Now,now I did not say war,I said intervention.And the result was probably not good either but at least the mortality is spread more reasonably across age groups.Of course ask the Kurds and they probably happy that they have a degree of autonomy and are no longer subject to Saddam's chemical weapons.
Again you are being very noble but lies go with war.Would anyone tell their enemies exactly what they are going to do?As Winston Churchill said-"In wartime truth is so precious that she should always be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies."
If the UN really was about world peace then something should have been done about Robert Mugabe over 20 years ago.If it was right to boycott South Africa over Arpartheid it surely should be right to boycott a genocidal maniac.Within months of gaining Independence Mugabe set up the 5th Brigade-5000 elite troops responsible to Mugabe not the Armed forces.For 5 years they roamed Matabeleland randomly executing civilians.they were from the Ndabele tribe.At least 20000 died,many more disappeared.The brigade was trained by the North koreans.
Then there is your consistent theme of Howard sucking up to George W.Well Julia sucks up to Barack who in the 12 months to September 2011 authorised the extra-judicial disposal of at least 482 supposed terrorists.However it is estimated that less than 10% of the targets since Obama took over are al-Qaeda compared to 25% under George W.The number killed by drones has increased from~550 in the last 4 years of George W's Presidency to ~ 2750 in the first 4 years of BO.So to be consistent you should also critiscise Julia.Indeed for all that happened to Mr Hicks he is still alive and wasn't subject to extra-judicial disposal without trial.
Most of the figures I use come from the Huffington Post-not known as a hotbed of right wing shock jocks.
Anyway back to Australia.Most here I am sure are totally unaware of the true Tony Abbott having never met him.Those that think they are morally superior to those they think are TA fanbois will have one thing in common with those fanbois-they really cant know if TA will turn out to be a good or bad PM.Thinking you know a person from TV grabs is really unrealistic.
Well, I'm not going to support your views again.
I still think it's good that kids are not being killed, or kurds or non-bathists. I'll still to your pragmatic view of the good achieved despite the bad bits along the way.
Howard didn't need to lie about his reason for going to war. Not in the same way Churchill had to lie about concentration camps or whatever. Besides I only say lie in the context of he thought it was true but it turned out to be wrong. Much the same way that Julie had to adjust to minority government etc.
My comment about the UN was to highlight the one point of difference between political parties. Mugabe is also a bugbear for me, even wrote a letter to the paper to say that Howard was now compelled to invade Zimbabwe to initiate regime change. They published it and all.
All those numbers you've published illustrate my point, pandora's box has been opened and now there is some low level functionary in the pentagon initiating all those actions being taken in Obama's name. It's called bureaucracy.
Sucking up by Julia? I'm yet to hear your describe as the deputy sheriff. I certainly haven't seen anything approaching the sick making stuff under Howard - a modern day all the way with LBJ. Has Julia done anything similar, I don't know as I've stopped listening.
Abbott is scary precisely because no one knows what he offers. We are going to vote in an unknown, based on your view that we don't know him. Surely you agree that we should know something about what he offers before voting for him?
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