The People’s Inquiry has received some truly insightful submissions from the Australian public on the costs and consequences of the US alliance.
Below are but a few excerpts from selected submissions.
“It is simple: Australia should maintain a strategic relationship with USA but
not in a sycophantic mode. Australia needs to assert its independence and
not be lead around like a donkey.” – Joseph Lenzo
“Australia is not “joined at the hip” to the US – this is not a sentiment supported
by the Australian public who routinely disagree with US foreign policy.
Australia needs to build a diplomatic and policy apparatus that can not only
deviate from Washington but pursue the interests of the Australian people.” –
Keri James
“I am a Vietnam veteran who served as an Artillery Officer. I was a conscript
and was not opposed to the war at the time. However, after my tour of duty I
realised the war was unwinnable and the devastation inflected on Vietnam
was unnecessary and criminal. After returning to Vietnam a number of times
since I became aware of how it might have been become another Asian tiger
much sooner if they had not endured the war and the suffering and
devastation involved. The killings, the bombings, the defoliants were
unnecessary and achieved nothing except destruction.Subsequently we made the same mistake in Iraq – a war which was
made worse in moral terms because of the lies told about WMDs.” – Noel Turnbull
