Peace activist speaks on Wikileaks gift to democracy

Letters to the editor
The Cairns Post
 
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested in London and will face Court on unbelievable charges after he exposed rank lying by the US and many other governments about security, diplomacy, and our unending wars.
 
Wikileaks has nailed the Emporer’s new clothes.  Now it has been proven out of our leaders own mouths that current wars are based on lies, and future wars are being planned.  Julian Assange has done us all a favour.  He needs and deserves our protection.
 
But we need to go further.  As citizens we need now to absolutely insist that government lying stop.  We deserve the truth.  Democracy demands that the people judge policy and we are therefore entitled to accurate knowledge about those policies and their foundations.
 
None of the Wikileaks would matter if they weren’t true.  Wikileaks has only exposed what we already suspected to be true.  How have we degenerated that we now expect governments will lie to us?  How have we come to accept this state of affairs as normal?
 
The arrest of Julian Assange challenges us all to stand up for what we believe in.  Restore truth to government.  And dare I say it at Christmas, aren’t we also expected to love one another?  Let’s dismantle the war machine.
 
Yours sincerely
Bryan Law
Cairns Peace by Peace