Latest Posts

Peace in our time

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With voters starting to get the measure of Latham and finding him short in a lot of areas the call to bring the troops home now! is starting up again. It’s a good ploy from the ALP’s point of view. The left will love it because it might make the Coalition look weak and hopefully, make Bush look bad, but it wouldn?t serve any other purpose. Chris Shiels thinks it’s the answer;
…..there is only one possible response, and that is for Latham to now get right on the front foot, assume his best John Curtin persona, and demand the troops be brought home from Iraq so that our best defence assets are all focused and available for redeployment on the real front line in the ‘war on terror’, our own region.
Go read the post – there are some interesting comments from readers. A couple of points Our presence in Iraq is miniscule but important politically. We currently have the following ADF assets and personnel in theatre; # HMAS Adelaide with about 240 sailors, #A RAAF C130 det of two aircraft and about 150 airmen, # RAAF AP-3C Orion det of two aircraft and about 160 airmen, #6 RAAF Air traffic controllers, #A security det with about 120 troops and ASLAV vehicle protecting Australian interests, and # about 80 training team type people. That is about 900 troops from a 100,000 troop defence force. It only leaves enough troops in Australia to wipe Indonesia off the face of the earth several times. (No – I’m not suggesting we do that – it’s just an analogy) Not to denigrate these ADF personnel currently in Iraq in any way but I can assure you that the hole they leave in our defence is likewise miniscule. Secondly – who says the front line of terrorism is here? The motivation, money and training for terrorists is sourced much further a field than our back door. It’s in the Middle East. It’s the old Fortress mentality from the eighties. The idea of defending Australia by holding all troops and assets in-country, flies in the face of thousands of years of military experience. It simply doesn’t work. The battle must be taken to the enemy and we must be the ones to choose the battle zone – not them. The Fortress mentality was linked to a ?warning time? of seven years. Sorry, it doesn?t happen that way. Labour couldn?t see it then and won?t see it now. Using the excuse that we had seven years warning before anyone could attack us allowed the ALP to downgrade our Infantry Corps from six to four battalions after Whitlam had already downgraded it from nine to six. They then had the temerity to state, with a straight face, that the reserves would pick up the slack! Not knocking our reservists but that little theory depended on upgrading manpower, equipment and training in the Reserves ? didn?t happen to any great degree. It certainly wasn?t enough for them to pick up the slack left by professional infantrymen. I was in the Operational Deployment Force at Townsville then and the ALP didn?t even understand logistics. We had enough reserve ammo for one good firefight ? we joked about sharpening our machetes for when the ammo run out. Labour and defence?yeah right! The only way to defeat any enemy is to attack their homeland. Cut off the head and the body withers. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan ? take your pick but to sit at home in the trenches and wait for the enemy to come over the horizon is something only an academic would suggest To me, this leaves the bring the troops home now! mantra as just that – a pointless utterance. It appeases the terrorists and will allow them to say – see, we have forced the infidel Australians to withdraw from our land with just three men and a bomb in Indonesia…see how weak they really are. Bringing troops home now is appeasement. The fact that we don’t actually have many there is not the point. Terrorists will see it as a victory. The assume his best John Curtin persona call is weak. It brings up images of a threatened homeland in different times. With Australian Divisions in the Middle East at the time and Japan rolling down South East Asia it was the only call for Curtin to make. It is nothing like that now. We don’t have a major part of our defence force overseas and JI isn’t threatening to invade our homeland with an Army. Given good intelligence, clear orders and free rein, an infantry rifle company could round up JI Tim Dunlop pitches in, agreeing with Chris Shiels and says;
The idea that we would somehow be less safe under a Labor government is unsustainable, and to their credit, at least since the Embassy bombing, no member of government has said this.
You are wrong, Tim. With a Labour government in power, the left wing will more than likely get their wish and the troops will be rushed home. Appeasement…look how weak Australia is…see how the Coalition is falling apart…Spain, Philippines, the US next – giving life support to terrorists. Anyway, it doesn?t matter how many divisions you have sitting in Townsville or Darwin they cannot impact on three suicide bombers in Jakarta. The only way to do that is to take the Middle East apart and deprive the tentacles of the monster any sustenance. Recycling the already proven fallacies of appeasement and Fortress Australia won’t help at all.
Politics

