Damn, I didn't realise we sucked so much. I thought for a second we were winning in Iraq, and had made great progress against the Taliban in Afganistan.
Not so according to the new 'defense' minister Joel Fitzgibbon.
I just realised that most of by posts today have been delivered with Irony (not to say sarcasm). So i'll wipe away a couple of layers of meaning...
I think the Rudd government is softening up the public to accept another bit of bad news, just like they they are with interest rates. They are doing this now while memories of Howard are fresh, so that we associate the bad news with him. That bad news is the withdrawal of our brave troops from Afganistan. Here's why I think that is coming.
The ALP are pacifists. They believe that terrorists only started attacking us because we treated them so badly, or rather our allies did. They believe on some level that the deaths of Aussies in the Bali-bombings was payback, and deserved - at least in part. Ideally they think people can live beside one another with no conflict, but revenge attacks against big powers are OK. The very existance of a big power to them is an affront to the natural order, which is equality (although this state have never occurred in nature, and only occurs under the most extreme human controls - and even then does not really because dome humans have to do the controlling). If we stop fighting the terrosist will leave us alone. This is the firmly held belief of the left.
Their activism extends only to immasculating Western powers, rather than applying the same liberal standards to the treatment of people, and in particular women in third world countries.
Dispite Rudd's posturing, his actions will reveal his convictions. This retreat is the first such action. The conviction it betrays is that Muslim extremists cannot and should not be resisted. Anything they do, including violence against Australian citizens must be tolerated on some level. There will be investigations and stuff, but the focus will be on the cause of their extreme views. And the cause will be us.
It is no joke that terrorists will be emboldened by our withdrawal from Afganistan. I dont think this will have an immidiate impact on our shores, but it will have an effect mainly on recruitment to the jihadi groups operating in OZ. There will be a growing tendency for young muslim youth to become marginalised and hostile to Australia from within. It's not foreign terrorists we have to worry about. It's locals.
These kids are Aussies like you and me, but will now be subtly encouraged to think otherwise and to nurture their grieviances. Their loyalties should be to the nation that nurtures them, but this nation will be tacitly seen as evil as long as we are allied to the US. Their loyalty will shift to their religion, or rather an extreme sect as they are manipulated by Mullahs already operating here.
This will take 5 years to show results. Those results will be fractured communites, increased crime and at worst bombings by home-grown perpetrators as in Britain.
The retreat will start in Iraq and Afganstan and it will end by retreating into our own homes right here in our own country. A country we would be able to share if were able to stand up for it. If we could show people Aussies are proud and strong, and not weak and cowardly, they would admire us all the more. How can we expect loyalty if we should no strength, no courage? The figure of John Howard was the hard-headed personification of pride that commanded respect from allies and enemies alike. That's gone, and the natural beligerence of young men of every creed and colour is now unchecked, and officially unrecognised. These kids need a strong person to look up to. They are not angry because of injustices in other countries. They are angry because they are kids.
The ALP honestly think that all terrorists want is to be left alone. That is the real message the 'defense' minister sent out today. It's bullshit. Phycologists call it projection. The ALP are projecting their ideals onto other people, and getting it very wrong in the process. It's the ALP, not the terrorists, who want to be left alone because they are lazy unionists that watch while others work. The terrorists are bad-asses, not sitting on their asses.
Australia is not a desert island holiday home for lazy lefties anymore. We are a proud nation ready to defend ourselves against all comers.
Show some balls, Fitzgibbon.
