So, David Hicks is back in Aus­tralia (I won’t use ‘home’ because the con­nota­tions of safety and com­fort do not apply to his con­tin­ued sol­it­ary con­fine­ment in a prison cell some­where in Adelaide). I find the word “free­dom” used to describe his exper­i­ence “restrained” on the plane trip over some­what bizarre. But I guess when you’ve been tor­tured and so on without trial and not walked “more than 10 metres in a straight line in 5 and a half years” we’re talk­ing about free­dom of move­ment here more than free­dom of person.

I have noth­ing much to say about Hicks’ inno­cence or guilt. His treat­ment since his arrest, the entire exist­ence of Guantanamo Bay deten­tion center, the fact that he had to give up all legal chal­lenges and claims that he was tor­tured to get out of that hell­hole, that’s just dis­gust­ing and embar­rass­ing. Or it ought to be.

I just fin­ished read­ing a book my Aunty Joan recom­men­ded to me, Under­ground by Andrew McGa­han, which paints a dire image of Aus­trali­a’s future. It asks how the Aus­tralian people that said noto con­scrip­tion twice and refused to ban the Com­mun­ist party are now so com­pla­cent as greater and greater nation­al­istic fervor and increased “secur­ity” takes the place of sanity.

Not for the first time, I find myself asking whether Osama bin Laden is really worse than what the “Allies” faced in World War II and how it is that they man­aged to fight that war without resort­ing to tor­ture and becom­ing our own worst night­mare. Of course, there’s a scary answer to that: the Amer­ic­ans did resort to some­thing amoral and indefens­ible. The atomic bomb. Were they ever cen­sured for that on a world stage? I have no idea.

Mean­while, just so we’re clear that I don’t think it’s all rosy over in the Middle East, Iran is lock­ing up Amer­ican-Ira­nian dual cit­izens, on sus­pi­cion of foment­ing unrest, con­fis­cat­ing their pass­ports and never mind the trial. Iraq, we all know, is a mess – does­n’t look like the “occu­pa­tion” is help­ing much. Afgh­anistan has accused Amer­ica of ran­domly shoot­ing civil­ians and the Amer­ic­ans have admit­ted it (and said sorry, guys, it was a mis­take), while trouble brews again between Afgh­anistan and Pakistan. And let’s not forget Darfur – although, to be honest, why not? Every­body else has.

Real change is needed. I need to think how I can con­trib­ute in light of my del­ic­ate immig­ra­tion status…