Monday, April 12, 2004
The charge of the no-charge brigade
Moral equivalence and sovereignty fetishism are riding high in this op-ed piece in the "Australian" by Neil Clark: "[I]t's time for all of us who predicted the consequences of military intervention to make our political leaders pay the price for their arrogance, deceit and recklessness... It means exercising our democratic right not to vote for any MP, senator or political representative who supported the illegal invasion of a sovereign state in defiance of world public opinion."
And how's this? "The coalition troops will never be able to bring stability to Iraq for the simple reason that they have no business to be there. US, British and Australian troops have no more right  morally or legally  to be patrolling the streets of Basra, Baghdad or Fallujah than Iraqi troops would have to ride in jeeps down the streets of New York, London or Brisbane. Once we acknowledge this, and accept that coalition troops in Iraq are an illegal army of occupation of the same status as the Wehrmacht in Poland in 1939, then we can make progress."
If ever the moral vacuum at the heart of the left was at full display, this is it: the American troops (and the Australian troops by the same token) are pretty much the same as the (Baathist) Iraqi troops; anultimatelyly the Allied troops are - wait for it - just like the Nazis! Surprised? I'm not sure why.
The only moral right Clark seems to recognise is the right of people like Saddam to keep killing his own people. The emperor might not wear any clothes, but the left will always ensure that he is decently draped in a cloak of sovereignty. I remember when the left used "human rights" at the expense of "sovereignty" to bludgeon the US; now it's "sovereignty" and to hell with "human rights". The only thing constant is the hatred of the United States.
In a similar vein, Paul Kennedy finds a solution to the American troops shortage in Iraq by conscripting and sending in to fight "the phalanxes of US neo-conservatives, right-wing gurus, hardline journalists and think-tank pundits who assured the bemused American public and their politicians 20 months ago that the conquest of Iraq would not be difficult."
"How many of these advocates of massive US force abroad actually have close family in the trenches they recommended to others? This is, of course, being ironic. None of them - none - is going to leave their civilian positions, think tanks, syndicated columns or lucrative consultancies to join the grunts actually on the ground around Baghdad."
In case you have forgotten, Paul Kennedy has been giving the lefties wet dreams in the late 1980s when in his book "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" he'd argued that just like any other great power the United States is set to decline. So far we've been waiting for over 15 years for Kennedy's "end is nigh" prophecies to come true, but in the meantime it doesn't stop his ilk rejoicing at every American setback.
So Kennedy wants all of us who support the war to go and fight. Kennedy of course is not willing to fight for anything, leading a parasitical existence on the United States that provides him with security and livelihood to engage in his constant criticism. So here's a deal for you Paul: we'll go to Iraq, but you have to promise to piss off under some slimy rock in North Korea or Cuba, where you won't be able to enjoy the fruits of life guaranteed by the American power over the last century while at the same time continuing to spit in the faces of people who make it all possible for you.
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And how's this? "The coalition troops will never be able to bring stability to Iraq for the simple reason that they have no business to be there. US, British and Australian troops have no more right  morally or legally  to be patrolling the streets of Basra, Baghdad or Fallujah than Iraqi troops would have to ride in jeeps down the streets of New York, London or Brisbane. Once we acknowledge this, and accept that coalition troops in Iraq are an illegal army of occupation of the same status as the Wehrmacht in Poland in 1939, then we can make progress."
If ever the moral vacuum at the heart of the left was at full display, this is it: the American troops (and the Australian troops by the same token) are pretty much the same as the (Baathist) Iraqi troops; anultimatelyly the Allied troops are - wait for it - just like the Nazis! Surprised? I'm not sure why.
The only moral right Clark seems to recognise is the right of people like Saddam to keep killing his own people. The emperor might not wear any clothes, but the left will always ensure that he is decently draped in a cloak of sovereignty. I remember when the left used "human rights" at the expense of "sovereignty" to bludgeon the US; now it's "sovereignty" and to hell with "human rights". The only thing constant is the hatred of the United States.
In a similar vein, Paul Kennedy finds a solution to the American troops shortage in Iraq by conscripting and sending in to fight "the phalanxes of US neo-conservatives, right-wing gurus, hardline journalists and think-tank pundits who assured the bemused American public and their politicians 20 months ago that the conquest of Iraq would not be difficult."
"How many of these advocates of massive US force abroad actually have close family in the trenches they recommended to others? This is, of course, being ironic. None of them - none - is going to leave their civilian positions, think tanks, syndicated columns or lucrative consultancies to join the grunts actually on the ground around Baghdad."
In case you have forgotten, Paul Kennedy has been giving the lefties wet dreams in the late 1980s when in his book "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" he'd argued that just like any other great power the United States is set to decline. So far we've been waiting for over 15 years for Kennedy's "end is nigh" prophecies to come true, but in the meantime it doesn't stop his ilk rejoicing at every American setback.
So Kennedy wants all of us who support the war to go and fight. Kennedy of course is not willing to fight for anything, leading a parasitical existence on the United States that provides him with security and livelihood to engage in his constant criticism. So here's a deal for you Paul: we'll go to Iraq, but you have to promise to piss off under some slimy rock in North Korea or Cuba, where you won't be able to enjoy the fruits of life guaranteed by the American power over the last century while at the same time continuing to spit in the faces of people who make it all possible for you.
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