Bush must be winning

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Bush leads in the polls leaving his haters amazed at the stupidity of the voters.
For the first time in a Post-ABC news poll this year, a majority of likely voters now say they plan to vote for Bush. Among those most likely to vote in November, Bush holds a 52 percent to 43 percent lead over Kerry, with independent Ralph Nader receiving 2 percent of the hypothetical vote. Among all registered voters, Bush leads Kerry 50 percent to 44 percent.
What to do? I know, let’s have GlobeScan poll the world. That’s better! GlobalScan managed to find people who would vote against Bush if they had the vote The Australian(no link) has an article headed Challenger’s Global Landslide stating…..In 30 of 35 countries polled by International research group GlobalScan, Kerry was preferred Leader. Not surprising but a futile exercise none-the-less. They dont have the vote. It’s still Bush 50% – Kerry 44% Meanwhile the Democrats are attacking Bush’s military record but may have been caught out in a lie. Via Tim Blair They need to attack Bush’s record as Kerry’s has been trashed. Bush might not have gone to Vietnam but at least he didn’t go to North Vietnam.
US Politics

Australia Targeted

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A sucide bomber has detonated an explosive device outside the Australia Embassy this afternoon. Due to the strength of the security walls it appears no Australians have been killed. Typically, the bastards don’t care who they kill – even their own people are fair game. ozflag.gif The al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah group need to memorize the flag and be careful otherwise the last thing they see will be the flag with camouflage backing on the shirt of an Aussie digger. Good at killing men and women, try a digger – he fights back. Just ask your scruffy mates from from other theatres of terrorism barbarity.
General Musings

Fool’s Gold

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My local member, Wayne Swan, calls the $600.00 Family tax payment Fool’s Gold and goes onto say;
It’s not real – it disappears. What we’ve put in place is the biggest welfare-to-work package in history
Something else that may disappear is the $1.6 Billion of accrued and future non-resident super payments that is a big part of the ALP’s funding formula. Largely backpacker funded, these backpackers are increasingly likely to claim the money back. It is, after all, their money and in my travels I meet few backpackers that aren’t money driven. The Tax Office has even started a campaign to remind them the money is there and theirs for the taking and they have until age 65 to claim it. Now that’s disappearing fool’s gold Simon Crean makes a long awaited appearance and blows it by stating nine out of ten will be better off. Oops – I mean seven out of ten. The nine or seven isn’t that important but Simon’s credibility stocks, not high to begin with, will suffer as a result of his lie. By the time the backpackers claim their money it will be?Oops, I mean two out of ten. Best go back in your hole, Simon Is someone counting Labour’s lies or has the media placed that subject out of bounds. Although I wouldn’t call the ALP’s mistake a lie, under the ‘Bash Howard’ rules it is. Maybe a collective of “40 prominent Accountants” could write to the press denouncing Latham’s Lies! Just joking.
Politics

Vote for thuggery

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Support for jailed hardline unionist. Thinking of voting ALP. This is what you will get. Don’t think for one moment that the Left-wing unions will have no say in Australia -they will. Latham can’t ignore the left-wing for ever – he owes them and they will call in their markers.
FIFTEEN union leaders have issued a declaration that their jailed militant colleague Craig Johnston was “only doing his job” and put behind bars because he was an effective unionist. The group, all senior left-wing figures from mainstream unions, said that no trade unionist should be imprisoned for taking part in an industrial dispute. Johnston, they said, had been hounded, repeatedly dragged through the courts, then jailed. Among the Victorian-based national and state officials to offer wholehearted support to Johnston are Martin Kingham, Dean Mighell, Steve Dargavel, Michele O’Neil, Len Cooper and Bronwyn Halfpenny.
Go read my my previous post to get Craig Johnston’s idea of “only doing his job”.
Politics

