2005-05-29
Declaration of War on Iran
Dear Sir, As an Australian citizen, I am requesting you to issue Iran with a formal declaration of war. Inform them that their human rights abuses, as depicted here:
http://www.homa.org/Details.asp?ContentID=2137352747&TOCID=2083225413and the institutionalized rape, described here:
http://www.homa.org/Details.asp?ContentID=2137352848&TOCID=2083225444have rendered the ruling regime's authority null and void, and that you intend to replace Iran's dictatorship with a democracy.
I then ask you to go and assemble as broad a coalition as possible for the purpose of liberating Iran. First ports of call should be India, France and Russia.
I also ask that you do not discuss this with the Americans or British at all. This will confound the enemies of freedom, as it will force them to confront the fact that the ideology of freedom, freedom from subjugation, is not just some sort of British/American plot to rule the world. Obviously we'll eventually want American firepower available, but let them join the coalition towards the end. And if anyone asks "what about country xyz, are you going to liberate them too?", simply reply "no comment".
Mr Howard, I do not wish to live in a world where some human beings have less rights than Australian dogs. I believe we have come to the "end of history", where state-slavery will be just a horrible memory, and our children will ask us questions such as "Are you seriously saying that Iranian girls were being raped and you actually had a debate as to whether it was right or wrong to topple their criminal jailers?". I want to be able to look my children in the eye and say "As soon as we had the technical ability to free the world's slaves, we acted". Sir, that time is now. As soon as Iraq has settled down, the US forces will be freed up, with no other active enemy. All that is missing is political will. A formal declaration of war now will let the world know that we are serious about putting an end to holocaust, or in the words of the liberators of Auschwitz - "Never Again".
Iran is a particularly lucrative target as some people will join the coalition out of fear of their nuclear ambition, while others join because Iran sponsors terrorism. But I want you to be the voice that says "human rights". Human rights violators that are nominally allied or neutral, will hopefully not form a "dictator's alliance", because they know that it is probably outside of Australia's capability to topple them all, and coalition support is required. America is limited in how much it can say "human rights" because it is still in the unfortunate situation of requiring support from human rights violators to win other battles. Australia has the luxury of not having such restrictions on us. This is why Australia should take the lead, and provide moral guidance.
From my discussions with people all over the world, it appears that Australia is more trusted by others than America. Although I personally think that labelling America as untrustworthy is vile bigotry, for tactical reasons, it is simpler to just switch the public face of the war to Australia, taking pressure off Blair and Bush. Australia has a LOT of friends, and now is the time to start calling in favours.
Also sir, I would request that instead of just attacking Iran with all guns blazing, you instead find out exactly how little force is required to topple an odious regime such as the Iranian Mullahs. I believe that if the regime's air power is grounded, that the Iranian people are capable of overthrowing their regime in a revolution. Please ground enemy aircraft and then call for the people to rise up. Tell them that we are in the TRIBE of rational, humanist anti-subjugators, and that if they are in the same tribe as us, they should overthrow their rulers, who are in the tribe of irrational, non-humanist subjugators. Depending on how much success the revolutionaries have, coalition troops can be sent in to liberated towns to provide a bridgehead with which to liberate more territory from, and for defecting (or ex-) Iranian conscripts to join. Of course it is necessary to adapt in war, so increase the force used until the tipping point has been reached.
I am confident that we will not have the problems with the aftermath that Iraq had, and it will instead look even better than Afghanistan. The key difference being that in Afghanistan the old army was not disbanded (or rather, was disbanded over a period of years). I realise it was necessary to disband the Iraqi military since it was tainted by human rights abuses and dominated by a single Iraqi sect (Sunnis). But in Iran, the army consists of conscripts who are a reflection of the population as a whole, and who are not tainted. All that needs to be done is make the army pledge allegiance to a slightly modified version of the Iranian constitution, which eliminates the Guardian Council. Also, the political infrastructure is already in place in Iran. We already know the names of the reformers, and they can be put in charge of a temporary administration while waiting for non-fraudulent elections to be held.
If Iran is the spectacular success that I expect it to be - even more spectacular than the victory in Afghanistan - then I hope you will liberate the rest of the world. In some radicalized countries, such as Egypt, I expect a rational, humanist, non-subjugating government to be installed rather than immediate democracy, so that there is a chance for the population to be de-Nazified with education. But most countries, such as Vietnam, are not radicalized, and the same way that NVA tanks defeated SVA tanks in 1975 to implement communist rule, this time it will be our tanks defeating the Vietnamese Communist tanks to implement freedom, and finally wipe the scar of Vietnam from history - where Australia, amongst others, abandoned millions of South Vietnamese allies to be frogmarched off against their will to communist gulags.
As Paul Keating said, Australia has never really had much in the way of great statesmen. Now is your chance to be the first. This is the time. This is the place. Instead of playing a supporting role, take a leadership role for a change, taking some of the pressure off our great allies America and Britain. We owe it to our allies, we owe it to humanity, but most of all, I want to be able to look my children in the eyes and know I never tolerated holocaust on earth. Please don't let me down. The Australian Armed forces are under your control, and they are fully trained and equipped. If they are not being unleashed, it is entirely down to civilian responsibility. I voted for you because you supported ending the Iraqi holocaust, unlike the left-wing opposition Labor party.
I would like to remind you that the Australian polls (see www.newspoll.com.au and search for Iraq) reached a high of 57% in favour of liberating Iraq, versus 36% in favour of indefinite institutionalized rape.
I would also like to remind you that our ancestors have already done the heavy lifting for freedom: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lighthorsemen_(film) and that you owe it to their memory to finish the task.
I would also like you to note that these: http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2004/06/why-we-fight.html American soldiers never asked to be held back from ending the suffering of others and instead live by the crede of "Never Again".
I would also like to remind you of the extraordinary ability of the Australian armed forces of today: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/al-asad.htm And I am confident that they will be able to repeat such success in Iran.
Please Mr Howard. Don't turn your back on humanity. Don't expect that it is someone else's job to care. It's yours as much as anyone else's. Can you look your own children in the eye? I hope one day I can look you in the eye, and see an extraordinary man who did everything he could to end the suffering of others. The clock is ticking and Iranians are suffering.
Yours sincerely, Paul Edwards, proud Australian citizen.
UPDATE: I got a response.
UPDATE 2: Letter slightly modified to correct ambiguous English so that others can copy it.
