Remember how John Howard said after he lost his seat of Bennelong and the top job that he wouldn’t be providing a running commentary on politics?
He’s over in LA at the moment on his rounds collecting meaningless awards from obscure American right wing think tanks. If you happen to be in the neighbourhood, you could have attended a “gala dinner in Brentwood” with the PM – for only $1000 a plate. But don’t panic if you missed out! His reflections on “Remembering Munich: the Legacy of Appeasement” will be featuring as part of the American Freedom Alliance’s program for another couple of days. I’m sure we’re all proud that Howard has been selected as a recipient of the Winston S. Churchill Medal of Freedom.
While in California, Howard couldn’t resist giving an interview to media start up Pyjamas tv. You can watch it here. Streem reports:
During the interview, Mr Howard touched on the Iraq War, commenting that the media was hesitant to cover it because of improving conditions.
Really? While violence is down, the conditions for “winning the war” stipulated by the Bush administration are very far from being met, according to a very comprehensive article by Peter W. Galbraith in the New York Review of Books.
Kim:
I do hope he is not seeking to model his career on that of [ex-]Emperor Henry Aisingoro Pu Yi in his Tianjin days …. he is, after all, an ideal candidate for “cultivation” by the devious and ruthless.
Watching that link reminded me how horrible it was to listen to Howard ramble on and on all the time. Thank god he’s gone…
Ratty can bull-shit as much as he likes to a pack of American RWDBs, just so long as we don’t have to hear his lies over here in Oz. We’re well-rid of him.
Galbraiths article is like every other leftie article on Iraq. It desperately tries to claim Iraq is going badly because of past problems now solved, problems that may happen but thus far haven’t and it isn’t absolute perfection therefore it is hopelessly bad. His line that less violence doesn’t equal success just sums it all up. I presume then when violence was so much higher that didn’t mean it was unsuccessful? Plain silly.
We also get the same old meme’s about those Surge troops were just completely incidental to the current success and that nice chappie Al Sadr just called a ceasefire out of the sheer goodness of his heart.
IF the Left focussed on why the WMD intel failure happened and how to prevent it happening again and whether COIN could have been introduced earlier they would be very constructive criticisms. Instead because George Bush lead this war there is as desperation to try and put out propaganda that every single aspect of this war was and is a failure and if something positive happened it was just plain dumb luck. Mindless.
Wow, and it comes from no higher authority than the New York Review of Books too.
Jay-sus!
.
The American Right must be really desperate for sex appeal if they’re gonna shell out four figures for dinner with Johnnie. What’s the menu? Meat and three veg fer sure.
.
I hope Arnie Schwarzanegger turns up and hassles him about his obtuse attitude to the environment.
.
Mistuh Howart. Ah-low. I zink you are ze megastoopit dumkopf on ze Environment. You should hef zined ze Keeota Prodocawl unt dermindaded anyvun who dit nat poot ze biofuel in zere HumVeez. Bat vot do you expect. You are ze shawt man mit nat moch sex appeal ad all. Unt ze valking is nat enuff if you vant to be a zomebody mit der body.
.
I mozt go now. Unt kill Mendoza. Men-doze-aaaaaaaaarrrggghhhh!!!
Kingsley – It desperately tries to claim Iraq is going badly because of past problems now solved, problems that may happen but thus far haven’t and it isn’t absolute perfection therefore it is hopelessly bad.
.
Mmmmpph.
.
Well considering that the bullshit in Mess-O-Potamia piles so high it makes Vietnam look like an exercise Cartesian epistemology I wouldn’t know. I hope things are getting better because the alternative would be disasterous.
.
However that doesn’t change certain facts.
.
This is a colonial oil resource war launched on the basis of a series of utter lies told by people who used US public monies (not to mention ours) to help out their connections in the Oil Business and fund ‘reconstruction’ projects supposedly carried out by people who were not required to actually accomplish anything, whose basis for remuneration was the more taxpayer money you spend the more you earn and whose qualifications were the ideological predisposition and political connections of their proprietors. In short it’s a huge fraud and theft operation masquerading as a Fight For Freedom (whatever Dubya think that actually means).
.
