When US President Barack Obama comes to Canberra to address the Parliament on 23 March, he will be met by drones: Parliamentary and extra-Parliamentary.
An anti war veterans group is making cardboard replicas of the MQ-1 Predator drone to greet him. The MQ-1 is the drone type that is being used by the CIA and USAF in Pakistan and Afghanistan to such terrible effect.
With these the veterans plan to launch a drone attack on the President's motorcade when it goes to the Parliament.
"Nobel Peace Prize notwithstanding, President Obama is a war criminal and he deserves a war criminal's welcome," said Graeme Dunstan, cardboard artist, long time peace activist and an organiser for Stand Fast, the veterans' group opposing the Iraq and Afghan wars.
Last September when Obama signed off on a CIA drone attack in the Swat Valley, Pakistan, the richest, most industrialised nation with the most sophisticated armaments on earth undertook live testing of new weaponry in an unprovoked attack, in an covert and illegal war, on live targets; defenseless civilians of one the most poorest nations on the earth.
Great terror was unleashed, untold innocents were killed and maimed and 2 million refugees were displaced. In the history of infamous acts, the Swat Valley drone attack rates with the Nazi Condor legion bombing on Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 as an appalling war crime and as an event of terrible forboding.
"We veterans will be gathering to remind President Obama and Australians generally of Obama's war mongering shame," Dunstan said. "In electioneering for office he offered hope. But in office he has set about killing hope. And all across the US Empire."
"Stand Fast veterans are concerned generally at the escalation of war and military spending during the Obama administration so far," said Stand Fast spokesman Hamish Chitts.
"More particularly, we want Obama to know that Australian veterans want Australian service people out of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the sooner the better.
"These wars of Empire were born of lies; they are illegal, unwinnable, unpopular in the US and abroad and they bring home bitter fruit," he said.
Opposition to Obama's wars is now coming from unlikely sources: to wit, Lt Col Oliver North who said in the March issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine. "We can only pray that this commander in chief isn't committing 100,000 young Americans to a mission impossible in the shadows of the Hindu Kush."
A Ôbring your own droneÕ event. To help build the fleet of welcoming drones, Mr Dunstan will be conducting a cardboard sculpting workshop in Canberra in the lead up to the Obama visit. Volunteers welcome. Please call 0407 951 688
Further information
Stand Fast http://stand-fast.webs.com/
Hamish Chitts (spokesperson Stand Fast) 0401 586 923
Graeme Dunstan 0407 951 688
