Petition Re: Foreign Policy

Dear Prime Minister Abbott

In talks regarding the volatile civil war and political structures in the nation of Syria, you referred to the drama as a fight between baddies and baddies, and that there were no goodies. You said that in this context, if one side was unarmed (by laying down their arms), they would be more obviously the goodies. The understanding as the world took it was that your deliberately childish mode of communication was a subtle signal that these issues need to be very clear-cut before you will willingly involve Australia’s military services in a conflict. Perhaps you were trying to communicate on the level of American politics which Bob Carr had helped you grow used to after the George W Bush presidency.

It has come my attention, then, that there is a conflict in which an unarmed force of a poor underclass in a town are being threatened with military hardware. Just last night, the occupiers were firing tear gas grenades into people’s yards, were blockading people from accessing their own homes, and instated a No-Fly Zone in order to keep journalists from observing the enforcement.

In the past, Australian military actions have been cautious about our involvement in foreign affairs. We are not an adventurous military, but we have, in times of great secterian violence and the risk of mass murder, used our force to stabilise other, less fortunate nations which have problems maintaining the basic acts of governance without some protection for their poor and oppressed citizens. We did it in Timor, we were willing to do it in Indonesia. During Vietnam and Korea, we offered our services as long as we were invited, but this time, I fear we need to take proactive action to prevent a country from using its own militarised forces to kill or injure thousands of people under false pretenses.

Please, Prime Minister Abbott, I petition you to mobilise the Special Air Services (Royal) and stabilise the troubled town of Ferguson, Missouri.

Yours,

A Citizen