in December and while at the conference the AWPR stall further spread the word about the need for war powers reform. The result was the passing of a resolution by the conference for an inquiry into Australia's war powers, as noted in our editorial.
How you can help: A valuable action for those supporters wanting to see change and who are ALP branch members is to request that your branch consider and pass a resolution on this issue. If you would like a speaker from AWPR for your meeting, or any other purpose, please contact us.

Pictured: AWPR President Paul Barratt with
AWPR Committee member Sue Wareham on our stall at the conference.


US Congresswoman Barbara Lee sent a message of support to our campaign during the ALP National Conference. A few days after 9/11 Lee cast the sole vote against the US congressional authorisation to use military force (AUMF) warning that it would be a blank cheque for any president to wage war anywhere in the world, in perpetuity, without congressional input. She was right. The 2001 AUMF has been used by three successive US presidents to justify military efforts in more than 20 countries. Read more.
US Senate moves to rein in President's war powers while ALP promises war powers inquiry
Karen Elphick, Senior Researcher, Australian Parliamentary Library
The US Senate has passed Res.54 directing the US President to withdraw US Forces from hostilities in Yemen. This is the first time since the US War Powers Resolution was made in 1973 that a measure introduced to restrict a President’s use of armed force has proceeded to a vote and passed either chamber of Congress. Meanwhile, in Australia, the ALP promised a war powers inquiry. Read the article 
Iraq’s Post-ISIS Campaign of Revenge
Ben Taub
The continuing consequences of an illegal war: a horrifying account of lawlessness and savagery in post-ISIS Iraq. The New Yorker examines the corruption and cruelty of the state’s response to suspected jihadis and their families. Read the article
Is this an end stage in the Middle East or just a pause for the region?
Andrew Farran, AWPR Committee member

While the parties to the Syrian and other Middle East conflicts are reassessing their situations, Australian Prime Minister Morrison made a breathless pre-Christmas visit to Iraq to reassure our 600 troops based at the Taji Military Complex near Baghdad that they are there to stay. This in the face of US and European acknowledgements that their goals in Syria and Afghanistan cannot be achieved and that Russia and Iran have emerged as the powers most strongly in place to affect the shape of Syria’s future. Neighbouring Israel will live with that as the US takes diplomatic and extra-judicial measures to thwart any negative outcomes.

While ISIS and al-Qaeda remain active in the region their operations are mostly localised as are those of numerous other similar but unrelated groups, all contending for influence and control. Nothing unusual about that, but these activities are not on a geopolitical scale as might warrant continuing major power involvement with deployments of the kind that have proven to be counter-productive or ineffective.

Thus US President Trump has determined to cut US losses and withdraw some 2,000 troops in Syria, excepting specific special forces activity in northeast Syria where allied Kurd forces are in danger of being besieged by the Turkish military. This move was not well received by the US Defence establishment, nor by the then US Defence Secretary Mattis, who promptly resigned. In the same vein, the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan will also be drawn down, leaving the Afghans at long last to settle their law and order issues domestically as they have done for centuries without outside intervention, which they have traditionally rejected.

Iraq itself remains a fractious state politically with corruption rife and civilian security precarious. The time has come for all these regions to settle down, to begin reconstruction on a vast scale, and create the conditions whereby millions of displaced people can return to their homes and resume normal life. That would also be a service not only to the areas of refuge within the region but also to Western countries to alleviate the political pressures that have unsettled their populations.

What could derail this somewhat optimistic outlook is continued US hostility and provocations towards Iran, the muddled and somewhat malign ambitions of Saudi Arabia, and the unprincipled designs of Erdogan’s Turkey - and among all this the mischievous political machinations of Russia’s restless Putin. While the power lines are clarifying, Western nations overall are lacking the requisite statesmanship to keep them clear. It is time too for Australia to redirect its geopolitical strategic attention to East Asia and the Pacific and away from one of national irrelevance and lost causes.

In the continued absence of a reporting requirement to Parliament by government on armed forces deployments, it remains unclear what the objectives are for Australia's military presence in the middle east, what 'staying until the job is done' actually means and, not insignificantly, how much these lengthy deployments have cost, and are continuing to cost, the Australian taxpayer. Given the abrupt change in US policy, the Australian government owes the Australian people a detailed explanation of its current intent and strategy.

For more on US withdrawal from Syria see this article.

IMAGE: Australian soldier training Iraqi soldiers, Taji Military Complex. March 2016. Wikimedia images.
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The views expressed in this Bulletin are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of Australians For War Powers Reform. Readers should note that Australians For War Powers Reform seeks a diversity of views and opinions in order to identify common ground.
January 2019 © Australians For War Powers Reform. All rights reserved.

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