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…