Semantics
Interrogated, interviewed who gives a damn. We are at war and if we can’t interview/interrogate/harrass/threaten/grill/question/cross-examine/quiz/play bad music near/annoint with red textra/yell at/take stupid photos of/point at their dicks and laugh to try and stop them murdering women and kids and slitting throats of innocents then what are we allowed to do?
ABC’s Lateline program can always find some recalcitrant to critisize Howard. It’s hardly world shattering although I know some Banshees, Luvvies of the ABC and others, short of life skills and experiences, thrive on every word; the bulk of the population are more worried about wages, interest rates, kids, kid’s education and other ‘real life’ worries.
ABC see it as their role in life and that’s fine but the ALP, desperate to appear meaningful, are grabbing at straws and need to tell the Left to shutup while they try and regain some relevance in Australian politics.
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who, apart from you & yours, says we’re at war? I don’t recall any such declaration. I know the right would just love another ‘real’ war so they could go around handing out white feathers anonymously and revelling in the death & destruction, loss of life and grandiose pronouncements of victory over tyranny, but it’s not real, it doesn’t exist any more than Santa Clause.
There’s always someone who doesn’t think Australia is ‘at war’. Mind you, you were one of the ‘No War’ crowd before we went back to get oil for blood in Iraq (good swap btw!). So you accepted it then that we were at war, but not now? Australian soldiers are still in Baghdad, fuckhead. Still getting sniped at by murderous assholes. So yeah, keep your head up your ass, and let real men do the dirty work.
Niall,
As an Australian soldier with operational experience, your inability to appreciate the reality of life in Baghdad disturbs me greatly. Furthermore, your implication that any sector of the Australian community, let alone the Govt, derives pleasure from Australian service personnel being put in harm’s way is evidence that you lack even a basic understanding of the motivations which compel Governments and soldiers to make the decisions that they do.
A Government makes decisions which reflect the views of the people whom they represent. The Howard Govt was re-elected after demonstrating the stance which it would pursue in relation to the war against terror. If you do not agree with them, it is was your right as it is of all Australians to cast your vote. You were outvoted by your peers. The “yours” which you refer to represents that majority.
A soldier makes the decision to serve and, if called upon, to deploy because they value the notions of free choice, basic human mateship and the need to defend them both. If a person is attacked, they will be overcome unless they fight back. If they cannot, then it falls to another to defend them. FREEdom is not free, it belongs only to those who are willing to defend it. If you have not or are not willing to do so, the freedoms you enjoy as we speak are due to the sacrifices of others such as your father.
Whilst you continue to live in Australia, that includes, amongst others, men from the 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment at Enoggera Barracks, people who you may well have walked past today as you enjoyed Brisbane’s weather. They do not expect nor are interested in any words of thanks (they do it for other far more personal motives, what you have described as the “highest of moral reasons”). What they and all other Australians will not tolerate however are your words of derision. To deny the reality of their situation is an example of such.
Freedom, rights and related ideals feature heavily on your website, blog, whatever the technical term is for it. These are values which the people of Iraq were deprived of by the former political system in Iraq. The war in Iraq, like all conflicts is motivated by a variety of ideals, not all of them pure. However the Australian soldiers there are employed in the role of protecting Australian interests and citizens, as well as training Iraqi people to be able to do the same for their own. They are not interested in oil (though you make no mention of it being a war for oil, I would imagine you see it as such). They are fighting against a culture of violence and intolerance. Your father fought against the same.
You would not dismiss your father’s sacrifices as a grab for German territory or resources. Do not show the current generation of servicemen and women the same contempt.
Dave.
Dave, as expected, you entirely miss the point of my comment primarily because you are one of the ‘yours’ I mentioned. Military service does not provide you with a priviledged status in society from which you can criticise those who don’t have the same experiences you have. Military service is a job like any other job which you and you alone have elected to take on. End of story! It does not give you the right nor the priviledge to belittle those who criticise the government which sends you, the pawn, to places far away from Australia because it is not you, the pawn, who decidces where and when you go.
CB, I can only offer you the opportunity to debate the issues you seem so keen to offer here but so retiscent to debate elsewhere in a place you know best. You know very well where to find me. Quite honestly, I don’t expect to see you there anytime soon.
Dave, having seen from some of the comments from this Niall .. who is obviously a member of the terminally stupid … I would not worry about his irrelevant bleatings.
I have seen his type before … generally cowering somewhere after reality has caught up with them. They critizise everyone and everything knowing full well they will never be called upon to support their mindless garbage.
Their criticisms are widespread and generally include any body or organisation utilised to create a free and fair society which the majority appreciate.
They should be registered like dogs and deprived of the freedoms and benefits they take for granted and are too gutless to stand up for.
Either that or stand up for them face to face. But you wont see that happening any time soon.
Brian
Thank you for demonstrating my point Niall. It has been a pleasure Sir.