Sports diplomacy - a tool of U.S. foreign policy

[spook]

SPORTS DIPLOMACY - A TOOL OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY - Declassified Australia

It’s not just sport… how a very Australian sport is being Americanised and militarised to further US global interests.

declassifiedaus.org

‘It’s all about culture: Why AFL football clubs are like army units’, is the striking title of an official Australian Football League (AFL) podcast in 2022. In it, the AFL Commissioner Simone Wilkie, urged on the teams by singing the praises of former head of the CIA and US Army General, David Petraeus.


General Petraeus is an odd choice of footballers’ hero. He served in Iraq, where in 2003 he used controversial ‘kill-and-capture’ raids in the bloody early pacification of Mosul, and in Afghanistan in 2010, where he was criticised for civilian deaths and for allying with corrupt and violent local security forces.

I found this bit interesting, about Joe Biden's visit to an AFL game while VP to Obama:

Documents detailing the AFL connections with the visit of Biden were applied for by Declassified Australia under Freedom of Information applications to the Prime Minister’s Department, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Victorian State government. The search surprisingly turned up barely a handful of emails, all largely redacted. Why the secrecy over a visit to a football match?


The letter accompanying the release stated:

‘Disclosure of this correspondence is reasonably expected to impact the ability of the Australian government to maintain good working relations with the United States Government. The document contains information of a nature that would reasonably be expected to cause damage to the international relations of the Commonwealth, should this information be released.’ [Our emphasis]

 

[adamski]

sport under capitalism is a platform provided by the ruling class to distract the masses away from thoughts of revolutionary change and to promote war and nationalism when wall street calls for expanding empire

 

[RoarEmotion]

sport under capitalism is a platform provided by the ruling class to distract the masses away from thoughts of revolutionary change and to promote war and nationalism when wall street calls for expanding empire

Who is your favourite player?
How do they distract you?

 

[adamski]

Who is your favourite player?
How do they distract you?

occupies your mind leaving no room for revolutionary thoughts

 

[RoarEmotion]

occupies your mind leaving no room for revolutionary thoughts

So you aren’t a sports fan or a tigers fan?

 

[DavidSSS]

occupies your mind leaving no room for revolutionary thoughts

We will still have sport after the revolution, at least after any revolution I am part of.

Unless that is we are up to part 2 which we all know is farce.

DS

 

[TigerMasochist]

We will still have sport after the revolution, at least after any revolution I am part of.

Unless that is we are up to part 2 which we all know is farce.

DS

Might wanna be careful David. Could be that after the revolution it will be only the likes of the Frockers, Gee Whizz, Mould Coast, StKiddenme, #Lolnorf, Pordadalayde n the Woofers are allowed to win the next 50 or so premierships. Just so they can have a chance to get an equal share of flags with some of the other teams of course.