Come you masters of war/ You that build the big guns/ You that build the death planes/ You that build all the bombs/ You that hide behind walls/ You that hide behind desks/ I just want you to know/ I can see through your masks
“I thought about the morality of this very, very, very deeply and I thought it was the right thing to do … I don’t accept that all of the deaths that occurred in Iraq since 2003 are directly the result of the intervention. I think a lot of the chaos now is a result of a premature American withdrawal.” — John Howard, July 7, 2016
You that never done nothin’/ But build to destroy/ You play with my world/ Like it’s your little toy/ You put a gun in my hand/ And you hide from my eyes/ And you turn and run farther/ When the fast bullets fly
“We’ve seen, too, how wrong most alarmist predictions about the futility and impossibility of effective US action have been, just as they were about the Gulf War in 1991. They will be seen as similarly alarmist after the US successfully completes its coming Iraq campaign.” — Greg Sheridan, September 5, 2002
Like Judas of old/ You lie and deceive/ A world war can be won/ You want me to believe/ But I see through your eyes/ And I see through your brain/ Like I see through the water/ That runs down my drain
“It still remains to be seen whether Wilkie’s judgment on the precise threat from Saddam’s weapons program is right — but we already know his judgment on the costs of removing that very real threat by invading Iraq was wrong. Thankfully, the Government ignored it, because here’s the bottom line: If it had listened to Wilkie, Saddam would still be in power, armed with weapons Wilkie himself has said could fall into the hands of terrorists. Instead, Saddam is gone, and Iraq liberated from his tyranny with astonishingly few casualties, and it is the Howard Government, not Andrew Wilkie, which has emerged vindicated.” — Andrew Bolt, June 23, 2003
You fasten all the triggers/ For the others to fire/ Then you sit back and watch/ When the death count gets higher/ You hide in your mansion/ While the young people’s blood/ Flows out of their bodies/ And is buried in the mud
— With thanks to Bob Dylan
Hoisted by their own petards.
… and Dylan wrote those words more than 50 years ago. Plus ca change …
Howard suffers from selective memory. It was not that they did not know their intelligence was in dispute. At the time there were large protests, throughout Europe, throughout Australia. Many countries did not participate in the invasion. If anything, he owed it to the Australia to be absolutely vigilent in ensuring the facts for the case of going to war were undisputed and without prejustice. Howard ridiculed those countries, the protesters. He mounted a campaign against anyone who dared suggest that the invasion was more about oil, more about politics. Some of the large media publications followed in the outright bully tactics, misreported the facts, down played the number of protesters – went along with Howard who set out to drown out the democratic right of each and every Australian citizen who dared to say “no, not in my name”…… He called as anti-Australian troops when the protesters called out that no Australian soldier to be used for political purpose. He called us left-wing looneys, naive, conspiracy mongers, dole budgers, the list could go on. Howard is not only avoiding responsibility for harm – such as death, injury including post traumatic stress his decision rendered, he is avoiding apologising to every Australian citizen for his anti democratic behaviour.
The UN, with I think an Australian in charge, was searching for WMDs and hadn’t completed their findings, as I remember it. Australians saw that it was the wrong thing to do to go at least before that had been completed.
Yes, it is an egregious line that the likes of Howard are trying to flog: that they had no real choice to accept the alleged intelligence, because nobody was offering them an alternative opinion. But perhaps an even more contemptible bit of spin, first popularized by American neocons and now regurgitated by Howard, is the idea that Iraq Invasion was working just fine, until that terrible Obama person pulled the troops out in 2011. Here they seem to want people to believe that the invasion had two distinct phases. Firstly, the glorious and justified removal of Saddam Hussein, which they were responsible for, and secondly, the rise of ISIS and a particularly bloodthirsty period of Middle Eastern history, that Obama and his allies caused.
Unfortunately, so many fellow travellers in the media, are only too happy to contribute to this constantly ongoing attempt to rewrite history.
You omitted the final lines to ‘Masters of War’ –
And I’ll watch while you’re lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I’ll stand o’er your grave
‘Til I’m sure that you’re dead.
There will more than a few to whom that will apply.
Dylan to the rescue to say eloquently what we feel.
Remember that Howard went to this war in direct contravention of the opinions of the vast majority of Australians.
And they have the hide to complain about Mediscare! What a vacuous and heartless group of idiots. The hypocrisy staggers me.