2 June 2017

Chief Reporter

Tillerson Visit Good Opportunity For English To Grow A Pair & Tell Yanks To Shove It

Why is Bill English sucking up to Rex Tillerson (whom Donald Trump calls "Mr Exxon") at exactly the same time that his boss is giving the fingers to the world and walking away from the Paris Climate Agreement and hence any American responsibility to help to fix (or, at least, forestall) a global problem that they (both the US and Exxon) played a big role in creating?

OK, we get it, the US under Trump doesn't want to be a global citizen. But it definitely still wants to be a global overlord.

Why, when much bigger and important US allies like Germany are declaring the US under Trump to be an unreliable partner, does the NZ government give Tillerson the time of day?

Are we really such a bootlicking little satellite (as the West used to contemptuously call the Soviet Union's allies in the Cold War), the current equivalent to what countries like Bulgaria used to be? Maybe it's just fear of missing out. Does Bill English have a bad case of FOMO?

Whatever. The Aotearoa Independence Movement (AIM) says the Secretary of State's visit is a perfect opportunity for English to grow a pair and tell the Yanks to shove it.

All that Tillerson will be looking for is NZ help to clean up American messes. He is the latest in a long line of US Secretaries who have come calling to urge/order NZ to commit more troops to the American war de jour. It goes back to the days of Holyoake, LBJ and the Vietnam War

Messes like Afghanistan, the modern equivalent of the Hundred Years War. Why is New Zealand involved in a seemingly endless Afghan civil war? English should get the NZ military out of there ASAP. All it leads to are the sorts of war crimes committed by NZ forces documented in "Hit & Run".

Messes like Iraq. That particular quagmire was entirely caused by the 2003 illegal invasion and occupation by the US, UK and others like Australia, led by the war criminals Bush, Blair and Howard. Let them sort it out. New Zealand wisely stayed out at the time but has since got involved in a minor way and now seems eager to make up for lost time. Ditto as with Afghanistan - English should get the NZ military out of Iraq and stay out.

And while he's at it, English should tell Tillerson that NZ is closing the Waihopai spy base and pulling out of Five Eyes. This represents NZ's biggest commitment (24/7/365) to the covert wing of the American Empire. It ties us into each and every American war, and it stains the hands of the New Zealand people with the blood of innocents ("collateral damage").

Even staunch supporters of Waihopai/Five Eyes will be horrified to learn that Trump has been sharing highly sensitive intelligence with the Russians. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

And English can tell Tillerson that his Government is abandoning its desperate and dateless attempt to get a TPPA without the US. The whole point of the exercise, according to the propaganda fed to the NZ people, was that it was the best means to get a free trade deal with the US. And Trump has emphatically washed his hands of it. So why is NZ trying to breathe life into a corpse?

In the Holyoake days, Bill English's Tory ancestors rationalised NZ's involvement in the Vietnam War by what became immortalised as "guns for butter". But under Trump, we won't even be able to get our butter (or any other dairy products) into the US, so what exactly is in it for us?

And here's another thing English can tell Tillerson - NZ will give asylum to Julian Assange (helping out our Aussie mates in the spirit of Anzac and all that). He and Wikileaks have done the world a great service by exposing the innermost dirty work of the US military in their murderous wars in countries like Iraq. He needs a safe haven from the malevolent US forces, overt and covert, arrayed against him.

We told the Yanks to shove it when we became nuclear free 30 years ago.

Let's do it again, finish the business and cut all remaining ties with the American Empire. It's a small price to pay for self respect.

Murray Horton
Spokesperson, AIM

The Aotearoa Independence Movement (AIM) is a campaign initiated by CAFCA (with others invited to join) to drive a nationwide dialogue to advance the case for a non-aligned Aotearoa based on policies of economic, military and political independence. More details on AIM can be found on the Aotearoa Independence Movement page.

 

Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa,
P.O. Box 2258
Christchurch.