As troops gather in the Middle East and the US hypes up rhetoric for war on Iraq, an army of protesters across Australia is mustering its forces to fight for peace.

The latest poll shows only six per cent of the population backs a war in Iraq without United Nations approval, with 30 per cent opposing Australian involvement under any circumstances.

Tens of thousands will join rallies nationwide on February 15 and 16 as part of an international weekend of action against war.

If war is declared before that, it will trigger immediate action by thousands of protesters in every capital city.

The protests are set to be bigger than the Vietnam War demonstrations; a rally in Melbourne last November drew 45,000 and organizers are preparing for an even bigger turnout next month.

Most of those joining Australia's peace movement are not activists, just ordinary citizens spurred into action by their moral objections to the war.

Victorian Peace Network co-ordinator Damien Lawson said levels of anti-war sentiment in the community were unprecedented.

"There's never been this level of protest prior to a war even happening," he said. "People just think this is very wrong and they're starting to find ways to express it."

The Network was formed in September by more than 50 of Victoria's peak organizations to oppose the looming war with Iraq.

Its chief objection is that the war would result in "widespread slaughter" of countless Iraqi civilians.

"The second concern is that it increases the likelihood of terrorist attacks on Australian civilians; it is actually a threat to the security of Australian people if Australia supports a US-led attack," Mr Lawson said.

"The third reason from our point of view is that the war will be illegal and is clearly not going to increase security in the Middle East."

Mr Lawson pointed out that the United States "has more weapons of mass destruction - nuclear, biological, chemical weapons - than any other country".

He said America itself posed the greatest threat to world peace.

"The US is taking a completely unilateral course," he said. "It's saying that it can strike anywhere, any time, on the flimsiest of pretexts.

"It is the real rogue state in the world today and unfortunately it's the most powerful."

Sydney's Walk Against The War Coalition spokeswoman Hannah Middleton said unpopular US policy was propelling many into the peace movement.

She said people were fed up with the double standard of America targeting Iraq while possessing its own weapons of mass destruction and ignoring the weapons stockpiled by nations such as Israel and Pakistan.

"America says, 'We can launch pre-emptive strikes' - which of course is just the new buzz word for what the United Nations calls 'aggression'," Dr Middleton said.

"It's bully-boy destruction of international accepted standards and replaces the rule of law by the rule of the jungle."

©AAP 2003

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