Saturday, April 17, 2004
Donna Mulhearn - the poster girl for appeasement
Donna Mulhearn, the Australian human shield turned briefly a hostage and turned back again into a full time anti-Howard activist is getting some rough press from my fellow bloggers.
In the meantime, more hilarious facts emerge about Mulhearn's background. Check out this ABC story from last year, with a pic of Donna proudly wearing her Arabic human shield T-shirt. According to the story "Donna is pictured here wearing the second version of the Human Shields T-shirt used to identify the organisation in Iraq. The original version featured a poor Arabic translation of the organsiation's name which read 'human target'. The replacement T-shirts had to be quickly reprinted." Human target alright - maybe that was the T-shirt she was wearing when she was kidnapped by the Fallujah Baathist scum. "Kick me, I'm an Aussie useful idiot."
And while Mulhearn's work with orphans in post-Saddam Iraq is to be commended, check out her words of wisdom from a Palm Sunday rally in 2003:
"For those Australians who doubted this war - you were right! Your concerns were legitimate. Your fears about the devastating impact of this war have been realised.
"While those concerned about human rights welcome a regime change, we knew there was another path to such a change. A path that was democratic; a path that did not flout international law; a creative, compassionate path; a better path; a peaceful path. A path that did not leave more than 5000 people dead and thousands more maimed, injured and devastated for life."
I had to read on until the end of the speech to find out what that path - the alternative way to resolve the situation in Iraq - was.
"The other way is the way of peace."
In case you were wondering, that's it.
All we had to do in Iraq to get rid of one of the most brutal and vicious regimes of recent years was to pursue the path of peace. Sounds like a garden path to me. And that's essentially the problem with human rights activists like Mulhearn "who welcomed a regime change" - they were willing to do absolutely anything to change the regime except to actually do something.
Mulhearn later on in the speech challenged "anyone who supported this war to spend 24 hours in a Baghdad hospital ward." Well, and I challenge Mulhearn to spend 24 hours in one of Saddam's torture factories (oops, too late for that), or 24 hours digging around one of 300 mass graves in Iraq, which are estimated to contain upwards of 300,000 bodies.
Just like protectionists who complain about the jobs lost as a result of free trade but who can't see the far greater number of jobs created as a result of globalisation - so too are activists like Mulhearn, who only see the civilians tragically (and accidentally) killed and wounded by the Coalition, but not the far greater number of Iraqis that will no longer have to die now that Saddam is gone.
Peace is wonderful and we should have more of it, but some of the most peaceful places on earth are cemeteries.
|
In the meantime, more hilarious facts emerge about Mulhearn's background. Check out this ABC story from last year, with a pic of Donna proudly wearing her Arabic human shield T-shirt. According to the story "Donna is pictured here wearing the second version of the Human Shields T-shirt used to identify the organisation in Iraq. The original version featured a poor Arabic translation of the organsiation's name which read 'human target'. The replacement T-shirts had to be quickly reprinted." Human target alright - maybe that was the T-shirt she was wearing when she was kidnapped by the Fallujah Baathist scum. "Kick me, I'm an Aussie useful idiot."
And while Mulhearn's work with orphans in post-Saddam Iraq is to be commended, check out her words of wisdom from a Palm Sunday rally in 2003:
"For those Australians who doubted this war - you were right! Your concerns were legitimate. Your fears about the devastating impact of this war have been realised.
"While those concerned about human rights welcome a regime change, we knew there was another path to such a change. A path that was democratic; a path that did not flout international law; a creative, compassionate path; a better path; a peaceful path. A path that did not leave more than 5000 people dead and thousands more maimed, injured and devastated for life."
I had to read on until the end of the speech to find out what that path - the alternative way to resolve the situation in Iraq - was.
"The other way is the way of peace."
In case you were wondering, that's it.
All we had to do in Iraq to get rid of one of the most brutal and vicious regimes of recent years was to pursue the path of peace. Sounds like a garden path to me. And that's essentially the problem with human rights activists like Mulhearn "who welcomed a regime change" - they were willing to do absolutely anything to change the regime except to actually do something.
Mulhearn later on in the speech challenged "anyone who supported this war to spend 24 hours in a Baghdad hospital ward." Well, and I challenge Mulhearn to spend 24 hours in one of Saddam's torture factories (oops, too late for that), or 24 hours digging around one of 300 mass graves in Iraq, which are estimated to contain upwards of 300,000 bodies.
Just like protectionists who complain about the jobs lost as a result of free trade but who can't see the far greater number of jobs created as a result of globalisation - so too are activists like Mulhearn, who only see the civilians tragically (and accidentally) killed and wounded by the Coalition, but not the far greater number of Iraqis that will no longer have to die now that Saddam is gone.
Peace is wonderful and we should have more of it, but some of the most peaceful places on earth are cemeteries.
|
