I've long had a bit of a soft spot for Oz, as even the 'bad guys' - Hawke, Keating etc - are at least entertaining, and John Howard is really gutsy. Here's an object lesson in his not messing about:
"The Muslim Community Reference Group is considering writing to Prime Minister John Howard asking the government to reconsider its listing of the militant arm of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. The group is meeting tomorrow and will decide whether to put the demand to Mr Howard. But any call for the government to change its position on Hezbollah, which has been engaged in open warfare with Israel for the past three weeks, would appear to be futile. Mr Howard made it clear today the government had no intention of removing the militant arm of Hezbollah from its official list of terrorist organisations. "No chance, full stop. No chance at all (of removing Hezbollah from the list)," Mr Howard told reporters".
Elsewhere, the The National Post demolishes the suggestion that Canada has historically pursued a neutral foreign policy: "Opposition politicians and several media reports have repeatedly charged in recent days that the Stephen Harper government's pro-Israeli stance has pushed Canada away from its traditional neutral position on foreign affairs, damaging the country's reputation as a broker of peace...."If you backtrack on [our] record, it clearly illustrates that it is anything but neutral," said Frank Harvey, a political scientist and director of foreign policy studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax.....'"Our track record hasn't been historically neutral; it's basically the last [Liberal] government that shifted Canada's position from a moderately pro-Israeli stance to a sort of 'We don't want to take sides' stance.".... Mr. Harvey dismissed the notion of Middle East neutrality altogether. "What would neutrality look like?" he said. "You either support a set of policies that are clearly in opposition to one side or support a set of policies that oppose the objectives of the other.... There's no such thing [as neutrality] in the Middle East."
For those unaware, I would recommend reading up on how our Canadian allies stormed Vimy Ridge in 1917 and Juno Beach in 1944.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, August 02, 2006 at 2:17 pm.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.
the aussies do have the right idea and that Howard is a right winger to be proud of.
wish we were blessed with one like him
He's quite the man, isn't he?
Halfway through today, did you notice that the BBC (R4) stopped using the phrase "Hezbollah militants"? Instead they've become "Hezbollah guerrillas". My dictionary says:
guerrilla, n. (Usu. now ~ war) irregular war waged by small bodies acting independently; man engaged in this.
Independently? I don't think so. Hezbollah is about as independent as the BBC.
Next thing you know, they'll be calling them "Hezbollah Freedom Fighters".
All very true anon, if not wholly surprising. I - as I hope - you come back, please come up with a user name so I can give you an identity, as it were.
» Post a Comment