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<TD><FONT face="Helvetica, Arial" color=#000000><B>Bus user, train user,
ferry user? You've just been conscripted by the PM </B><BR></FONT><FONT
size=-1>by Tom McLoughlin, ecology action <I>9:08am Sun Jul 10
'05</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD width="100%"><FONT face="Helvetica, Arial" color=#000000
size=-1>address: 1 Henry St Turrella 2205 phone: 0410 558838 <A
href="mailto:ecologya@telpacific.com.au">ecologya@telpacific.com.au</A>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE>When was the last time a warmonger federal politician like
John Howard, wrong on WMD, wrong on AL Qaeda links, avaricious for oil
and USA trade deals, caught public transport? Not for a long time and
guess what? He just conscripted you to the front line in his war on
terror. </BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<P>My mum wanted me to join the military. You give away your freedom but
you do get alot of benefits. It's a moral tradeoff. Financial security of
a certain level, mainstream acceptance, free education, alot of extra
training and self reliance I suppose. But it was the conscience bypass
that gave me pause. Kill someone at the orders of someone else? No thanks.
I'm too Christian for that.<BR><BR>But I accept many people do take the
offer and have voluntary moral bypass surgery. A friend of mine has a son
who has just applied to join up to Duntroon officer training course. My
car was sold to me by a guy who is moving to army training camp. He even
gave me a discount after amicable disagreement on geo politics but he
liked the environmental stuff. Gotta love democracy in this country. He
was NESB too. Maybe that was why.<BR><BR>But the main point of this post
is that Howard has done a Channel 9 Laurie Oakes interview this morning.
For those who are not in the know, this is the Sunday morning political
show with the biggest ratings around 400,000 from memory in this slot. It
sets the tone of coverage on the nightly news and sometime for several
days too. Smallish compared with prime time but caning all the others. It
is also the flagship of the Publishing and Broadcasting Pty Ltd (PBL)
media interests, with the Sunday show also known as Kerry Packer's
figleaf. Oakes also writes for the Packer's Bulletin.<BR><BR>This is all
axiomatic to me, but I am realising most people are not wonks or media
tragics like me.<BR><BR>So Howard admits just now Australia is a terrorist
threat to Laurie Oaks aka The Sphere of Influence. Put that together with
all the other media outlets <BR><BR>- like Channel 7 news update just now,
<BR>- and Homeland security Opposition McLelland on Ch 10 Meet the press
just now, <BR>- and Bob Carr NSW Premier on ABC prime time tv news last
night, <BR>- and not to mention the press today Sunday 10th July 2005
which I haven't really seen yet,<BR>- 'Prof' Paul Kelly of News Ltd
Australian on Insiders just now that we are the fourth of the four main
Coalition of the Willing, yet to be attacked in the heart of its main
cities after New York (pre Iraq), Madrid, London<BR><BR>that public
transport is our very own soft target here in Sydney and potentially
Melbourne. In fact Jana Wendt is just launching a feature story by the
very sharp Ross Coulthard on Sunday as I write.<BR><BR>All the public
transport users are now effectively drafted into the war on terror. All
the kids, the babies, the brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers.
Conscription by any other name but no military benefits, no financial
incentives etc etc. No choice. Many marched against Howard's military
adventurism in the middle east. 500K in Sydney in fact. Canada declined.
Germany declined. France declined. These are not your standard shirkers in
geo politics. <BR><BR>But Howard took a real politik geo political stance
but you can be sure he and his ministers won't be riding the public
transport. The cruelty of geo politics doesn't work like that.
<P><A
href="http://cpppcltrust.com/ecologyactionsydney">cpppcltrust.com/ecologyactionsydney</A>
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