G�day. I got my first deluge of emails for the year – on Spain, Iraq and Keelty � and you�re split. The Iraq war takes centre stage, yet again, and it�s hard to imagine it won�t be a factor at the election. I�ve published a strong piece by new Webdiarist Sam Guthrie on the Spanish election and where it might lead which might help clarify our thoughts about this latest twist in the Iraq war saga. Tonight, it�s over to you.
NOTICEBOARD
John Dalton recommends kuro5hin for on the ground insights into what�s happening in Spain. He also recommends wikipedia on Madrid attacks: �The quality of this article is really opening my eyes to the power of collaborative media.�
John Boase recommends, as I do, juancole for intelligent and informed daily coverage and opinion on the war.
Antony Loewenstein recommends The Aftershocks from Madrid.
Ross Sharp recommends iraqontherecord: �It was prepared at the request of US Rep Henry A. Waxman and details 237 instances of misleading statements made by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Powell over 125 public appearances in the lead-up to the Iraq adventure. It certainly bears out Spain’s new PM Jos� Luis Rodr�guez Zapatero when he said: ‘Mr Blair and Mr Bush must do some reflection – you can’t organise a war with lies.'”
Scott Burchill recommends A Year After Iraq War Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists, a survey by the Pew research center for the people and the press.
And Scott notes a rare occasion when Howard doesn�t echo Bush:
“…it’s my view that Iraq is really irrelevant to the intent and the purposes of Al Qaeda.” (John Howard, 7.30 Report, 15 March 2004, ABC.)
“Al-Qaeda has an interest in Iraq for a reason, and that interest is they realise that this is a front on the war on terror. And they fear the spread of freedom and democracy in places like the greater Middle East, and so it’s essential that we remain side by side with the Iraqi people as they begin the process of self-government.� (George W. Bush, AM, 17 March , 2004, ABC.)
An Australian reporter made a good point on the Keelty thing: �In all the coverage there’s one issue that’s missed the attention it deserves: The AFP Commissioner does not enjoy the independence enjoyed by many other departments and statutory authorities in the Federal Government. He’s essentially a political appointee, there at the sufferance of the Attorney General. This means that it’s very hard for the AFP commissioner to do anything other than what he’s told. Doesn’t this saga highlight the need for senior public servants to have security of tenure….like they used to. So they can tell the Minister to f*** off.�
North Shore Peace and Democracy, featured in Webdiary in Liberal elder to Abbott: Dear friend, make amends on Iraq, advises Sydney readers of events to mark the first anniversary of the Iraq war:
Global Day of Action: Saturday, March 20
10-11 am Vigil & collection for medical aid to Iraq. George Street, just outside Town Hall Square. Organised by Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition.
11 am � 12 noon Community memorial service . Pitt Street Uniting Church, 264 Pitt St Sydney (near Park St). Speak out our grief, our vision and our commitment Organised by Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition.
12 noon March and Rally: Assemble at Hyde Park North. March through the city back to Hyde Park Speakers include John Pilger, Andrew Wilkie, Senator Kerry Nettle, Saif Abu Keshek. Organised by Stop the War Coalition.
Palm Sunday March & Rally for Peace: Sunday April 4, 1 pm, Belmore Park. Palm Sunday service & Multi-Faith Prayers for Peace. Then march to Hyde Park North. Speakers include Sharan Burrow, ACTU President, Andrew Wilkie, former intelligence analyst. Organised by Sydney Peace and Justice Coalition Sponsored by NSW Ecumenical Council.
The Victorian Peace Network advises that the Melbourne rally for peace begins at the State library at 1pm on Saturday 20th March. Terry Hicks, father of David Hicks, will join Church and union speakers in calling for peace and an end to pre-emptive wars.
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SHORTIES
Brett Hocking: I am surprised that many journalists, including you, seem to believe that changing parties at elections, whether here or overseas, makes a difference. The forces driving the world do not stand for election, and never have.
Lesley Snow: I was looking at the messages on the placards carried by Spanish protesters in Madrid – the one that stuck out was ‘do you think we are idiots”? Does this mean that citizens around the world are starting to wake up to the daily diet of humbug, spin, manipulation and out right lies we are being fed?
Graeme Richardson in Albury: Confucius said: �If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what ought to be done remains undone.” Do the “undone”, that is fall in line with the Howard agenda and in the judgement of Alexander Downer you change from being Lord Haw Haw one day to George Washington the next.
David Eastwood Elizabeth Bay: It’s odd that a Prime Minister who mad a virtue out of scrapping political correctness and claiming that a plurality of views was good for Australia should react so badly when a view that contradicts his political position is aired by a credible figure. My democracy doesn’t need this kind of hypocrisy.
