In the last two weeks of March, the Australian government took at least three actions which have pushed the world closer to World War III. First, it enthusiastically endorsed NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia, with no mention of solving the crisis through collaboration with Russia; second, it sent a guided missile frigate to the Persian Gulf, to help enforce the genocidal embargo of Iraq, the unjustified war which has enraged both Russia and China; and, it officially lent its weight to "Iraq-style" intrusive inspections of North Korea's alleged "nuclear sites"—inspections guaranteed to enrage both the Russians and Chinese further. These latter two nations understand that it is they, not the alleged "rogue states" of Serbia, Iraq, or North Korea, which are the real targets of these undeclared wars being orchestrated by Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and his sympathizers in the Vice President Al Gore-led Principals' Committee, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen, and Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry Shelton, which is in almost open insurrection against President Bill Clinton.

As American statesman Lyndon LaRouche has emphasized, the world today is comprised of three power blocs: 1) The British-American-Commonwealth grouping, centered in London and Wall Street, whose frenzied actions are driven by the ongoing global financial collapse, 2) the Euroland "poor man's club," and 3) the Eurasian-based "Survivors' Club," anchored on Russia, China, and India, and including other nations which want to re-assert national sovereignty and economic development as a solution to the global financial crisis. The actions of Australia, a member of the BAC cabal, demonstrate the insanity and stinking hypocrisy of the BAC crowd.

For example, to take the third of Australia's above-cited actions first: In 1997, LaRouche's Australian associates in the Citizens Electoral Council campaigned for Australia, one of the world's leading food exporters, to provide large-scale food aid to the starving North Koreans. Under pressure, it finally provided a mere fraction of what it was capable of. Large-scale aid was equally in Australia's interest, as it was in North Korea's, because South Korea is Australia's third-largest trading partner, and peace on the Korean peninsula is critical to Australia's security. By choosing not to act then, Australia has allowed another 1-2 million North Koreans to starve to death, and has made their government that much more desperate and unpredictable.

Now, Australia is compounding its error, through the recent trip to Washington of Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs Dr. Ashley Calvert. There, Calvert strongly recommended to Clinton's North Korea troubleshooter, Dr. William Perry, that the United States demand intrusive inspections anywhere in the country at the drop of a hat. A source inside the Australian Defense Department told EIR: "It's a massive miscalculation. North Korea may be starving, but they've still got the military hardware to fight." It is precisely such a fight, which Gore et al. would like to encourage.

On the Balkans crisis, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer sanctimoniously proclaimed on March 25 "The international community cannot simply stand by and watch as President [Slobodan] Milosevic's forces continue to perpetrate the sort of human rights abuses that have been perpetrated recently in Kosovo." Yet, "standing by and watching" is precisely what the NATO alliance—and Australia—did from the early 1990s until President Clinton belatedly ordered air strikes in 1995, while Milosevic slaughtered some 300,000 Bosnians. Even then, the crisis was only "solved" with the assistance of the Russians, in the Dayton Accords. Nor did the Australian government say or do anything to stop the genocide against the Hutus in the Congo in 1997, of which LaRouche's associates had made them starkly aware.

In the case of Iraq, Australia has done much to fan the crisis. It officially paid the salary of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) head, Australian Richard Butler, who issued the phony report which was used to justify "Operation Desert Fox" in December. It also sent Australian Special Air Services troops to the Persian Gulf 18 months ago, for possible "surgical actions" to remove Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, while the ultra-secret Pine Gap U.S.-Australian communications base in central Australia has been crucial to the bombing campaigns against Iraq (and, no doubt, against Yugoslavia as well). In addition, Australia has just sent another guided missile frigate to the Gulf, the HMAS Melbourne, to help enforce the genocidal embargo against Iraq, and, according to TV reports, has dispatched Australian Air Force pilots to train in Arizona, for possible missions in the Gulf, while other Australian pilots are reportedly training with the British Air Force, for undisclosed missions.