It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding): But even the president of the United States, Sometimes must have, To stand naked. – Bob Dylan
Radio silence
One of the organisers of the Bring Julian Home campaign asked me for a critique of the campaign so far. It goes without saying that if the intention of the US government is to stymie Wikileakes then then years Julian has spent in detention has certainly done the trick. We (the general public) have heard very little about the war crimes being committed around the world by the US government nor have we heard about the dirty wars and civil strife being waged by their client states in the Latin America, Oceania,the Middle East and Asia.
Assange’s main focus was Iraq and Afghanistan. He did do a stint on Russian television and even interviewed the leader of Hezbollah. A bit of a no no in the western press. During his detention there has been a civil war in Syria, a terrible conflict in Yemen and Israel has continued its repression of the Palestinian people. And of course the never ending conflict in Afghanistan has revealed war crimes committed by the coalition of western governments (including Australia).
John Shipton’s van in Thomas Street West End, Brisbane
There is not that much to criticise about the defence of Assange because the aim is cear. Get him out of those cruel prisions.
Much has been made of Julian being a journalist and publisher but little has been said of his political activism. I think this presents a problem. For example Assange campaigned against Hilary Clinton becoming President and may have had some impact on that front by releasing her private email trail. The Clinton’s supported the war on Iraq that caused the deaths of over a million people and destroyed one of the earliest places of civilisation that had gone on to become a modern secular state. All in the name of democracy. A democracy that gave the world Donald Trump. But then Trump didn’t go to a war that killed millions like the Clinton’s and the Bush’s did. There wasn’t enough good real estate in it for Trump.
Along came Assange the iconoclast with his leaked cables and suddenly the Emperors were wearing no clothes.
However Assange, the political activist, does not resonate well with a liberals (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International USA and Reporters Without Borders) so he has been remade into a journalist and has even joined the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) here in Australia.
Meanwhile his dad, John Shipton, is travelling around in a van talking to anyone who will listen about the cruelty of his captors, the people who invented rendition to Guantanamo Bay and Diego Garcia, waterboarding and the like.
Not all Assange’s supporters are political … some come out through common decency and revile the murderous mob that would jail him for life. The republicans and democrats and their evangelical followers who want a march of atonement from Assange. For them it is a Game of Thrones where Assange is an early Christian martyr who...