Daniel Maurice: I dipped into your column today after an absence of some months only to catch your latest diatribe, “Why won’t Howard let us trust anyone?” Depressingly I found another entirely predictable attack on Howard – full of bile, hysteria, exaggeration, lies and rhetoric. Don’t you see the irony of using the very tactics to attack the Government that you accuse the Government of? This is not journalism, but polemics. You continue to contribute nothing to reasoned debate on important public policy issues.
Graeme Rankin in Holder, ACT: I am absolutely revolted by the sheer arrogance of the Australian Government to label any dissenting view on Iraq or the war on terror put forward by people, both in the know or from a concerned general public, as support of terror and terrorists. This arrogance makes anything Paul Keating did or said pale into insignificance! Howard, Downer and Ruddock are a disgrace as Ministers and despicable as people.
David Tester: By changing government the Spanish people have increased the terrorist threat to all nations involved in the war on terror, which is pretty much everybody. Al Qaeda’s Spanish mission was accomplished. Had the former government been returned, Al Qaeda’s attack would have failed. A simple but unpleasant fact. Margo, you seem to be under the illusion that the defeat of Bush, Blair and Howard will change things with regard to Iraq. It won�t. Get some perspective if you want to be credible. No doubt this survey won’t get a link at Webdiary: Survey finds hope in occupied Iraq.
Shayne Davison in Mulwala: Margo, your article Why won�t Howard let us trust anyone? on our lying government is spot on. Despite the attempted intimidation by Howard and his Media Moles I will be attending the protest on Saturday to remind him that we knew he was lying about the Iraqi threat then, and we know he is lying now. Roll on the Election.
Bill Parnell: I’m absolutely sick to death of this guy who grabs onto any straw he can to shore up his faltering leadership. He is becoming a chatterbox talking about whatever trivial issue crosses his path yet fails to address monumental issues such as the disaster that Iraq has become. I’m not a Labor person or a Latham fan (just yet) but I’ve had about as much of Howard as I can take and I believe I’m in a majority right now. I wish he’d just piss off and leave the stage to someone else. He’s becoming an embarrassment to the country and the world.
Jack Robertson: Alexander Downer’s performance on Lateline on Tuesday night plumbed new depths of embarrassing exposure, and further revealed the Foreign Minister’s staggering disdain and contempt for the Australian people. Downer would do well to consider the most important single soundbite in the ‘War on Terror’ to be made by a wartime leader so far. It comes from new Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero: “Mr Blair and Mr Bush must do some reflection and self-criticism. You can’t organise a war with lies.” Sooner or later John Howard will wake up to the fact that almost none of his citizens believe a word anyone in his government says now. And that is disastrous for us all. Stop playing games with us, John and Alexander and Phillip and Co. Start treating us with a tiny bit of intellectual respect. We’re not stupid, and there’s simply no-one left to spin to anymore.
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Mike Lyvers
You write: “Does the government think we�re stupid? The former Spanish government thought its people were when it blamed ETA for the bombings without evidence, and look what happened to it!”
Margo, I guess the UN also thinks you’re stupid, as they drew the exact same initial conclusion that ETA was responsible. Do you now suggest replacing the UN?
Another question. Do you think the people of Iraq would benefit if all “Coalition of the Willing” forces immediately withdrew and left them to their fate? I was against the invasion of Iraq but NO WAY do I think those forces should depart at this time of civil unrest and internal conflict. Much less in response to the terrorist attack in Spain, which probably had more to do with Ferdinand and Isabella than Iraq in any event.
I see you are STILL obsessing over the Sunken Children business. (I call it Sunken Children because their parents purposely sank the vessel their children were in, effectively tossing them into the water.) Old news, Margo, get over it.
Or can you? It seems to me that you’ve succumbed to an ends-justifies-the-means approach recently. That is, say ANYTHING to get rid of Howard. Why? Where does all this desperation come from? And do you really think Mark Latham is any different? Perhaps your talents should be directed elsewhere than the get-rid-of-Howard-at-all-costs theme.
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Peter Anderson
I don’t know why I was shocked when I saw the way Howard and his playground bully boys behaved after Mick Keelty’s simple statement of fact on the ‘Sunday’ programme. As a retired senior executive service officer in the Commonwealth Public Service you’d think one would get used to this type of political ineptitude. Still, each time it happens it seems that the institution of the public service is struck yet another blow in the process both sides of politics have been waging against it since the first Hawke/Keating government.
