If you are reading this, thank a Teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a Soldier
AN Australian soldier who wrote a damaging email from East Timor has been sent home and will be disciplined.
The Courier-Mail yesterday revealed details of the email which included sensitive operational information.
The young artillery officer known as “Gilly from Timor”, revealed detailed operational information including the locations and roles of units in an email to a mate.
The three men had been singing along to pop music, reminiscing and using laptop computers when Pte Kovco’s gun suddenly discharged just 5cm away from his head around 4pm. Pte Kovco’s pistol was in a holster slung on the bed post of his bunkbed, while he stood on the ground typing an email to his wife using a laptop perched on the top mattress.I have been an Investigating Officer in the Army and know more than most punters about weapon handling, mishandling and the associated stories rationalizing same. I’m not saying it can’t happen, I’m just saying I have never heard of anything like it happening and therefore think a strong case exists to doubt the veracity of the evidence given too date…or, put more simply, someone is telling lies. If the pistol hadn’t had the trigger guard removed it would be virtually impossible for it to discharge whilst still in the holster. The trigger guards very reason for existance is to stop accidental discharges and for that reason is seldom removed.The SASR have been known to do so for improved reaction time but I have never heard of infantry troops doing it. I could be wrong but even if I am, we still have to move the muzzle of the weapon from the bedpost to 5 centimetres away from Pte Kovco’s head. I placed my laptop on my bed just now and adopted a typing position; this put my head more than 30 centimetres away from any bedpost. It’s too early to draw any conclussions other than, up to this point, the testimony given has some serious holes in it. If reported accurately the Investigating Officer must be doing some serious eye-rolling. “One of the them said `I didn’t hear the weapon cock nor did I see the weapon in his hand.” I would be beside myself in haste to ask; “then where was the pistol immediately after you heard the shot? In the holster, on the bed or on the floor? The answer to this would clear up some doubt. I presume the question was raised. The inquiry is expected to hear more evidence from Baghdad this week before adjourning until mid-July. Via Rick in comments.
A news report from Iraq. Very funny!
But the crucial issue that neither Johns nor Storry address is that of curricula. Too much emphasis is being placed in the current debate on providing opportunity for indigenous kids in very remote Australia for imagined futures as “lawyers, doctors and plumbers” (as suggested by Amanda Vanstone) and too little for futures as artists, land managers and hunters living on the land that they own.The professor is obviously a good communicator. In one paragraph he has underlined one of the main problems with education of our brothers. Unfortunately he has got it the wrong way round and although people reading the letter may well believe that because he is a ‘Professor’ then his word should be heeded, he is in fact suggesting we reinforce failure; …… artists, land managers and hunters Now there’s a career list that’s going nowhere. They need to be educated the same as the rest of the country’s kids so that when graduating they have a choice of careers; not some limited idea from an ‘out of touch professor’ that would have the boys learning ‘spear and woomera 101’ and girls swatting over ‘100 yam recipies for the busy mia mia wife’ The professor thinks we should pay heed to the ‘outstation’ mentality where Whitlam and Nugget Coombes believed they should all be living in the desert;
Rather than just seek mainstream education solutions to complex non-mainstream indigenous circumstances, we should develop curricula relevant to local settings and new enterprises and then see what impact this might have on attendance.They really need a broad education that will allow them to view ‘outstation’ life for what it is; demeaning, pointless and set to fail.
KIM Beazley’s about-face on workplace agreements has won him a reprieve from leadership pressures and kept alive Stephen Smith’s chances of keeping his frontbench job as Opposition industrial relations spokesman.Maybe, but I can’t see it presenting a reprieve from the voters. The Coalition wil suffer in the polls over the immediate future as the Unions throw millions into an emotive and selective TV assualt programme but in the long term, as the economy gets even better, the voters will see benefits. Kim hasn’t just rolled over for the unions; he has also rolled over for the mad left wing with Albanese getting centre stage with his anti-nuclear ranting On Insiders, he makes his position clear. While the rest of the country are busy counting the billions to be made from uranium sales dear Anthony is angling towards phasing them out
BARRIE CASSIDY: Now, I know that you maintain that it’s a mistake to refer to Labor’s policy as a three mines policy. You say it’s not. It is genuinely an anti-uranium policy? ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, it’s a no new mines policy. It’s a policy that I believe gets the balance right in that it recognises the problems with the nuclear fuel cycle, but also recognises that an economically responsible position is to guarantee all existing contracts. So, in effect, it’s a phasing-out policy. BARRIE CASSIDY: So, when current contracts run out, that’s it? ANTHONY ALBANESE: That’s right.The Left wing – the gift that keeps on giving The Nuclear debate has a long time to run in Australia and I for one wouldn’t like to preempt the result but with the ALP’s position being ‘close down the mines’ then it at least leaves the debate to more rational thinkers…the Coalition and the electorate.
COLLEAGUE and a friend planning a trip to Indonesia picked up a copy of Lonely Planet’s Indonesian phrase book. Both were tickled by the appearance of a translation for “I am Australian but I didn’t vote for John Howard”.Michelle Collins, the journalist who compiles the Good Mail knows full well that Tony and Maureen Wheeler, the owners of The Lonley Planet, are anti-US/Bush/Howard activists so she has obviously included the line simply to fit in an undergrad anti John Howard giggle. The Lonely Planet series are of good value for travellers but whenever they touch on politics readers need to be aware of their slanted views. Travelling the hippy trail does that for you. Check Tony Wheelder’s blog and rejoice at his enlightend approach to politics.
The BBC has an obituary and mentions Zarquawi was a rival of Bin Laden.THE al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed in a US air attack near Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said today.
“Today, al-Zarqawi was eliminated,” Mr Maliki told a news conference. His statement drew loud applause in the hall where he made the announcement. ABC news reported that US helicopters hit a house near Baquba, 65km north of Baghdad, at sunset yesterday. “Zarqawi was apparently injured at first … The Americans found him. They handed him over to the Iraqis and he later died of his injuries,” ABC said.
Both men rose to prominence as “Afghan Arabs” – leading foreign fighters in the “jihad” against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. It was a far cry from Zarqawi’s youth as a petty criminal in Jordan, remembered by those who knew him as a simple, quick-tempered and barely literate gangster.Another nail in al-Qaeda‘s coffin.
Bored…looking for a new career…think hospitality. Stell Artois has a cute little “Pour and serve a beer test” I found it while surfing the pub scene. My rescent discovery of The Public House led me to the Tap Room and an article titled Pour the perect pint and land yourself a job.
Go try and read The Tap Room while you’re there.
Facebook
Twitter
