Monday, July 31, 2006
Kids die – the West prevaricates
The whole atrocious fiasco in Lebanon was best summed up by a question (more like a statement) by a female Arabic reporter to Tony Blair in a press conference last week.

It went along the lines of: “I find it strange to hear you describe this war as a terrible tragedy and that there needs to be an end to the fighting, yet you are content to see the killing continue, for now.”

Mirroring this, a newspaper headline read “US calls for peace, but not yet”.

The West’s contradictory response to this crisis (the Australian government in particular) has been almost beyond belief. I am not sure how our political leaders actually defend their position and keep a straight face. It’s like defending a flat Earth; brazenly stating something so far removed from reason or reality that all around simply nod in disbelief.

Ironically, there is a Yiddish word for it: chutzpah . Israeli foreign affairs spokespersons have it in heaps.

Whilst innocent people die in heaps in Lebanon and Israel (though many more in the former, despite ‘surgical’ strikes and ‘precision’ bombs - yeah all the accuracy of a fair ground air rifle), I going to get selfish for a while and worry about Australia.

Yet again our main opposition party has failed us by not openly backing a reasoned and moral alternative position on the current conflict. Instead, Beazely has said almost nothing, remaining just a Howard apologist.

He once said he never wanted to be a ‘carping opposition’, but isn’t that what oppositions do? Oppose?

Ex-Labor leader Mark Latham (who knows what its like to be shafted by Beazely) once described him as a “sit on the fence stand for nothing” (expletives deleted). Sadly, just at the time we need a moderate view on a whole raft of public issues – on foreign policy, energy, the environment, workplace relations – we are left with an Opposition leader – who despite his public rumbustiousness – is nothing but an empty vessel.

Of course, most sensible people would desert the ALP and head for Greener pastures; Bob Brown has yet again shown that he is only one to offer an alternative vision for Australia. But I’m not sure middle Australia is ready for such a radical move and will instead herd right – right in to Howard’s malevolent storm.

The Australian Labour Party - now utterly devoid of principle, morals and even the ability to challenge government – is now dead in the water.

Oh well, at least all this bombing, violence and death if innocents will solve the problems in the Middle East and it can look forward to a prosperous and peaceful future, devoid of hatred and malice.

And even better, we even get to pay for the rebuilding of Lebanon.

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