What was particularly disdainful was the behaviour of Dennis Richardson (head of ASIO). Rather than support his colleague (or just say nothing) Dennis weighed in on the side of his political masters. Since the Petrov affair ASIO has been treated as a joke by the rest of the intelligence community. It�s always been (and probably still is) an organisation staffed mainly by misfits who were not bright enough or couldn’t pass the physical to be accepted into one of the state police forces. Along comes 9-11 and suddenly its star rose.
Dennis is not going to let his organisation’s new-found glory disappear; so in he wades to support ‘school yard bully’ Ruddock – what an appalling display.
Whatever happened to ‘frank and fearless’ advice from the public service? I know that ministerial responsibility has been dead for a very long time. Sadly, the Keelty fiasco is just another step on the rung to the complete politicisation of the public service, a process that will leave Australia the much poorer.
Sorry if I ranted a bit; but this is a topic I still find appalling, even after nearly three years of retirement.
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Mitchell Beston in Woy Woy, NSW
Margo, what a load of crap you wrote in �Why won’t Howard let us trust anyone?� So your pin-up boy has changed his mind and clarified his statements. This was done, not due to pressure from the Government but because Mick Keelty saw that his comments were being twisted by the gutless Saddam-supporters. The world is a better place for Saddam being removed from power. How can anyone argue the opposite?
Why was New York and Bali attacked? Was it due to the war on Iraq? Wake up! We are all targets. The only way to avoid terrorism, is to join Islam and renounce Western values and lifestyle.
Move on Margo, you are nitpicking. Oh and by the way, you need to get out more. The majority were not against the war in Iraq, it was a noisy minority. You should read other newspapers. This one is full of journalists aligned to the left politically, which is why I have trouble getting my letters printed. Anyway, have an enjoyable St Patrick’s Day. (Freedom’s great isn’t it).
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Michael Hannon
Thanks for continuing to highlight the treachery of the Howard government in this latest affair with Mick Keelty. Why won’t Howard let us trust anyone?). I hope Australia kicks that little terrier out of power the first opportunity it gets.
What upsets me is the lack of political consequences for the government over Iraq. What has happened to democracy in Australia that there hasn’t been more uproar about it? We’ve seen the consequences for Blair and the increasingly bad feeling towards Bush and his cronies – but Howard seems to sail through everything unscathed, while at the same time humiliating public officials – and everyone else who dares to contradict him – with impunity.
One thing that struck me about the Madrid bombings was that if they had happened in America 3 days before an election, there is no way the information would have gotten out that it was caused by Al Qaeda. That news would be buried until well after the election. So maybe it gives some credit to the former Spanish government that they allowed the news to come out at all. (How cynical have we become?). What would happen in Australia?
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Kylie Ritter
I was so relieved to read ‘Why Won’t Howard Let Us Trust Anyone’. I am normally a fun-loving, fairly passive, un-political 26 year old female, but I am currently appalled at what is going on in the world and Australian politics. I can’t help but be moved to enragement (and the use of profanity) when I read things like like:
“The Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, has backed away from controversial comments linking the Madrid terrorist bombings to Spain’s involvement in the invasion of Iraq, which contradicted the position of the Federal Government.”
Isn�t it painfully clear that the reason why trains are being detonated in Spain is directly related to the Spanish to Spanish support of the US in Iraq?
Or am I missing something? Why the f*ck are politicians being so dishonest and deceitful about this issue? Masses of innocent people are being killed for god�s sake. Not to mention the affect on the families of the victims.
What makes Mick Keelty’s comment so controversial? It’s the f*ckin truth. I just don’t understand. Don’t we have the democratic right to contradict the Federal Government? The Howard government is acting like some kind of dictatorship or communist regime, controlling the media and suppressing our right to freedom of expression.
And when I try to discuss this with people, they just go quiet and think I am a maniac for even caring about it – how can people not care about this? Our minds are being manipulated and our fundamental right to the truth and our freedom is being screwed by people in positions of power who don’t have the best interest of humanity in mind, but rather their own personal gain – all in the name of power and wealth for the selected few. Can’t everyone see how hugely destructive, shallow and inhumane this is?
I’ve never been a ‘letter to the editor’ type person, but today feel compelled to express myself to someone who shares a similar sentiment, and ask for advice on what I can personally do about this? It’s not enough just to show concern or be enraged about these issues.
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HR (who says he or she wants to remain anonymous �for now�)
I just read Howard at end of credibility line on Iraq and am dumbfounded by your inability to understand the issues at hand. Your inability to consider all the facts to strengthen your argument is criminal for any journalist, but for a journalist who apparently is the protector of society it’s deplorable. Your line of thinking is so off the mark that it begs the question whether you are so biased you cannot see the forest for the trees.