It’s left a huge whole in American culture, cost taxpayers somewhere around $3 000 000 000 000 and yet it’s still supported by a certain section of the Gullible Unwashed who wholeheartedly dismiss any critique no matter how well-founded as propoganda whilst out the other of their faces regurgitate sloganized drivel that’s so full of holes that it’s blantantly insulting your intelligence.
.
And you ask for seconds.
.
Here’s a hint. Next time you want to engage in a little chauvanistic violence do it with your money and your lives. Okay.
“Here’s a hint. Next time you want to engage in a little chauvanistic violence”
What? As opposed to that other form of violence. In this regard, I would agree. Mindless indeed.
I’m sure Malcolm Winston Turnbull’s inspired – after all, he could become Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.
As opposed to that other form of violence.
.
I used to train in Judo. It was violent but not chauvanistic. It’s actually kinda zen.
$3 000 000 000 000 and probably half went to Haliburton for some broken down trucks. Makes the Soong family gipping China kindergarten play.
At last Howard has found his spot in the world, under some far flung rocks in the USA. Hope is enraptured enough by the love to never want to leave.
“that he wouldn’t be providing a running commentary on politics?”
You mean he ‘lies’? Like every morning, every night and frequently during the day?
Brandis is now a historical footnote.
IF the Left…
As they say in the States, Kingsley: EPIC FAIL. There is no “the Left”. There are several Lefts, including what ironically known as the “Decent Left”. Google it sometimes. (Hint: they were for the war in Iraq.)
Shorter Ratty: Why don’t the media have some common decency and tell outright, explicit lies like I do?
I’ll miss Tim’s “Non-core to the core” posts on Blogocracy every time Howard popped up to give us some more of his running commentary that he said unlike some ex-PM’s he would never provide.
If you want make yourself truly sick listen to this clip of Howard discussing the moral superiority of the anglospere to some american shock jock
I am curious. Who pays for his wife and him air fares every time he goes overseas. I have a awful feeling that we the Australian taxpayers have the honour.
Yes, fehowarth, it is customary for taxpayers to send their heads of state on overseas trips, and for the first Lady/Man to accompany them is not uncommon. The upside is that this arrangement makes it possible, at least in theory, for someone who isn’t staggeringly rich to be an effective head of state.
We also pay Kevin a salary *gasp!* for running the country. Crazy, huh?
If you want make yourself truly sick listen to this clip of Howard discussing the moral superiority of the anglospere to some american shock jock
.
Um no thanks. The English speaking world is morally superior ‘ey Johhnie? Mmmm. I wonder what the mangled protoplasm that used to be a kid in Baghdad would say. Nothing probably. Hard to talk when you’re dead.
.
I think we should put part of the $800 billion Yuppie Welfare Bill into plane tickets for Dubya, Blair and Johhnie boy. One way to Congo. They like war so much I think it’s time they, um, actually were in the middle of one.
I wonder how various attempts to have John Howard charged with war crimes are proceeding.
John Valder ex Lib Party Pres believes he has a case to offer as does The Medical Association for the Prevention of War. Then there is the legal brief sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by various concerned groups.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/02/2262414.htm?section=justin
It would be nice to think that such constant and ongoing reminders would encourage him to think more carefully about speaking engagements beyond favoured right wing think tanks. Many have not forgotten his behaviour, or his mates, in manufacturing a war and he would be wiser to keep his head down.
Howard can claim up to 40 return domestic trips on us courtesy of his status as a former PM, but I don’t believe he is entitled to any international travel.
Ah Adrien – I assume you can provide this evidence of lieing that has illuded every other investigation into the WMD Intel failure, surely you weren’t just making stuff up like “Colonial Resource wars” were did you get that line from, the back of an Xbox game?
Down and Out – if it makes you happier I’ll be sure to always exclude the “Decent Left” everytime I refer to “the Left”.
Yes, we’re quite happy to be the Indecent Left.
Ah Kingsley – I assume you can provide this evidence of proof that has illuded every other claim that it was just an honest and massive WMD Intel failure.
Y’know what’s really pathetic. As far as I’ve heard, Howard hasn’t been offered even one decent Directorship or Board position. I guess that’s the market for you.
Nabakov [25]
That’s what worries me. Maybe he is being saved up for bigger things [see my comment No.1 above].