I Do Not Give Consent

I do not give my consent to this war, to this unjustified violence.
To this illegal act, even if against a terrible regime, based on uncertain evidence of supposed nuclear capabilities.
I do not accept the civilian casualties, the horrifying cost that everyday people pay for the egos of "big" men.
I believe in upholding the international rules-based order, in which all are held to the same standard, where a war crime by one is as abhorrent as a war crime by another.
The alternative is a world of warlords and supplicants, organised by the cynical calculus of brute power, where humans are fed into the maw of the Great Game.
I denounce the media that fails in its journalistic duty, and instead does the work of warmongers, asserting a supposed objectivity where one country has a right to defense but another does not, where the killing of one child is worthy of attention but hundreds of others are not.
I scorn our spineless politicians who cannot even learn the lessons of recent memory, who lack the gumption to call out the abysmal behaviour of their supposed friend, who prefer the safety of acquiescence over the discomfort of standing up for what they must surely know is right.
I do not give my consent.

#Israel #Iran #AusPol