Chechyna – just another chance to kill infidels

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It’s true that all Moslems aren’t terrorists but I can?t get it out of my head that at the moment all terrorists are Moslems. Islam, the religion of peace is proving anything but. I trust by now, particularly after the obscenity in Beslan, that apologists for the religion are finally coming around to a more realistic way of thinking. We are at war. There are plenty of left-wing commentators denouncing the Beslan tragedy but some still have a problem uttering the words ‘terrorists’ or ‘Moslem terrorists’. Separatist, guerillas, insurgents, hostage-takers are just some of the euphemisms that rattle through the media. None of these titles fits the image of child killers – they seem to offer some legitimacy that simply isn’t there. Much has been made over the last couple of days about the ineptitude of Putin and/or the Russian military. A lot has been said about the problems in Chechnya but the bottom line has to be that there are people in the world prepared to kill woman and children in such a horrific manner and it is they who must be stopped. As in killed, shot down like dogs. I wonder if Chechnya based reasons for hating Mother Russia really motivate the reported half Arab composition of the terrorist force? I think not. I think the Islamic terrorist organizations are recruiting for any theatre where the possibility of killing Infidels exists. Some clerics have denounced the latest round of terror as less than civilized but they need to do a hell of a lot more. Statements to the press and sermons denouncing terrorism are not enough while they are in the minority. While the Islamic leaders only make ‘we don’t agree’ noises they are subject to some deserved cynicism from the population at large. John Quiggan has a good post on the background of the Chechnya problem but I’m not prepared to accept that killing kids is an answer. I despised the IRA for what they did whilst fully understanding the hard times visited on them by the Poms as I will rile against any force that targets kids. As Mark Steyn points out no one offers up a plan to fix the problem, that is, no-one except Bush. At least he does have a plan and although it requires a democracy in the Middle East as a base to the solution and that is difficult, to say the least, it is a plan. Much is written by those who claim superior knowledge, about the reasons for the current Islamic assaults against our woman and children. Criticism from every angle but no alternative solution put forward for debate. The only answer for these commentators is Bush is wrong. Well if he’s so wrong, and you?re so smart, what is the right way to go about solving the issue. Tell us, but until you do, I suggest we stick to the old infantry maxim on terrorists Kill them. Shot them down like the dogs they are.
War on Terror

Grog Bans

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A difficult problem with no simple answers Grog bans in Aborigine communities are proving difficult to manage. Consider next year when I take my borthers-in-law on a trip to the Cape – are we allowed to take a couple of cartons and a bottle of rum through Bamaga. No! If we do we are subject to fines of up to $75,000 which definitely exceeds the $48.00 I paid for a six pack of rum and cola at Woolgoroo recently. Stories in the 4WD community tell of a drop-off of tourists at Bamaga due to this problem. Small wonder. I would think a blanket ban is not the way to go. If two or three guys in a 4WD have a couple of cartons and a Bundy rum bottle in their vehicle then authorities must be able to adjudge this as ‘for personal consumption’. Conversely, if a vehicle is found to have 50 cartons, a couple case of Bundy rum and a pallet of Monkeys blood then the same authorities should be able to throw the grog runners in goal and confiscate the vehicle, grog and any cash. Simple enough to me but the blanket ban will stop people going to the Cape in droves which will impact heavily on the commerce at Bamaga. The problem is grog running, not a tourist having supplies to allow for a couple of beers at the end of the day. Grog bans are not working for other reasons. When we recently drove down the Arnhem Highway we passed a small Aborigine community, the last heading south, and as we drove on we passed dozens of locals walking back to town. Gathering yams? one suggested; hunting? said another. Nothing so noble. A few kilometers south of the town we came across a sit-down area strewn with literally hundreds of empty stubbies. A rubbish tip of unworkable laws. True, the community was grog-free but the people weren’t. Another point generally unknown down south is that Kava is not counted as grog. An Aborigine leader in Nuhulunbuy told me a local Fijian who had been resident in town for years had started importing Kava as an answer. He now wished he hadn’t. Locals taking to home brew as an answer bypass the tried and true recipe of bottling then leaving to mature for a month or two. They drink it that day and suffer stomach poisoning as a result. Government workers – teachers and public servants are denied a drink after work or at the end of a hard week. I would think we could lock up the grog runners and allow other non indigenous people to drink if they do so within the state law.
Uncategorized

Two Laws

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Some years back (Well OK..a lot of years back) I was a Company Commander in a battalion and had as my CSM a tried and trusted Warrant Officer who shall remain nameless. He was good if not a little hampered by a short fuse. Some time after this appointment my CSM found his wife in flagrante delecto and stabbed her to death. He picked up his kids, took them to his parents and duly reported to the police. He received life. In todays Australian Amanda Banks has an article (no link) about an Indigenous woman who found her husband in flagrante delecto and stabbed him to death. She received a suspended sentence. The difference? Tribal Law is involved. Can some enlightened reader explain the rationale behind this. Nothing warm and fuzzy please – just legal facts.
Uncategorized

