If you are reading this, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier
From old Army mate Len. “We will run advertisements saying: ‘This man is only in politics because he can’t get a job outside’,” the Labor Party source said. Labor has plenty of material to work with, but the planning is also a further sign of how desperate things have become for the current Liberal leader Brendan Nelson.True, but that is only one way of looking at it. The other viewpoint is that the planning is a further sign that the ALP are desperate to keep Costello out of the leaders seat. Costello will crucify Wayne Swan and put paid to his blaming the coalition for all our economic woes. He is an attack dog and we need someone to call the ALP to question. No one else is, not even the media. As a matter of interest, I can’t recollect a Government ever running ads to influence the outcome of an election for the leader of the opposition before. A sure sign that the ALP don’t want him anywhere near the front bench.
A red-eyed and crestfallen Gosper, a senior IOC member for 31 years, told The Australian that both his reputation and that of the controversy-plagued IOC had been seriously dented by China’s decision to restrict internet access for journalists covering the Games.Surely no one ever believed that a communist country would give free reign to foreign journalists or give way on human rights issues. How much is buck passing and how much was anticipated before hand we’ll never know but one thing is for sure – I don’t believe that the IOC believed what the communists were telling them and they gave the games to Beijing for reasons of their own. Maybe it will force China into softening, there may be a positive but I really think we are about to be hit with mobs of communist propaganda. Over the next few weeks I think I’ll stay away from tabloid TV more than I normally do.
Union officials claimed the Brisbane factory meeting was held under a surveillance camera and garbage trucks drove in and out of the car park during the proceedings.Terrible, rotten management. However it appears only four of the 30 staff were union members so I wouldn’t let him in the staff lunch room either and in the long term only two union members turned up. Jeff, I really think you have wasted your 15 minutes of fame with this little article. I’m sure Kevin would like to help you but there will be little sympathy raised by this little beat-up.
Tabloid TV, SBS and the ABC have rolled over and we can’t view a scene of nature or animals cavorting without a sombre voice-over mentioning global warming. Films of icebergs melting, as they do very summer, cannot be shown without a mention of the impending doom for all mankind, Polar bears and penguins.This is all summarised by Tony Brown in a letter to the Australian today
When the last polar bear has died, the last glacier melted, and the last alpine ski lodge closed, will the climate change sceptics (Cut & Paste, 28/7) still claim that global warming was all a mirage conjured up by the misuse of dodgy greenhouse statistics?Possibly Tony, but by then, hundreds if not thousands of years in the future, we may well know more about our climate and just how much us puny humans affect it. Dodgy greenhouse statistics will have been rationalized and we might, just might, have accepted science over religion. I doubt if people like you will have changed though- religious zealots seldom revert. I guess Tony really believes everything he sees on tabloid TV – such conversion to a religion is bankable but I think it would be fair guess that Tony has always been in the front pew. No one can claim the Liberals are playing populist politics when they demand more detail on Rudd’s plans. In view of todays polls one could easily define their stand as suicidal but it is a stand they must make. Someone has to ask questions about the ALPs headlong push into the unknown. From todays editorial in the Australian;
The real message from today’s Newspoll is that the politics of ecological catastrophe being pursued by Labor has much greater traction than the politics of economic responsibility being prosecuted by Dr Nelson.This is stark evidence that we need a debate about the matter and the Libs are the only ones likely to start it. The voters don’t know what the cost of any ALP plan is and Rudd is trying to force the Libs, Greens and assorted anti Poker Machine addicts and anyone else who believes they hold the balance of power, to roll over and pass their bills through the House and the Senate before costs are detailed. Once the punters are aware of the likely costs and the fact that those increased personal costs and increased pressure on industry and commerce will lead to inflation for no discernible benefit to the hypothetical problem they will balk. The opinion polls will change.
