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Stop laughing, it's US policy that's the joke

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  • Stop laughing, it's US policy that's the joke

    Stop laughing, it's US policy that's the joke

    Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
    July 22 2006

    Email Print Normal font Large font Mike Carlton
    July 22, 2006

    ST PETERSBURG, Tuesday. The President of the United States, unplugged.

    GWB: Hey Blair, howya doin'? Like your tie. You British do stripes
    real good.

    TB: Thank you so much.

    GWB: Not a problem. Now gimme your take on this Middle East shit.

    TB: Well, you see, you've got Hezbollah ...

    GWB: Remind me, Blair. Them the Jewish guys or the Islamic guys?

    TB: They're the bad guys.

    GWB: Got it. Who's the chick over there with the hot boobies?

    TB: Do you mean the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel?

    GWB: Kraut, huh? Now here's what we do with the Middle East thing:
    the Israelis get two weeks to kick ass, let the UN screw up, then
    Condi fixes a ceasefire. Sound good to you, Blair?

    TB: Just what I was thinking myself, actually.

    GWB: Done deal. But, hey, gotta get back to Washington. Some serious
    stuff goin' down with Cheney and Rummy tonight.

    TB: Iraq?

    GWB: Nope. New York Yankees playin' the Boston Red Sox. Got $100 on
    the Sox with Dick.

    TB: I hope that microphone is not turned on, George.

    POOR bloody Lebanon. Three thousand years ago the great cities of
    Byblos, Sidon and Tyre were at the civilised centre of the known
    universe, their Phoenician traders commanding the Mediterranean to
    Spain and beyond, venturing as far north as the tin mines of Cornwall.

    In the centuries since, what we know as modern Lebanon has been raped
    and pillaged by the predators of history: Persians, Greeks, Romans,
    Armenians, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, the French, the Syrians. Now,
    not long recovered from a hideous civil war, a fragile Lebanese
    democracy reels beneath the hammer blows of the Israelis.

    George Bush, Condoleezza Rice and, for that matter, John Howard,
    can bleat forever about Israel's right to defend itself, but we are
    witnessing an obscenity. On all sides. The targeted Israeli air strike
    which murders children in a Beirut suburb is as much a crime against
    humanity as an indiscriminate Hezbollah rocket crashing into downtown
    Haifa. There are no gradations of immorality. It is total.

    Bush's buffoonery in St Petersburg - manhandling Merkel, dropping the
    "shit" word - were funny or offensive, depending on your take on these
    things. But there is no humour in the fact that American policy in
    the Middle East now lies in ruins. The neo-conservative fantasy of a
    swift war in Iraq magically spreading peace and democracy throughout
    the region has brought nothing but catastrophe.

    Sooner or later, when Hezbollah has killed enough Israeli civilians,
    and the Israelis have killed enough Lebanese, some sort of ceasefire
    will happen. But new hatreds will pile upon the old. The seeds are
    sown. Next, the whirlwind.

    HARD to tell if the NSW Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, is cynically
    playing the race card, is in utter ignorance of the workings of the
    common law, or is just plain stupid. Or all three.

    Ever since the Cronulla riots, he has been banging on about "200
    Middle Eastern thugs" who, he claims, are terrorising 4 million people
    from Newcastle to Nowra. He was at it again this week, bent on all
    hell breaking loose if, by some chance, he wins the state election
    next year.

    "At dawn ... on the 25th of March my instruction to the police
    commissioner will be to take as many police as you need and charge
    them with anything to get them off the streets," he bellowed.

    Charge them with anything? I put that very question to him on
    radio on Wednesday and, yes, he confirmed that was exactly what he
    intended. Anything. Which can only mean that he expects police officers
    to trump up charges, forge records of interview, perjure themselves
    and generally pervert the course of justice in the courts before which
    the unfortunate victims are dragged. There can be no other conclusion.

    And who are these 200? Debnam has it in his silly head that the
    police recorded 200 car numberplates during the revenge riots
    post-Cronulla. It is therefore a simple matter of arresting the
    owners. All of them. On any charge. "Going through a red light!" he
    shouted at one stage, rocketing to new heights of absurdity.

    This is exactly the sort of political harlotry that the Director of
    Public Prosecutions, Nick Cowdery, warned about in a recent speech
    to a teachers' conference.

    "Crime is politically 'sexy' because it is an easy drum to bang and it
    makes a loud and instant political noise," Cowdery said. "Politicians
    jump on the fear of crime that we all have (to an extent) and the
    media beat it up for all they are worth."

    Exactly. If Debnam really means what he says, he is a threat to
    democracy and the rule of law. As we saw on Four Corners on Monday,
    democracy is not a priority with the NSW Libs these days.

    A rugger bugger stands his ground

    IN THIS country you can spill a man's beer, kick his dog, or even
    bed his wife; after a bit of shouting, life goes on.

    But suggest, however objectively, that his code of football might be
    in a bit of trouble and there is blue murder in the air.

    My crystal ball piece here last week predicting that rugby league is
    in long, gradual decline provoked an astounding response from dozens
    of readers. Much of it was gutter filth from evident psychopaths. Goes
    with the territory, I guess.

    Quite a few emailers, chips firmly on shoulder, were outraged by
    my heinous crime of attending a private school 43 years ago. Ho ho,
    the witty jibes about poofs in tweed jackets and leather patches.

    Useless to point out, I suppose, that I did not bag any part of the
    game of rugby league. In fact, a good State of Origin game is worth
    a watch. Union, especially in defence, has learned a lot from league
    and can still do so.

    My argument is simply this: 10 years or so down the track, to fight
    off the competition from Australian football and soccer, the two
    rugby codes will merge into a hybrid of the best of each, discarding
    the rubbish.

    The league scrum is a farce, for example. But so are union's endless,
    pedantic penalties at the breakdown; they bore the pants off even
    the most devoted rugger bugger.

    Eventually there will be a new and better international ball game. It
    will be called rugby.
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