John Howard - Military And Intelligence

The Iraq War is certainly a hot topic world wide and certainly more so within those Nations which took part and continue to be involved, Australia being one of those Nations. I have no offers for solution to such problems as those created by and nurtured by Saddam Hussein but I am deeply offended by John Howard in that he and he alone decided to send Australia to war. Well at least the decision was made by the Prime Minister's own Department and the National Security Committee of Cabinet. The decision to commit Australia to war in Iraq was NOT made in the Australia Parliament.

Take a few moments to think about that and what it means for Australian democracy, Australia free speech and more so the Australian Parliamentary system.

To add insult to the already agonising injury created by John Howard, he then proceeded to give unqualified praise beginning in 2004 for the head of ONA, Kim Jones during the heated public discussion about the absence of weapons of mass destruction and around the same time the same unqualified praise was given by Defence Minister Robert Hill for the head of DIO Frank Lewincamp. Despite this remarkable intelligence failure, Lewincamp was awarded the Public Service Medal.

It doesn't stop there; the disgraced head of Immigration was awarded the Order of Australia and given a plum ambassador's job in Jakarta in 2005.

But the icing on the cake must be in 2006 when John Howard's government refused to acknowledge any bureucratic failure regarding Australian company AWB's payment of bribes to Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule.

Australian voting public know better now, Mr. John Winston Howard!

Read the source of my posts in Silencing Dissent by Clive Hamilton and Sarah Maddison.