10 posts tagged “peace”

How lucky are American voters?

This week another test popped up that McCain clearly fumbled and gave the Voters a clear indication of the correctness of their collective decision last election.

The unhappiness in Iran after the sham election has highlighted a serious character flaw in Republican thinking. That is that they have to tell other nations how to run their country. It’s not even a case of working towards achieving their desired ends. It must be obvious to them that any US interference is highly counterproductive so it must be a macho thing.

McCain decided to get vocal about this over the past week and has managed to show he is still locked into the “Cold War” thinking that he should have grown out of at his age. But maybe that’s what the problem is. Some of the older senators are locked into the knee jerk reaction that makes them oh so amenable to their opponents.

I hate to think of what may have happened if McCain was in power. Clearly he aspires to the “tough guy” image rather than the “smart guy” so perhaps we might have been treated to threats of military force and other worthless grandstanding which would make sod all difference  to the situation on the ground, but been helpful to the folk he seems to want to unsettle.

The common US claim is to try and keep the civilian death toll down in struggles for Democracy but this simply doesn’t work when you have had previous leaders play the “Christian” card. Bush did it a lot and appears to have enjoyed doing so even at the cost of more aggravation. That was another ego thing just like his hated comments to the car bombers in Iraq of “Do your worst.”

In Iraq we now have the coming Civil War but we can be grateful to the US for going out of their way to train up many of the different groups. At least the body bags will be filled efficiently. Happily the US troops are being moved out of the way so their presence should be less obvious and thus less inflammatory to the locals. And hopefully less US body bags will be going home.

The take home message for McCain should be “mind your own business”. It’s not your problem and if you interfere you only make it harder for those struggling towards Democracy. How much easier can it get? By doing nothing you are actually getting a better result and no US kids need to be sacrificed to promote a hated foreign government.

The only down side that I can see is he might have to resort to Viagra to prove his manliness.

A couple of nights ago I managed to stumble across this program on ABC 2 and had to follow it up by listening to the entire program on ABC Fora.

It explains a lot of how human rights has advanced over the years and has some real gems about Australia's role in getting some rights in place when Doc Evatt strode the world stage.

Especially interesting is the information around Pinochet and his detention in the UK. I'll bet when he signed the anti torture paperwork he thought it would never have the teeth to bite back.

He also deals with Rumsfeldt easily. If you have a spare hour this is worth a listen.

Whilst being subjected to an even bigger display of mindless flag waving this past ANZAC Day, I couldn’t help reflecting how badly things are going in Bush’s War. It seems the less justified the war the more jingoism is cranked up to hide the bleeding obvious. The “over the top” rubbish from the AFL is a prime example. Since when does sport equal war? A classic example can sometimes be heard in commentary when an opposition goal is called the “ultimate penalty”.

Guys. DEATH is the ultimate penalty. Although coming home a quad runs a close second.

On the matter of pride. Yes, you can (and should) be proud of your kids on an individual basis but in the overall scheme of things we should feel ashamed of our behaviour. Abu Graib was bad enough but far far worse has been the handling of various acts of murder.

Particularly at fault has been the Marine Corp hierarchy. Finding several shocking examples of outright murder within the Rules of Engagement has dishonoured all those fine soldiers who display courage and discipline under fire.

Abu Graib was some folk breaking the rules whereas the Rules of Engagement decisions condone what should be illegal behavior. Not only does it discredit America (and Australia when we say nothing) but it does the exact opposite of what Bush claims to be about. Ending terrorism.

Australia can’t wash its hands of involvement here. Riding shot gun for an inept Bush simply isn’t good enough. If we were involved in propping up Robert Mugabe there would be an outcry. Currently we are training up the combatants on all sides for the Civil War already underway. I don’t see too much credit in helping everyone increase the death toll on their opponents. One might even call it immoral.

With the US Voter having got sick of Bush’s War and his gang of experts who have consistently got it wrong, perhaps we are about to enter a new world (order) where the States returns to pre WW2 thinking and stays at home. After WW1 there was a reluctance to get involved in European in-fighting. It wasn’t such a bad idea.

You can’t solve other people’s problems when it comes to real Democracy. It’s up to them. But you can end up being everyone’s punching bag. That’s a hell of a price to pay for some President trying to prove he’s a tough guy.

This week Admiral Fallon resigned after disagreeing over the attitude of the Bush Administration towards Iran.

The good Admiral thinks it's a bad idea to start bombing Iran while the likes of that US intellectual, Dubya, want to start yet another fight. Obviously Dubya thinks he is winning despite the near 5,000 US body bags that have mounted up under his inept watch.

A thought occurs to me that it's time for the US Public to start thinking of ways to curb a failed President from trying to build himself a reputation as a hard man. Their kids are going to be paying the price for a bloke desperate to find something to distract the historians.

Why should such a miserable performer be allowed to take another throw of the dice when all his others have crapped out?

Protect your kids and your country. Don't let Bush do any more damage.

The futility of the war in Afghanistan becomes more obvious every day. A war that the USSR could not win even with their more relaxed Rules of Engagement apparently can be won by a coalition of 13 countries that are currently fighting each other to see who has to do the hard work.

Australia is bitching because they reckon any operation to capture territory carries a certain amount of risk and the gains will more than likely be lost through incompetence before the year is out. Oz is also unhappy with the Dutch Rules of Engagement. The Aussies refused to support a Dutch operation because it risked a lot of civilian casualties. The Dutch went ahead anyway and damn near didn’t get their troops back out. A lot of civilians got killed in the process too though I can’t tell if the toll was higher because the Aussies didn’t get involved.

It’s a pretty good example of how compromised the whole operation is. Unless the US do all the heavy lifting, folk want to go home. I’m at a loss as to why we are even there. It’s highly unlikely the Taliban are going to be evicted while they can claim to be defending the country against foreign invaders.

The history books are full of countries who tried to overrun the place and all of them have left with their tails between their legs. I think the Poms have been booted out twice already. A coalition of countries who wont accept the same amount of risk that the US bears is hardly going to prove more capable.

Lets get outta there.

While the embattled Liberal Party of Australia is desperately floundering around looking for something to capture the imagination of the Voters, it could be a good time to pour on the pressure over our foolish involvement in the Iraq civil war.

With Howard jumping at shadows on a daily basis, we might just inspire him to rethink his act of love towards Bush and make a stand in Australia's best interests rather than his own.

To this end I'm proposing that members take the time to drop an email to their local member and the PM (and any other pollie for that matter) expressing their intention not to vote for a party with no exit strategy from Iraq.

These blokes (and it generally is the blokes) seem to be enjoying their war games and need to be focussed on the rewards they stand to earn if they continue to ignore the wishes of everyday Aussies.

Some of these folk have email addresses and some have electronic forms and the best way to deal with it is to Google the names.

Some helpful(?) hints for getting a result

1. If you are going to write just one email to a number of them, put their names in BCC (blind courtesy copy) so it does not appear as a form letter
2. Don't take one person's email and leave the Title the same. If you do decide to use another's excellent letter, change the title slightly so a filter wont knock it out.
3. Include members of other parties so all groups know of the groundswell. Folk like Barnaby Joyce actually reply when you drop them an email.
4. Something I haven't done so far but I think might work is to include Re: in front of the title. That will then look like it's part of an ongoing conversation. I haven't used this yet because it might inflame passions but it's on the back burner if some arrogant pollie needs to get my message.

This might not make any difference to the warmongering but then again it just might.

Of course doing nothing will definitely not change anything.