Leader of NT Opposition Denis Burke gets offside with Gen Cosgrove by appearing to condone
marijuana use in the military.
Mr Burke had said recreational marijuana use by civilians had never bothered him. He had noticed while he was the leader of Second Cavalry Regiment that “there are many people that will not drink alcohol, but will have the occasional smoke”.
“Now, you know, that’s for them to decide,” he said.
Wrong! Drug use on duty is a command responsibility. One thing Burke should have learnt while he ‘commanded’ the 2nd Cavalry Regiment was that any sort of drug use is incompatible with maneuvering 14 tonne APCs. I have no axe to grind about smoking marijuana unless it’s in the military. Commanders have a chance of controlling grog as it’s hard to smuggle a carton of XXXX Lager into the field but not so with a small cache of marijuana. What a soldier does on leave is generally his problem so long as he stays within the law but the thought of marijuana in the field is terrifying. The guy smoking a joint is a danger to his mates if he then fires a machine gun or rocket or drives a vehicle, particularly a tank. Logistics stops the hard core drinker but not so the mary jane user.
Tank drivers are always of concern to infantrymen. The later, who tend to sleep on the ground and like to lie very close to it while in action have always had to be very aware of tank drivers. If there is action Infantrymen have the dual survival role of dodging enemy bullets and friendly tank tracks as when tanks are under fire they tend to make alarming direction changes.
Denis Burke is being irresponsible by playing down marijuana use in the Army and should take a hard line on any drug use while on duty. The commander of Robertson Barracks has a problem on his hand that has now been exacerbated by the local Leader of the Opposition. Trying to secure the votes of local users by appearing to be ‘with it’
should attract adverse comments from military leaders who are continually fighting a battle against a society and media that says it’s OK to use drugs.
Before some readers start thinking drugs are a huge problem based on the statistics of the Robertson Barracks raid, keep in mind the subjects of the raid were targeted – the MPs knew from other sources who the problem children were. The nearly 50% strike rate reflect the quality of intelligence rather than indicating half of the military are on drugs.
UPDATE:
Cosgrove denies ‘goose’ comment. In todays
Australian Gen Cosgrove denies calling Burke a Goose. Goose, not a Goose, It doesn’t change my thoughts on drugs in the Military.
She’s free! Pauline Hanson released and not required to stand trial again. Reported by
SBS – as much as it must have hurt them to do so.
Chief Court of Appeal Judge Paul de Jersey told a stunned courtroom that Ms Hanson and Mr Ettridge would not face a retrial.
I’m not a Pauline fan but I was often beside myself with the treatment handed out to her by the extreme left. Screaming and physically attacking her every time she mounted the dias is not what we are about. We let Phillip Adams talk without attacking or screaming. Even Bob Brown is allowed to say his piece, in peace, as stupid as it is, and yet Pauline had to put up with the most foul abuse and physical threats.
I was nearly moved to go find the baseball bat I had left on the verandah from the Keating days and pitch in to help her have her say.
Watch the media tomorrow – the left will be screaming, the ABC will have endless debriefs and news leaders on how every one in SE Asia thought we were all racists because of one person’s opinions. Mahatir will be questioned by the ABC looking to give him a chance to say how racist we are and Kerry O’Brien will have to allocate another hour in the day to practise his sneer. By mid afternoon someone will remember that it was all Howard’s fault and some looney will ask him how come he didn’t have her shot on day one in Canberra.
It might be a good time to get out the old Land Rover and go fishing.
Update: Almost forgot – while watching the early evening news at 6.00 pm Channel 9 had daylight interviews of Pauline and the Ettridge chap free and surrounded by well wishers while at 6:30 SBS reported
‘they will be released sometime later tonight’ Get current guys.
Use the word bias with ABC or SBS and all the left wing luvvies and Friends of the ABC start screaming. At the risk of being repetitious I will point out that proof of bias rests in the fact that the left never claim bias.
Greg Sheridan has an
alarming piece in today’s
Australian where he points out that;
The SBS……….is using your tax money to broadcast the propaganda of the Vietnamese Communist Party as part of its regular daily news. It is airing each day the news program of VTV4, which is owned and controlled by the Vietnamese communists. VTV’s website says that it exists to “provide news and propaganda” to “serve the party and the Government”.
The pure evil that was communism has slipped too quickly from the public mind. The tens of millions killed by Stalin, Mao and yes indeed by Ho Chi Minh too somehow or other have disappeared from public debate.