Having initially refused to release timings on the wounding and air evacuation of SAS signaller Sean McCarthy, who died of injuries inflicted by a road-side bomb on July 8, the ADF revealed yesterday that aero-medical evacuation choppers lifted off from Kandahar airbase 38 minutes after the blast happened, and 22 minutes after the call for help from the soldiers was logged.The time lag between the incident and lift off appears to be a little lengthy to me and will to all Vietnam Vets. We had a system then where we would radio in “Standby Dustoff” (AME) as soon as we knew we had taken casualties. Thus within a few minutes of a soldier being wounded the Medicos were warned of an imminent requirement for evacuation; the chopper crew were doing their preflights and the Doctors and Nurses were scrubbing up. Presuming Armies remember lessons from the past, and yes I know that isn’t always a given, then I would imagine that something similar happens today. If the choppers lifted off 38 minutes after the blast and 22 minutes after the radio call for evacuation then are we expected to believe that the patrol took 16 minutes to call for evacuation of a seriously wounded soldier? I’m not criticising anyone here, least of all the patrol, as my comments are being written far from the realities and fog of war and in the comfort of my office but the ADF does need to review every action and reaction to ensure we are doing the best for our diggers. I’m sure the ADF are busy doing just that right now. Recommended reading: DUSTOFF in the Vietnam War.
THE most highly placed Australian to serve in Iraq has offered a lethal critique of the Australian way of war in its diplomatic, strategic and military dimensions, challenging the orthodoxy of the Howard and Rudd governments. Putting it bluntly, (General) Molan, who retired a fortnight ago, says Australia is not prepared “to fight a war involving sustained combat”. As a professional, he is embarrassed. The conclusion from his book is that Australia has been too successful in winning political dividends from extremely limited military commitments. Sooner or later, he believes, our luck will expire.As an ex professional, I am also embarrassed, as are many of my Army mates, but it takes a General to state the case to have people listen. The benefits we gain from being a part of the coalition against terrorism is tangible – we gain access to intelligence that helps us secure our citizens; we gain security from the very fact that the terrorist are being confronted in their homelands and thus have difficulty attacking ours and yet this is largely achieved by the efforts and casualties of the Yanks, Canadians and Brits. Thanks to Howard and his military rebuild we have the capability to deploy a larger force – maybe a Battle Group, and pick up the responsibility of a province in Afghanistan but I don’t absolve Howard from this criticism. I am on record as saying he achieved a lot of recognition for little commitment and whereas it’s true our special forces guys from the West and 4RAR have done us proud, special forces don’t win wars by themselves. Cue the Royal Australian Regiment, battalions of highly trained, well equipped and motivated young Aussies whose role is clear and unambiguous…to seek out and close with the enemy, to kill or capture him, to seize and hold ground and to repel attack, by day or night, regardless of season, weather or terrain. It is the battalions of Infantry and Marines from the US, Britain and Canada that are doing the hard yards, who are taking the casualties and who will eventually decide the outcome of war and if we intend to take a seat at the final conference when we have beaten the bastards then we need to recommit. Patrick Walters also quotes the General in an article headed “A nation at war, but kept clear of combat”
“We in Australia luxuriate in what I describe as wars of choice within wars; we choose the wars we will fight in, we choose the timing of our participation, we choose the geographical areas of our participation (and so control the level of likely combat), we choose the kind of operations we will conduct and we choose when we come home,” he says. As Molan tells Inquirer, Americans do not have that luxury in Iraq or Afghanistan. Australia may not have that luxury in the years ahead.Chances of that happening under Rudd, Smith and Fitzgibbon – nil, zip, nada, no chance and Buckleys but one lives in hope that we might just do something other than seek seats on committees, demand NATO commit more troops and pontificate about how high we value our defence relationship with the Yanks and yet still refuse to commit sufficient ground troops to make a difference. Sigh!
(Rudd) said Australia had been left behind in education, had ignored the damage of climate change and had failed to respond to changes in the region and the world, including the rise of China and India as economic superpowers.Unmitigated crap but tell the lie often enough and people will believe that spin is substance. They did in November last year, they’ll do it again.
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