:: Wog Blog ::

:: WHAT AM I THINKING ABOUT? ::

:: Monday 13 January 2003 ::

What the...?

So many letters to the Australian and the SMH, roundly against doing anything to liberate the people of Iraq from the murderous scumbag who has violently abused them for years and years, subjected the nation to two idiotic wars of invasion, causing his population to flee flee flee, some of them all the way down to Oz.

How heartless and cruel can these letter writing folks be? Very, it seems.

Life can rarely be reduced to simplistic formulae to reach a great truth. But sometimes it can. And if you are in charge of a nation, however you got there, and bunches of your people flee that nation seeking asylum or just generally fleeing to get the hell out, then you, sir, are doing a shitful job of running your nation. And you should resign.

Resign.

Sanctions? Saddam's fault. Saddam resigns. No more sanctions.

Sanctions. Saddam's 100% fault. Not the Security Council. Not the UN accounts. Not the vetting what the Iraqi's can or cannot buy.

Saddam.

But these letter writers. Sheesh. They are some hard bastards. They could not give a shit about the fleeing. They would rather the Iraqi's kept their Saddam.

Let us see some of these letter writers in action, eh?

...Yes, Saddam does have blood on his hands, but to argue that the US is the upholder of peaceful humanitarianism in Iraq is ignorant and naive in the extreme.

Nice, eh? Saddam invades Kuwait, loses Gulf War and gets sanctions imposed unless he does x, y and z. Saddam resolutely fails to do x, y and/or z. Saddam actually kills, directs torture and, yes, I am going to harp on this, has caused bunches of his population to flee. By any objective measure the fullstop should come after the 'blood on hands' statement.

...Though I would agree that, all other things being equal, Iraq could sell enough oil to supply its people with their material needs, all things are not equal. Iraq has been unable to repair much of the oil-producing infrastructure destroyed during the Gulf War. This means that it is unable to produce even half the oil it is allowed to sell.

'Unable'. Hmmm. Saddam resigns. Sanctions lifted. Repair of destroyed stuff miraculously now doable.

See that sloppy language? 'Unable' is the wrong word. The sentences should read: "Iraq's leadership, in the person of Saddam Hussein, has failed to carry out repairs to the country's oil-producing infrastructure. Refusing to comply with UN resolutions which compliance would cause the lifting of sanctions, Saddam Hussein has persitently caused his country to produce less than it can, and thereby to not feed its citizenry enough."

Everything bought by Iraq with oil money is vetted by the UN Security Council. They have systematically prevented supply of essential goods, such as drugs and vaccines for the sick and wounded, and building materials to repair roads, pipelines, water-treatment plants and other vital infrastructure damaged in the Gulf War and in subsequent attacks by US and British warplanes enforcing the "no-fly zones". Even innocuous items such as food and clothing are delayed for months awaiting "approval". I don't doubt Hussein is exacerbating and exploiting the sanctions to strengthen his hold on power, this merely proves that general economic sanctions, rather than military sanctions, are an ineffective way of removing dictators from power.

Again with the focus is elsewhere than on Saddam. But this guy at least gets to a point where maybe he can be credited with giving enough of a damn about Iraqi people to think they might be better off with a military invasion to rid them of the violent imbecile they have as a leader.

....the sanctions on Iraq are imposed by the UN but are definitely sustained and led by the US. Secondly, the "oil for food" money is held in escrow by the UN, after more than a quarter is taken away to pay "reparations". It cannot be spent on palaces or anything else. The products Iraq tries to buy with that money have to be vetted by the sanctions committee, dominated by the US. That committee has put holds on many humanitarian products. Denis Halliday, Hans Von Sponeck and Jutta Burghardt have resigned in protest at the genocidal impact the sanctions are having. To be fair, the widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure by US bombs (in contravention of the Geneva Convention) has contributed to the increased infant mortality, which has doubled since 1991.

"To be fair". Not a word on Saddam in this letter. Not one word.

And the SMH?

Here we go:

Many Australian war memorials feature a statue of a valiant, armed soldier standing in resolute pose displaying the glory and valour of war. It is ironic that the inscriptions below those statues are the names of the thousands of soldiers who stand no longer, killed at too young an age on foreign soil. Then there are the hundreds of thousands more who returned to face a future of physical and, invariably, emotional turmoil. We rightly honour those who have fought, but we should never forget that for every heroic deed there are scores of other actions during wartime that lead to death or a life disrupted. The ripple effect through family, friends and health services dictates that war must be avoided as the cost to society is far too great and unjustified.

How could we do this to another generation?

Cannot argue with this. Fair question. The answer may be - for the same or similar reasons as earlier generations. Because we are right to do this. Saddam is a shit. If he will not fall on his own sword, then he will have to be pushed. Nothing less than the Iraqi people depend upon us to do it. For a mixture of cowardice and shame and a simple desire to keep living, they have found themsleves unable to get rid of him themselves.

Australia is about to lose its world acclaimed reputation as a just and honourable nation. The glory that our defence forces had bravely and rightly earned will soon be lost forever when John Howard, aided and abetted by his Government, send Australians overseas to pillage another nation. History will never again look kindly on Australia as a nation that respected the law of justice for all. Australians who served in previous wars will forever be tarnished by the actions of this Government. When our servicemen go overseas this time it will be with the clear intent to plunder Iraq. It will not be to make the world a safer place; it will not be to protect a threatened nation. It will be for oil for the United States.

Plunder?

Shut Up.

Grotesquely obese and shameless talk-show panellists eager to exhibit their tawdry lifestyles and vengeful intentions to a global audience; women-hating, gun-toting, semi-literate gangsta rappers approved of by an equally feral music industry; 350 channels of home shopping; crude and boorish drug-addled has-beens convinced the public is interested in 60-minute insights into their vacuous lives - and the audience which weekly proves them correct; Spielbergian morality; Microsoft's greed; Britney Spears's integrity, and JLo's tedious wedding plans. Hallelujah. And this is the American way of life we just queue-jumped to defend.

Oh Please. Nothing good about America? Do not be an idiot. I give you HIM.

...It's hard at 21 years of age to comprehend the world, let alone be optimistic about the consequences of the decisions of our so-called leaders. The silence of the head-nodding masses is also a mystery.

They are leaders, jackass. That is why they are called 'leaders'. And the 'head-nodding'. Typical of anti-war to think everyone who is not with him must be a dribblin' fool getting manipulated by big something -politics/business. Christ Almighty.

My first grandchild will be born in March. I so desperately do not want this child to be born into a world torn apart by war and terrorism. I call upon our church leaders to summon our nation to a day of prayer and fasting. Better to fight evil on our knees than on the battlefield.

Hey. The world is war torn. Thank Africa for the high stats. And knees? Are you mental?

Would not sending an "SAS regiment of 150 likely to take part in sabotage, reconnaissance and advance incursions" (Herald January 11-12) to a country with which we are not at war be classed as an act of terrorism?

No.

I get to the end of reading these things...and I find I really need another glass of wine.

:: WB 4:27 am [link+] ::