He goes on;
The cultural Left, the types who run organisations such as SBS, have never had much time for Vietnamese refugees because they are anti-communist. They didn’t fit the neat, simplistic formulas that hold that all victimhood in this world is caused by Western colonialism.
When Saigon fell in 1975 the icon of such people, then prime minister Gough Whitlam, said to Clyde Cameron, among others, that he would not take in substantial numbers of Vietnamese refugees because “I will not have those f
Carmen (I can’t remember) Lawrence looks set to win the national presidency of the Labour party. Doesn’t make sense to me but I’m not voting. The people who do have a vote are giving it to Lawrence and I guess that says more about the future of the Labour party than any other pointer.
One thing it does say is that the Left is in the ascendancy in the Party and that fact can only help us conservatives.
Under the rules, the winner gets to lead for one year then the runner up takes the chair. That looks like putting Barry Jones in power in the 2004/2005 period. Barry is a lovely chap but the image of spaghetti and meatballs lingers in the voters consciousness.
Just keeps on getting better for us conservatives.
In
this article Steve Lewis, Chief political reporter goes on to say;
Labor, meanwhile, has taken another firm step towards preparing for the 2004 federal poll, announcing a new advertising team comprising two agencies with plenty of election-winning experience.
This suggests electing Carmen is the
first firm step towards preparing for the 2004 federal poll.
All I need now is for Australia to beat the Jocks on Saturday night to make it a great week.
After about 17 months on a flat curve the Reserve Bank has raised interest rates .2% to 5%
I’m not 100% sure but I think I heard Crean carp about This raise will make it more difficult for first home buyers to get a home. If he means more difficult than when Labour had the keys to the treasury I’d tend to agree…18% was a bit hard.
And the old chestnut…it’s the GST’s inflationary pressure that does it. We’re all being conned. The fact that countries without VAT/GST such as the US are also raising interest rates doesn’t compute with Simon.
Free advice for Crean. Never ever mention the economy, interest rates or GST. Get over it and go back to bleating about kids in cages that your mob built.
A legend has died. Full story
here.
RM will be sadly missed, a man amongst men he also made the best boot around.
Uncategorized
Letters in today’s press
Regardless of the issue of weapons of mass destruction, what a glorious moment in history to see some Iraqis welcome liberation and celebrate the downfall of another despot. What have the French, Simon Crean, Bob Brown and the mob who run Greenpeace got to say for themselves now?
Hugh Steele, Mt Barker, SA
and
Where is Senator Bob Brown? Where are the “millions” of dead Iraqi citizens he so confidentially predicted would eventuate? How does he explain the jubilation and gratification on the faces of the Iraqis for whom the age of tyranny and repression is coming to a close?
Nathan Gillespie Norman Park, Qld
This letter from RDM Cotgrove is worth quoting in full
Putting civilian deaths in context
REFERENCES to the war in Iraq frequently use terms such as “carnage”, “massacre” and “slaughter” to describe the number of civilian casualties.
Last Tuesday night’s SBS news bulletin quoted the official figure after 3 weeks of war as 600 civilian deaths. These casualty figures need to be put into perspective.
The authoritative 2000 World Development Indicators published by The World Bank compares demographic statistics for 1980 with 1998, the latest year for accurate figures.
The period spans the time after Saddam Hussein came to power in Iraq following a military coup in 1979. During the 1980-1998 period Iraq was one of a very few countries in the world where the infant mortality Rate (IMR), the proportion of infants who die before reaching their first birthday, and the crude death rate (CDR), the proportion of the total population dying during the year, actually increased.
For the world as a whole, IMR dropped from 80 per 1000 live births in 1980 to 54 per 1000 in 1998, and during the same period CDR dropped from 10 to 9 per 1000 population.
In Middle Eastern and North African countries (the Arab world) the rates dropped from 95 to 45 and from 12 to 7 respectively.
In 1980 Iraq, with a population of 13 million and a crude birth rate (CBR) of 41 per 1000 population, had rates of 80 and 9 respectively for the two indices. By 1998, when Iraq had a population of 22.3 million and a CBR of 32 per 1000, the rates had increased to 103 and 10 respectively.
Had Iraq, by 1998, been able to reduce its IMR and CDR to those of other Arab countries, ignoring the fact that in 1980 it outperformed them by considerable margins, infant deaths would have been about 32,100 and total deaths 156,100.
Instead, Iraq had the appalling statistics of 73,400 infant deaths and 223,000 total deaths.
The despotic reign of Hussein could therefore be said to be responsible for an extra 41,300 Iraqi infant deaths and an extra 66,900 total Iraqi deaths in 1998 alone, than would have occurred had the country performed as well as its fellow Arab states in these crucial indices.
And this, despite Iraq’s significantly better performance prior to Hussein’s grab for power. Against these statistics the civilian deaths of the current war, 600, pale into insignificance. Hyperbole gone mad? You betcha!
R.D.M. Cotgrove
University of Tasmania
This from Rosemary Neill in the Australian’
THIS week, a Sydney council rejected a development application for a Muslim prayer centre, partly because it was not “in accordance with the shared beliefs, customs and values of the local community”. On the eve of Christmas, it seems that praying is an affront to community values if your holy verses, your God, are not the same as those of the Christian majority.
Good One. Rosemary. Another way putting it is “On the eve of Christmas it appears it is an affront to murder thousands of innocent civilians because my god is better than yours”. Rosemary, it is an affront to think like Islamofacists and until we, as a nation, are convinced that the ordinary Muslims in Australia are definitely, 100%, dinky di, cross my heart against the terrorists then excuse us for being just a little concerned. Praying is not an affront to community values but inciting people to join the jihad is. Particularly when it comes from the pulpit of Muslim prayer centres here in Australia and in other countries populated by us hated infidels. Give us a break, Rosemary, the people are frightened and would gladly exchange your politically correct , warm and fuzzy, BA (Liberal Arts) writings for a little security.
Marxists running the Indian state of Bengal are
denying miracles
“We believe that the tribal woman Monica Besra’s stomach tumour was cured by prolonged medication in two hospitals, not by any miracle. Doctors who treated her at the hospitals have already supported our claim,” Mr Mishra said. “We are ready to accept the works of Mother Teresa, but not the miracle theory.”
Gee, that’s radical.
I don’t think there is any denying Mother Teresa’s good work but to put it down to a miracle as the process of beatification demands is 12th century rubbish. We demand Islam joins the 21st century while The Vatican clings to yesterdays standards.
Not often I agree with Marxists but it happens.
Uncategorized
I don’t know why. he just gave me $30,000 says
Peter Barron.
A former political advisor to Hawke and Wran has been drawn into the Swiss banking scandal, admitting he received a $30,000 gift through a secret account linked to stockbroker Rene Rivkin.
Peter Barron said yesterday he had been given $30,035.86 by his friend, former Labor minister Graham Richardson, as a one-off gift while he was holidaying with his family in London in December 1998.
Happens to me all the time. Here Kev, here’s $30,000. No, you don’t have to do anything..enjoy. What rubbish.
Lesson in lfe #368. There are no free dinners. If Barron has received $30,000 then it is for services rendered. Richards, devoid of ethics as he is, would not give away 30 grand for nothing. What did Barron do to earn it and why was it handled through a Swiss Bank Account.
What else are you hiding Richo?
Uncategorized
Newspoll have Howard up, Crean down and the Greens getting more irrelevant. In todays
Australian the headline reads
‘Howard surges on Bush and Hu.’
The visits would have had some impact on poll results but there are other considerations. Howard is doing a fairly good job but in this case I think he is aided and abetted by Crean and Brown doing a terrible job. Notwithstanding ABC and general media bias, Brown is accepted as an embarrassing idiot by most Australians and Crean as a ‘no-show.’ I would think the near vertical climb in Newspoll for Coalition support is due more to Browns childlike antics than anything else. Thanks Bob!
I’m dissappoined to think that, as Newspoll suggests, 6% of Australians think Brown is doing a good job. Of those 6%, most probably 4% think Brown is all about the environment when he is clearly just plain old anti-capitalist and anti west.
Meanwhile Wayne Swan, my local member, says it’s all because Howard was deliberately manipulating national security issues to camouflage domestic security issues.
There’s a war in progress, terrorists are infiltrating Aussie everywhere and Labour, the Democrats and the Greens are fighting tooth and nail to make it harder for ASIO and the AFP to do their job and Howard is manipulating? The voters read and know security is an issue. If there is any manipulating it is done by the terrorists, not Howard. He just tells it as it is.
No wonder we are leaking like a sieve. Our soveignty is repeatedly thrown on the alter of human rights in the church of the United Nations whose parishioners consist of a few left wing fools who think giving the vote to despots in South Africa and the Middle East as the UN does, will keep the world a beautifull place. It wont.
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