Watermelons rotten inside

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GREG SHERIDAN sounds a warning in todays Australian The Greens are a menace.
THIS election will probably see the emergence of the Greens as Australia’s most important third party. This will be a sad and a bad day for our political culture, for the Greens represent the triumph of extremism over moderation, of the paranoid style over commonsense, and the flight from that civic responsibility which characterises a mature polity.
and;
It is hard to believe 1million Australians really support the anti-growth, anti-modern prejudices of the Greens.
There has been many a blog article about the Greens stupid anti-Australian policies over the last couple of days and the vision of Bob Green on TV defending his party’s lapse into another universe has done little to settle minds. It has even been suggested on some sites that this man may have the balance following the election. I can understand the Socialist Alliance type people loving his anti US/Australian/economy/defence/commerce/jobs stands but surely they would only number tens of thousands at the best. These are self-indulgent hate voters and every society has them. So where do the million voters come from? It appears there are a lot of people who vote Green because they think it’s a vote for the ecology, for the trees in Tasmania, for the cuddly Koala, for the hump back whale or for whatever species or lifestyle that has been misrepresented as being under threat. They think the Greens are an answer to these problems. They are not. They are simply dangerous.
The Greens would end the US alliance by banning the passage of nuclear-powered ships through our waters. On domestic economic policy they would impose death duties, raise every form of tax they mention, but simultaneously ensure full employment while cutting working hours but not pay. All this self-contradictory nonsense is literally an insult to our intelligence and, worse, a degradation of our politics.
Thankfully, they will never get the keys to the treasury but they can still be very dangerous to our economy and way of life. Think very carefully about your protest vote. If you hate Howard – vote for Latham. If you think Latham’s a fool – vote Howard and in the Senate vote for an independant but if you have any hope for Australia don’t vote for the Greens. I note Tim Dunlop and John Quiggin don’t see the Greens as a threat but they also think Latham is a winner and judging by their comment sections, they have attracted a goodly bunch of like thinkers. Fine, but I detect some heads in the sand at their sites. Seemingly a well educated lot, particularly Tim and John – I trust they’re not just academics. Go read for a different view and be sure to check the comments. I think most of them sort of back the Greens only because it may hurt Howard but at least one reader, Gibbo, thinks the way I do when he says;
You folks don’t handle scrutiny very well do you? Finally people are being made aware that the greens have nothing to do with saving whales and cuddling koalas. They are quite simply another tired incarnation of the communist party with a few anarchists thrown in for luck. I am telling everyone I know to go and read their policies for themselves. The greens go well when their exposure is limited to bob browns’ 30 second sound bites but when you come under real scrutiny, you fold and start crying foul. I vote Liberal but I’m not campaigning on that front. I’m pushing “anyone but the greens” and man it’s fun.
Which explains my headline Watermelons – Green outside and red inside Gibbo’s advice is sound. Go check the Greens website and make up your own mind.
Politics

Is he or isn’t he?

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Yesterday the Courier Mail carried a story about an Army Major making false claims to SAS service and being otherwise free with the truth about his service in Iraq The story was filed by Michael McKenna and Ian McPhedran who, if they can’t get the small points right, most probably have trouble with the gist of the whole article. They report;
Mr Withycombe, a serving major with the First Battalion at Enoggera Barracks….
That’s Major Withycombe as he is still serving and 1RAR are Townsville based, not Enoggera. Yeh. I know – small point but I’m annoyed by journo’s getting facts wrong when dealing with the Army and if the can’t get the small things right….. They go on to report;
But senior Australian Defence Force sources last night dismissed Mr Withycombe’s claims, detailed in his campaign brochures and in claims he made in an interview with The Courier-Mail. They said the claims were either untrue or grossly exaggerated.
Who are the senior Australian Defence Force sources? I ask this because in todays Australian an article by David Nason (can’t find a link) points out;
Major Withycombe was backed up by the Defence Department wich issued a statement to the National Party saying the Army had no issue with any of the claims made in Major Withycombe’s campaign brochure
Who’s right- David Nason or the two CM chaps? I don’t know as I don’t have all the info but I think it’s a reasonable question.
Politics
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