Friday, April 09, 2004
All dressed up and nowhere to appease - "Baghdad Kerry" Nettle's Iraqi trip gets cancelled
How stupid can the Greens get?
One is always tempted to say “Surely not much more; that would be physically impossible.” And yet they always manage to surprise us and prove us wrong. Now I’m reading a report that Bob Brown’s sidekick, Senator Kerry Nettle has been forced to cancel her trip to Iraq on account of the deteriorating security situation. Pass me my violin!
Our very own version of Jane Fonda, "Baghdad Kerry" apparently intended to travel to Iraq in order “to hear first hand from Iraqis about their experiences under the US-led military occupation of their country.” First hand? Why go to so much trouble? Surely al-Jazeera and “The Green Left Weekly” could have provided the honourable Senator with a balanced and comprehensive enough reportage of the dastardly America’s oppression of innocent Baathists and Islamist extremists.
It’s good to know though, that after the koalas and the whales the Greens have finally found a new species to protect: Islamo-fascists. What's going to be the new Green bumper sticker: "I support terrorists and I vote"? "Don't throw out Saddam with Baath water"? "Save baby Shia fundamentalists"?
Nettle went on to tell the media that “she was also keen to hear the Iraqi people's vision for transition to democracy and expected hand over on June 30.” That’s nice of her to care about democracy in Iraq, seeing that if it was up to the Greens, Saddam would be spending the next three decades filling up another 300 mass graves.
Personally I’m extremely disappointed that Nettle is not going. What has she got to fear? Surely as a courageous voice against the fascist American occupation she’s got nothing to fear from the Saddamite insurgents and the Yank-hating Shias.
In fact, to put her money where her mouth is (if you pardon the expression, as the Greens are above such mundane things as money, particularly if it belongs to taxpayers), Senator Nettle should go to Fallujah, allow herself to be taken hostage by the “freedom fighters”, and demand the immediate withdrawal of Australian troops or else she will be set on fire or decapitated by her captors.
Then again, it might be too cruel to inflict Nettle even on hardened Baath party veterans.
Although unable to make it all the way to Baghdad, the esteemed Green Senator was still able to enrich us with her words of wisdom: “The violence that we're seeing in Iraq is targeted towards the occupying forces, so the removal of those occupying forces is the first step that needs to be taken to allow Iraqis to determine the future of their country, particularly politically."
I can imagine Nettle saying in 1944: "The violence that we're seeing in Europe is targeted towards the Allied forces, so the removal of those Allied forces is the first step that needs to be take to allow the Germans and the Jews to determine the future of their relationship."
That’s the beautiful thing about the Greens and reality; never the twain shall meet. Nettle was quite happy to have Saddam in power rather than to have him removed, if it had to be the Americans doing the removing; now she’s quite happy to leave it to Baath left-overs and Shia extremist like al-Sadr to decide Iraq’s future, because once again, anything is better than the American "occupation."
By the way, check out one of organisations responsible for preparing Nettle’s aborted trip, the charming Occupation Watch, whose mission is “exposing the military and economic impact of the occupation of Iraq.” If only they gave a shit when Saddam was in power.
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One is always tempted to say “Surely not much more; that would be physically impossible.” And yet they always manage to surprise us and prove us wrong. Now I’m reading a report that Bob Brown’s sidekick, Senator Kerry Nettle has been forced to cancel her trip to Iraq on account of the deteriorating security situation. Pass me my violin!
Our very own version of Jane Fonda, "Baghdad Kerry" apparently intended to travel to Iraq in order “to hear first hand from Iraqis about their experiences under the US-led military occupation of their country.” First hand? Why go to so much trouble? Surely al-Jazeera and “The Green Left Weekly” could have provided the honourable Senator with a balanced and comprehensive enough reportage of the dastardly America’s oppression of innocent Baathists and Islamist extremists.
It’s good to know though, that after the koalas and the whales the Greens have finally found a new species to protect: Islamo-fascists. What's going to be the new Green bumper sticker: "I support terrorists and I vote"? "Don't throw out Saddam with Baath water"? "Save baby Shia fundamentalists"?
Nettle went on to tell the media that “she was also keen to hear the Iraqi people's vision for transition to democracy and expected hand over on June 30.” That’s nice of her to care about democracy in Iraq, seeing that if it was up to the Greens, Saddam would be spending the next three decades filling up another 300 mass graves.
Personally I’m extremely disappointed that Nettle is not going. What has she got to fear? Surely as a courageous voice against the fascist American occupation she’s got nothing to fear from the Saddamite insurgents and the Yank-hating Shias.
In fact, to put her money where her mouth is (if you pardon the expression, as the Greens are above such mundane things as money, particularly if it belongs to taxpayers), Senator Nettle should go to Fallujah, allow herself to be taken hostage by the “freedom fighters”, and demand the immediate withdrawal of Australian troops or else she will be set on fire or decapitated by her captors.
Then again, it might be too cruel to inflict Nettle even on hardened Baath party veterans.
Although unable to make it all the way to Baghdad, the esteemed Green Senator was still able to enrich us with her words of wisdom: “The violence that we're seeing in Iraq is targeted towards the occupying forces, so the removal of those occupying forces is the first step that needs to be taken to allow Iraqis to determine the future of their country, particularly politically."
I can imagine Nettle saying in 1944: "The violence that we're seeing in Europe is targeted towards the Allied forces, so the removal of those Allied forces is the first step that needs to be take to allow the Germans and the Jews to determine the future of their relationship."
That’s the beautiful thing about the Greens and reality; never the twain shall meet. Nettle was quite happy to have Saddam in power rather than to have him removed, if it had to be the Americans doing the removing; now she’s quite happy to leave it to Baath left-overs and Shia extremist like al-Sadr to decide Iraq’s future, because once again, anything is better than the American "occupation."
By the way, check out one of organisations responsible for preparing Nettle’s aborted trip, the charming Occupation Watch, whose mission is “exposing the military and economic impact of the occupation of Iraq.” If only they gave a shit when Saddam was in power.
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