Ask any refugee if s/he wanted to leave their country and I can tell you that 99% will tell you that all they wanted was to live their lives in peace. They wanted a family, a job, a dream to pursue.
What they didn’t want was to be bombed, shot at and have their families killed by “rebels” trained and armed by the west or their cities bombed in air raids conducted by NATO planes and US drones to “liberate” them.
What they didn’t ask for was oil or gas under their country the West coveted.
At this moment Millions upon millions of people have been dislocated from their communities because the Western world in the shape of the US Military and NATO have waged illegal wars of aggression in a list of countries General Wesley Clark predicted we would attack in as early as 2003.
These people have done nothing to us and yet we feel justified to destroy their countries, economies and lives. In fact in Europe most people are incensed that these people would come to the one continent that they can reach and that seems to be be safe from whatever hell fire their governments decide to release in their own countries.
Instead of being angry with the people who reach Europe’s shores maybe we should begin to actually look at what our leaders are doing in our name. These people don’t belong in Europe or Australia and New Zealand. Not because they are less than us or because they are Muslim and scary but because they don’t want to be in any other country but their own. And while we need to help the people who are arriving by the thousands in Europe and God knows where else what we really need to do is to start listening to the reason why they came and what they want.
And what they want is for the wars to stop so they can rebuild their countries. What they need is our REAL help to do so. We are, after all, responsible for not holding our warmongering elite to account. We are responsible for not taking them to an international court of justice for war crimes and that makes us complicit in their crimes. Every brother, sister, son or daughter we allowed to be send overseas as soldiers for their wars is part of us and part of our complicity in these crimes against humanity.
We need to start arresting our leaders now and put an end to this madness. And yes, that includes John Key who after all signed us on a brand spanking new partner to the NATO war machine in 2012 and who told us that being part of the club was to send troops to the war zones.
Aotearoa: A Wider Perspective 