If I lived in Melbourne I would be around to dance on his grave. Not just in celebration but to trample the earth hard so he can’t be resurrected by his followers.
That’s a bit rough Kev, I can hear you say.
Hell it is! If I’m passionate about one thing in my life it’s the treatment handed out to us Vietnam Vets by the extreme left wing movement.
I have no problems with democracy, freedom of speach, the right to assembly, the right to disagree or the right to back a stupid cause and thus by extension I have no problems with the people who marched in the Morotoriums.
But hear me well; if you spat on one digger, if you called one vet a baby killer (it happened to me) or phoned one grieving parent then there is no honour for you here or anywhere else.
A couple of incidences; On 5 Feb 1968 Trent Grall then a corporal in the 7th Battalion was involved in a clash with the Viet Cong.
Three VC were killed and one, a lieutenant captured. Australian press carried the story including a picture of Trent guarding the 32 year old VC lieutenant. The article mentioned Trent’s home town making it easy for activists to track his parents. They received a string of abusive telephone calls from anti-war activists accusing him (because the Lieutenant appeared small in the photo) of being an abuser of Vietnamese children.
The same week Peter ‘Slippery’ Dowling (another corporal) says; “During Tete 68 we made contact with the NVA in a well fortified camp on and off over three days. We had 1 killed and 20 wounded…” The dead Aussie, our mate, someones son, brother, the light in some poor girls eyes, a hole in his mothers heart forever, Private Mick Ayres died in ‘Slippery’s’ arms. He died doing his duty – protecting his mates.
There was a particularly ugly aftermath to Mick’s death. In a vicious gesture, anti-Vietnam war protesters phoned his parents and said “he got what he deserved”. His parents have this dispicable act imprinted on their memory to this day.
Quotes from ‘Conscripts and Regulars’ by General Mike O’Brien, Allen and Unwin 1995 pp115,116.
Jim’s death is reported here in the Australian where Gough Whitlam feels a need to damn him with faint praise. Nevertheless, Gough Whitlam last night told The Australian: “Jim Cairns brought a nobility to the Labor cause which has never been surpassed.” Nobility? Cairns? Even Gough can’t believe that.
And this from Tom Uren; “Cairns did many great things for the ALP and for Australia, but the real tragedy of Jim Cairns was that he didn’t become the driving, creative minister he could have been,” Mr Uren said. “Jim Cairns belongs in the same mould as Nelson Mandela, Ho Chi Minh and Xanana Gusmao, who have the … humility, compassion, courage and commitment our human family needs,” he said.
Well Tom would say that, wouldn’t he? Kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it? Arguably the worse Treasurer Australia has ever had, forced out of parliament for lying about offering Australia’s sovereignty to some Arabs; he wasn’t even smart enough to keep ‘a bit on the side’ on the side. News.com says it all…nothing. They don’t even mention Gough’s noble mate.
If the extreme left claim Cairn’s as their leader then like all commanders he must wear the consequences of the actions off his troops. You can’t cannonize the man and blame a few hard corps idiots. They fed and fattened on his attacks on the Aussie digger and open support of the communists.
I feel better now.
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