Mood:
incredulousTopic: peace
Picture: Career soldier and Olympics security expert Adrian D’Hage spoke on ABC Conversation Hour recently
Yesterday's Conversation Hour guest with Richard Fidler was very profound. We believe the interview is a stark contrast with Premier Morris Iemma's grandstanding over APEC protesters on prime time tv news and here in the Big Press:
Don't recruit students: Iemma Morris Iemma warns "feral" APEC protesters against recruiting school students. Your say: APEC, protests and schoolkids | Full APEC coverage
And there is this provocative front pager from the dodgy editorialists at the News Ltd Telegraph, perhaps covering their tracks for their disgrace now over a deceptive 'Rudd Strip Club' story, certainly underlining how dumb the choice of Sydney as the APEC venue really is:
Premier Iemma is under the spotlight over all this likely disruption too over whether he supports the Iraq war folly or the protesters against? What does avowed Christian 'do unto others' Morris Iemma stand for at all? Is he a joke on democracy itself?
In February 2003 an entirely peaceful rally of some 250-500K Sydney siders protested the impending Iraq war including this writer, and not just in Australia:
PM Howard called this profound opposition "a mob" and arrogantly went ahead anyway. The mob were invariably right, and Bush and Howard WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Not least the extremism of the USA military industrial complex and world famous arrogance and the cultural bigotry of that country's military.
The reason we have separated smaller capital cities in so many countries including Canberra is so that large per se rallies and protests, that are small in proportion to total population, cannot mass in a major city and hijack democracy in the seat of govt. So has Howard deliberately sought to undo that sound democratic norm for his own cynical divisive electoral purposes after 2003 by moving the visiting pollies en masse to Sydney? To provocatively leverage 'the mob' who oppose him to his own Karl Rove divisive purposes?
He is certainly cynical enough to have thought it.
A contrasting approach by Australian career soldier D'Hage could not be greater: A decorated Vietnam veteran, successful security chief for the Sydney Olympics, this bloke D'Hage in the link below condemns Sydney as choice of APEC venue, and notes the credible expert estimates of disastrous loss of life in Iraq due to the appalling US President George Bush and his cronies, including John Howard PM of Australia.
These are not the words of your typical bleeding heart anti war or Bush critic, let alone hard left Resistance organisation:
Security expert and author Adrian D'Hage [21/08/2007]
Adrian D'Hage is a man of many parts. First, there's the military man: Adrian was a platoon commander in Vietnam where he was awarded the Military Cross. He became a Brigadier, but doesn't believe he was every a very conventional member of the military. [ more ]
Most of the public in their heart, including we say, Premier Morris Iemma, Police Minister Campbell, Deputy Premier Watkins and Education Minister Della Bosca know an APEC junket in Sydney is a Howard wank hence this independent press cutting visual satire earlier this month:
More useful background here (via the topics list 'oz election 07' at right, then scroll to the date entry)
Mood:
rushedTopic: election Oz 2007
Postscript #1 23rd August 2007
Seems the ALP are getting quite busy on APEC now at higher federal levels of their machine. Rudd is meeting pro war President Bush where Rudd's fence sitting on the Iraq issue in 2003 will hold him in good stead compared with the categorical opposition of former leaders Crean and Latham.
And Keating is in the rival broadsheet promoting a new script for APEC itself in his big picture way regarding assisting China into a modern democratic form which does seem to carry some oomph too. All big asks given these flyers around the place:
