Don K Dyck
Devilish Don Downunder
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2002
- Posts
- 8,255
Good evening. Here is the news.
A noted political analyst and commentator on the U$-Iraq Imperialist War of Conquest for Control of Undeveloped Middle East Oil Reserves, has praised the leading role being played by Oz Prim Monster Little Johnnie "Flakjacket" Howard in keeping the "Coalition of the Cowardly" on the ball during the invasion of a sovereign nation in contravention of the UN Charter.
From The Australian
Phillip Adams: Not tonight, Janette, this is war!
20mar03
AS a proud Australian, I reject any suggestion that our Prime Minister is but a pimple on George W. Bush's presidential posterior. Nothing, with the possible exception of "kids overboard", is further from the truth.
We have, as our nation's leader, one of those rare figures in human history whose face demands to be rendered eternal in Rushmore rock or, at very least, in Carrara marble or pigeon-spackled bronze. For John Howard is another Julius Caesar, another Napoleon, another Harold Holt.
Far from being a mere follower, our PM has led the coalition of the willing, that triumvirate of English-speaking leaders, in this long awaited war against a Middle East despot.
It is painfully obvious that Bush and Blair have taken their riding instructions from Howard. You must have noticed the eerie way their speeches are word for word for his. And they defer to our PM because, after all, this is not his first war against recalcitrant Muslims. Who could forget Howard's courageous battles against spies, terrorists and baby drowners, those queue-jumpers from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan? We will fight them on the beaches! We will keep them on the Tampa!
As Howard told the National Press Club last week: "Even if Australia has to fight Iraq alone – even if George and Tony have to pull out as a result of domestic political pressures – we will bring Baghdad to its knees with our Collins class submarines, our Jindivik missiles and, if necessary, our fleet of VIP aircraft. Confronted by our awesome military might, Saddam Hussein will simply surrender, along with his Praetorian Guard and his entire army.
"While the bulk of Hussein's vanquished troops will be incarcerated on Christmas Island, we've cleared Woomera Camp to serve as our Guatanamo Bay for Hussein and his top brass. He will be kept manacled and blindfolded while ruthlessly interrogated by our official inquisitor, Alan Jones.
"Make no mistake, we will succeed in this war! Australia's invasion of Iraq will be our greatest military victory since Gallipoli! It will add new lustre to the Anzac legend although, of course, the NZ will have to be whited out because that wretched country is governed by Labour scaredy-cats.
"I would prefer to have the Americans and the British by our sides but they are no means necessary. Nor do we give a rat's arse whether the United Nations endorses our invasion. My only regret? The time wasted attempting to bully, bamboozle, browbeat or bribe those UN bastards into submission. The UN? Yet more evidence that multiculturalism never works.
"It is clear that history – indeed God himself – has chosen me for this great purpose. Yes, there may be anti-Australian demos around the world and I may well become a prime target for international terrorism. I have, however, been in the firing line before, as you'll recall from my heroic battle for the GST. And from the aftermath of Port Arthur where, as on this occasion, I appeared before you wearing my bulletproof vest. To which I have added Sir Donald Bradman's cricket box, and I thank the Bradman Museum for the lend.
"Some countries, most countries, are simply swept along by events, whereas others carve their own swathe. And I, fellow Australians, am a swathe carver. I speak to you with the force of the great tectonic plates that have Australia slowly but surely inching northwards, destined to collide with Indonesia in just a few million years. But with me at the helm, the process is greatly accelerated. Australia will soon run straight over Jakarta, Malaysia and all our other neighbours to take up its rightful position on the map. Out of the Pacific and smack bang in the middle of the Atlantic! And the name of John Winston Julius Bonaparte Howard will thunder through history. Not bad for a Methodist kid from Sydney who expected to spend his life in a minor law office doing conveyancing.
"So watch out Saddam Hussein, John Howard is coming to get you! With or without the support of a willing coalition. With or without the support of the UN! With or without the support of the Australian people! Saddam – you're finished. And while I've got you all here, the same applies to Peter Costello."
Mr Adam's has already provided aussies with a clear analysis of the present over-arching strategy of the "New World Order of Daddy Bush"
Empire's always right
October 12, 2002
A COLUMN I wrote in the aftermath of September 11 had me attacked by the froth-mouthed phalanx of right-wing pundits, the sound of whose fingers hitting the keyboard recalls the thud of approaching jackboots.
Then I was frogmarched to the Press Council and dragged in chains to the Human Rights Commission. The accusations against me? They ranged from un-American activities (to which I proudly plead guilty) to treason.
You see, I'd tried to remind Australia that rushing to America's colours was, as demonstrated in Vietnam, a health hazard. Before we signed up for the war against terror, wherever that might lead us, I thought it important to remember that the US has been the most trigger-happy of nations. With a long history of bellicosity and a culture of violence.
It is now my sad duty to say... I told you so. As expected, Washington is spiralling out of control - and Australia has as much to fear from its powerful friend as it does from its putative enemies.
In evidence, let me introduce you to the wonderfully christened Charles Krauthammer. It's a name worthy of Evelyn Waugh or Dickens. And it fits its owner like a glove. An iron glove containing, yes, an iron fist. For Krauthammer simultaneously evokes notions of a master race and massive blows to the anvil.
A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, he's been writing a column in The Washington Post for the past 17 years and is influential in conservative political circles. I spoke to him in his Washington, DC, office just a few blocks from where his friends rule the roost _ and the world.
To describe Krauthammer as an apologist for the present regime does him a disservice. For Krauthammer never apologises. He is the most hawkish of the Bush chickenhawks.
We chatted a few days before Bush unveiled his new policy of global dominance: "The US is now the only superpower. The most powerful nation in history. No country, no empire, has been in the same league. Not since the Romans."
The British Empire? No comparison. Through its era, there were always other nations who challenged its dominance. Ditto for Germany in its prime, for France in all its glories, for Spain in its conquistadorial ambitions. Each nation was countered by the others. Whereas the US is not just powerful but all-powerful.
In words as percussive as shell bursts, Krauthammer said the US is dominant not only militarily, economically and politically, but culturally. As well as the hard power of the Pentagon, there is the soft power of its film and television industries, which had softened audiences around the world.
Multilateralism? A nonsense. "The whole idea that the Afghan war is being fought by a coalition is comical ... the Afghan war is unilateralism dressed up as multilateralism ... a unilateralist doesn't object to people joining our fight, he only objects when the multilateralists, like Clinton in Kosovo, give 18 countries veto power over bombing targets."
So if countries allow themselves to be dragged along by the US coat-tails, if they want to sign up for (or surrender to) America's military campaigns, they're welcome. Provided they obey orders and don't interfere.
(At this point, Krauthammer informed me that his wife is Australian, as though this would prove a comforting notion. My response was to wonder whether Mrs Krauthammer had much of a say in family matters. If it echoes the relationship between our respective nations, we should call in the marriage guidance counsellors.)
The UN? Irrelevant. The Europeans? Vacillators, nervous nellies, spent forces. "The Europeans sit and pout. What else can they do? We do not force on them military obsolescence. They chose social spending over defence spending."
Thus, in the future the US will make its own decisions without worrying what Europe, or anyone, thinks. The US feels entitled to ignore international rules and regulations, to conduct its affairs absolutely and utterly in its own interests.
I suggested that if the US made a habit of kicking doors down and rushing inside without wiping its feet, it would create new and unprecedented alliances against it. That a policy devoid of subtlety and careful calibration, with consensus replaced by capitulation, would antagonise even its most obliging allies. Krauthammer was unconcerned, sure that economic and strategic self-interest would force lesser nations to line up and salute the flag. Theirs.
If Krauthammer seemed excessive, preposterous, self-parodic, the presidential statement that followed showed a power elite in deadly earnest. The nation that refuses to dismantle its 7000 nuclear warheads, that, instead, is fast-tracking new tactical nuclear weapons for use in the field, a country that now warns the world that it will attack nations and organisations not in retaliation but pre-emptively, has no precedent in human history.
Here is arrogance, triumphalism, hubris on an awesome scale. Bush announced in his intransigent, kick-ass, like-it-or-lump-it approach to ... to what? Diplomacy? You can hardly call it that. This judge-jury-executioner approach to power is not to be seen as just a short-term response to September 11. It is to be permanent. Bush stated that no nation will be allowed to challenge US supremacy. Its unipolar position will be sacrosanct.
As with Krauthammer's machinegun delivery, Bush's speech was as memorable for its bad manners as for its message. As it echoes around the world, the response to this combination of theatricality and threat will be predictable. On the one hand, governments - such as ours - will tug the forelock and bend the knee. At the same time, the US will pay a heavy price for a hubris rendered redundant by its vulnerability. The events of September 11 were carried out by people armed not with weapons of mass destruction, but with blades you can buy at a newsagent.
Conspiracy theorists argue that September 11 was a self-inflicted wound - the US version of the burning of the Reichstag. Others accept that al-Qai'da did it, but it was allowed to do it - an echo of the old argument that president Franklin Roosevelt permitted the attack on Pearl Harbor. The truth is simpler. Bush's brand of US triumphalism has been ticking away like a time bomb for years and the administration was opportunistic in its response to the terrorist attacks. Suddenly everything and anything could be justified.
Come back, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. All is forgiven. The future of the world is now in the hands of some very dumb people. Republican fundamentalists.
Meanwhile the good people of New South Wales had their State election coverage totally replaced by U$ imperialist propaganda about the U$-Iraq Oil Wars. The talking heads were frequently interrupted by grabs of military action, just as predicted in Ray Bradbury's [i}Fahrenheit 451[/I] sci-fi book from the Last Great AmeriKKKan Oppression of the 60-70s Vietnam War period (Wasn't THAT a great victory!!)
For the record, the State Liberal Party, to which Prim Monster Howard belongs, got well and truly whacked onto the Opposition benches for another four year term. Many commentators speculate that the people spoke out against the U$-Iraq Imperialist War in the only language understood by politicians.
That ends the news. Good evening.
A noted political analyst and commentator on the U$-Iraq Imperialist War of Conquest for Control of Undeveloped Middle East Oil Reserves, has praised the leading role being played by Oz Prim Monster Little Johnnie "Flakjacket" Howard in keeping the "Coalition of the Cowardly" on the ball during the invasion of a sovereign nation in contravention of the UN Charter.
From The Australian
Phillip Adams: Not tonight, Janette, this is war!
20mar03
AS a proud Australian, I reject any suggestion that our Prime Minister is but a pimple on George W. Bush's presidential posterior. Nothing, with the possible exception of "kids overboard", is further from the truth.
We have, as our nation's leader, one of those rare figures in human history whose face demands to be rendered eternal in Rushmore rock or, at very least, in Carrara marble or pigeon-spackled bronze. For John Howard is another Julius Caesar, another Napoleon, another Harold Holt.
Far from being a mere follower, our PM has led the coalition of the willing, that triumvirate of English-speaking leaders, in this long awaited war against a Middle East despot.
It is painfully obvious that Bush and Blair have taken their riding instructions from Howard. You must have noticed the eerie way their speeches are word for word for his. And they defer to our PM because, after all, this is not his first war against recalcitrant Muslims. Who could forget Howard's courageous battles against spies, terrorists and baby drowners, those queue-jumpers from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan? We will fight them on the beaches! We will keep them on the Tampa!
As Howard told the National Press Club last week: "Even if Australia has to fight Iraq alone – even if George and Tony have to pull out as a result of domestic political pressures – we will bring Baghdad to its knees with our Collins class submarines, our Jindivik missiles and, if necessary, our fleet of VIP aircraft. Confronted by our awesome military might, Saddam Hussein will simply surrender, along with his Praetorian Guard and his entire army.
"While the bulk of Hussein's vanquished troops will be incarcerated on Christmas Island, we've cleared Woomera Camp to serve as our Guatanamo Bay for Hussein and his top brass. He will be kept manacled and blindfolded while ruthlessly interrogated by our official inquisitor, Alan Jones.
"Make no mistake, we will succeed in this war! Australia's invasion of Iraq will be our greatest military victory since Gallipoli! It will add new lustre to the Anzac legend although, of course, the NZ will have to be whited out because that wretched country is governed by Labour scaredy-cats.
"I would prefer to have the Americans and the British by our sides but they are no means necessary. Nor do we give a rat's arse whether the United Nations endorses our invasion. My only regret? The time wasted attempting to bully, bamboozle, browbeat or bribe those UN bastards into submission. The UN? Yet more evidence that multiculturalism never works.
"It is clear that history – indeed God himself – has chosen me for this great purpose. Yes, there may be anti-Australian demos around the world and I may well become a prime target for international terrorism. I have, however, been in the firing line before, as you'll recall from my heroic battle for the GST. And from the aftermath of Port Arthur where, as on this occasion, I appeared before you wearing my bulletproof vest. To which I have added Sir Donald Bradman's cricket box, and I thank the Bradman Museum for the lend.
"Some countries, most countries, are simply swept along by events, whereas others carve their own swathe. And I, fellow Australians, am a swathe carver. I speak to you with the force of the great tectonic plates that have Australia slowly but surely inching northwards, destined to collide with Indonesia in just a few million years. But with me at the helm, the process is greatly accelerated. Australia will soon run straight over Jakarta, Malaysia and all our other neighbours to take up its rightful position on the map. Out of the Pacific and smack bang in the middle of the Atlantic! And the name of John Winston Julius Bonaparte Howard will thunder through history. Not bad for a Methodist kid from Sydney who expected to spend his life in a minor law office doing conveyancing.
"So watch out Saddam Hussein, John Howard is coming to get you! With or without the support of a willing coalition. With or without the support of the UN! With or without the support of the Australian people! Saddam – you're finished. And while I've got you all here, the same applies to Peter Costello."
Mr Adam's has already provided aussies with a clear analysis of the present over-arching strategy of the "New World Order of Daddy Bush"
Empire's always right
October 12, 2002
A COLUMN I wrote in the aftermath of September 11 had me attacked by the froth-mouthed phalanx of right-wing pundits, the sound of whose fingers hitting the keyboard recalls the thud of approaching jackboots.
Then I was frogmarched to the Press Council and dragged in chains to the Human Rights Commission. The accusations against me? They ranged from un-American activities (to which I proudly plead guilty) to treason.
You see, I'd tried to remind Australia that rushing to America's colours was, as demonstrated in Vietnam, a health hazard. Before we signed up for the war against terror, wherever that might lead us, I thought it important to remember that the US has been the most trigger-happy of nations. With a long history of bellicosity and a culture of violence.
It is now my sad duty to say... I told you so. As expected, Washington is spiralling out of control - and Australia has as much to fear from its powerful friend as it does from its putative enemies.
In evidence, let me introduce you to the wonderfully christened Charles Krauthammer. It's a name worthy of Evelyn Waugh or Dickens. And it fits its owner like a glove. An iron glove containing, yes, an iron fist. For Krauthammer simultaneously evokes notions of a master race and massive blows to the anvil.
A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, he's been writing a column in The Washington Post for the past 17 years and is influential in conservative political circles. I spoke to him in his Washington, DC, office just a few blocks from where his friends rule the roost _ and the world.
To describe Krauthammer as an apologist for the present regime does him a disservice. For Krauthammer never apologises. He is the most hawkish of the Bush chickenhawks.
We chatted a few days before Bush unveiled his new policy of global dominance: "The US is now the only superpower. The most powerful nation in history. No country, no empire, has been in the same league. Not since the Romans."
The British Empire? No comparison. Through its era, there were always other nations who challenged its dominance. Ditto for Germany in its prime, for France in all its glories, for Spain in its conquistadorial ambitions. Each nation was countered by the others. Whereas the US is not just powerful but all-powerful.
In words as percussive as shell bursts, Krauthammer said the US is dominant not only militarily, economically and politically, but culturally. As well as the hard power of the Pentagon, there is the soft power of its film and television industries, which had softened audiences around the world.
Multilateralism? A nonsense. "The whole idea that the Afghan war is being fought by a coalition is comical ... the Afghan war is unilateralism dressed up as multilateralism ... a unilateralist doesn't object to people joining our fight, he only objects when the multilateralists, like Clinton in Kosovo, give 18 countries veto power over bombing targets."
So if countries allow themselves to be dragged along by the US coat-tails, if they want to sign up for (or surrender to) America's military campaigns, they're welcome. Provided they obey orders and don't interfere.
(At this point, Krauthammer informed me that his wife is Australian, as though this would prove a comforting notion. My response was to wonder whether Mrs Krauthammer had much of a say in family matters. If it echoes the relationship between our respective nations, we should call in the marriage guidance counsellors.)
The UN? Irrelevant. The Europeans? Vacillators, nervous nellies, spent forces. "The Europeans sit and pout. What else can they do? We do not force on them military obsolescence. They chose social spending over defence spending."
Thus, in the future the US will make its own decisions without worrying what Europe, or anyone, thinks. The US feels entitled to ignore international rules and regulations, to conduct its affairs absolutely and utterly in its own interests.
I suggested that if the US made a habit of kicking doors down and rushing inside without wiping its feet, it would create new and unprecedented alliances against it. That a policy devoid of subtlety and careful calibration, with consensus replaced by capitulation, would antagonise even its most obliging allies. Krauthammer was unconcerned, sure that economic and strategic self-interest would force lesser nations to line up and salute the flag. Theirs.
If Krauthammer seemed excessive, preposterous, self-parodic, the presidential statement that followed showed a power elite in deadly earnest. The nation that refuses to dismantle its 7000 nuclear warheads, that, instead, is fast-tracking new tactical nuclear weapons for use in the field, a country that now warns the world that it will attack nations and organisations not in retaliation but pre-emptively, has no precedent in human history.
Here is arrogance, triumphalism, hubris on an awesome scale. Bush announced in his intransigent, kick-ass, like-it-or-lump-it approach to ... to what? Diplomacy? You can hardly call it that. This judge-jury-executioner approach to power is not to be seen as just a short-term response to September 11. It is to be permanent. Bush stated that no nation will be allowed to challenge US supremacy. Its unipolar position will be sacrosanct.
As with Krauthammer's machinegun delivery, Bush's speech was as memorable for its bad manners as for its message. As it echoes around the world, the response to this combination of theatricality and threat will be predictable. On the one hand, governments - such as ours - will tug the forelock and bend the knee. At the same time, the US will pay a heavy price for a hubris rendered redundant by its vulnerability. The events of September 11 were carried out by people armed not with weapons of mass destruction, but with blades you can buy at a newsagent.
Conspiracy theorists argue that September 11 was a self-inflicted wound - the US version of the burning of the Reichstag. Others accept that al-Qai'da did it, but it was allowed to do it - an echo of the old argument that president Franklin Roosevelt permitted the attack on Pearl Harbor. The truth is simpler. Bush's brand of US triumphalism has been ticking away like a time bomb for years and the administration was opportunistic in its response to the terrorist attacks. Suddenly everything and anything could be justified.
Come back, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. All is forgiven. The future of the world is now in the hands of some very dumb people. Republican fundamentalists.
Meanwhile the good people of New South Wales had their State election coverage totally replaced by U$ imperialist propaganda about the U$-Iraq Oil Wars. The talking heads were frequently interrupted by grabs of military action, just as predicted in Ray Bradbury's [i}Fahrenheit 451[/I] sci-fi book from the Last Great AmeriKKKan Oppression of the 60-70s Vietnam War period (Wasn't THAT a great victory!!)
For the record, the State Liberal Party, to which Prim Monster Howard belongs, got well and truly whacked onto the Opposition benches for another four year term. Many commentators speculate that the people spoke out against the U$-Iraq Imperialist War in the only language understood by politicians.
That ends the news. Good evening.