Firstly open your eyes and understand that the world is at war. A war like no other and one where the combatants are relying on people like you to win it. You talk about Spain as a perfect example of why supporting the war with Iraq was wrong but you fail to realise that this was exactly the response the terrorists were looking for. It underscores their belief in the weakness of the west and they are exploiting these weaknesses for their gains. It insults the intelligence of clear thinking peoples and plays to the hearts and minds of the weak.
One cannot base foreign policy on whether it�s detrimental to one’s country or not – one has to base it on what is right. If we where to do the former then the terrorist would have already won. If we were to do the former terrorist would truly be able to terrorise.
Your argument basically says that it is right for terrorists to strike Spain for it’s involvement in the Iraq war, that somehow Spain brought this upon itself. (MARGO: I made no such argument.) When will people like you understand that nothing justifies the deliberate targeting and killing of innocent civilians (which is very different to accidental killing of civilians which people like you seem to like to use for the justification of NOT waging war).
When will you people understand that at the very heart of the argument is the fact that terrorism must never be rewarded in any way shape or form? To do so is to give it legitimacy and that is exactly what people like you are doing.
If any legitimacy is placed on terrorism it wins and it breeds more terrorism. If at any stage we bow to it, it will breed.
Spain must be commended for its courage in standing up to terrorist and sending the correct message to these killers. They supported the US because they have experienced terrorism for many years and have grown to understand it and know that there is only one way to defeat it and that is by attacking it, not rewarding it. No government should ever negotiate with terrorists for terrorism in itself forfeits any rights to negotiation.
The current Spanish Government, if it goes ahead with its threat to withdraw troops, would be making a grave error, but if you read between the lines the current leader has not said he would withdraw troops outright. He said he would only do it if the UN did not take over. Don’t be surprised if he finds other ways of not removing troops.
It is only when these things are properly understood by all that we will defeat terrorism. It took Spain many years to understand this concept and it will take the rest of the world the same sort of time. But there will come a time when it will be understood, but unfortunately many more attacks will need to take place before the penny drops for all. Europe is now beginning to realise this.
An attack on France or Germany will help galvanise the concept. France especially will receive a wake up call. It did not support a war with Iraq but it is still a target because of its western system of values. Especially it’s ultra secular society. So here we have a country not meddling in the affairs of others and still it is a target, so where is you argument now. Terrorist are insulting your intelligence and you seem to be going for the ride.
You talk about the reduction of civil liberties through the introduction of draconian laws by the government and at the same time advocate tighter security at entry points and any other areas where terrorist may strike. Do you not see the inconsistency of you own argument? On the one hand you want civil liberties and on the other you want us to have to go through police state controls at airports. Isn’t this a reduction in civil liberties?
Civil liberty is not only the ability to live life without the fear of an all powerful police force or government but also the ability to live life without the constant threat of indiscriminate violence and it’s systems to control it. If you have ever been to Israel you would know that that is no way live. You need to understand that to defeat terrorism you need to defeat terrorism not minimise its risk for you cannot guard against suicide attacks. No security can guard against these sorts of attacks and it’s understandable that the government doesn’t want to introduce overly heavy airport security.
You are the sort of person that asks for these things but any day now I can see you writing an article on how some so and so was mishandled at an American airport while at the same time advocating tighter airport security. You�re a hypocrite clear and simple. One final thing. You ask the question whether we trust the Government and by “we” I assume you mean all Australians. You are not the voice of all Australians so don’t speak for all Australians.
I for one do trust the government. I trust the government because they are presenting an argument that makes much more sense than yours. I trust the government for they haven’t misled me in the way people like you are continually trying to convince me that they have. In doing so you are the true misleaders.
WMDs were not found but this was not the only reason. There are many more reasons, some plainly obvious like the tyrannical rule of a ruthless leader and some are slightly more subtle. You continually ignore this point because it muddies your argument.
The WMD reason is one we had to use to get the UN to do something about it because the UN is too weak to intervene in situations where a leader�s tyranny is the reason for intervening. Look at Africa, what has the UN ever done? Tony Blair’s comments of last week (which would have caused horror in minds like yours) about doing something about these sorts of regimes is one of the most refreshing and enlightened things to come out of a leader for many years. You want civil liberties, then why not free the peoples that have none?
It is through people like you that terrorists have a chance of winning and destroying the very values that you vehemently uphold. They know every one of your strings and are more than adept at pulling them any which way they wish. To see an intelligent person be played in this way is so sad but to see someone like yourself wearing your insulted intelligence on your sleeve is the saddest thing of all.