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Peter Howard is Wintermute, mythologist

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War & Politics

10October2007 [directLink] [myth]

In which I despair of politicians

You can’t read this headline and still tell me they’re not prepping us for war with Iran: “Explosive device may have come from Iran: Nelson” (SMH 9October2007)*.

The improvised explosive device that killed an Australian soldier and injured another in Afghanistan yesterday may have come into the country from Iran, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson says.

But he admitted the Australian Defence Force had no proof about the source of the device…

Sigh.

And for sheer ridiculousness, Labor gag their own minister for repeating the policy line that the party opposes the death penalty a little too close to the anniversary of the Bali bombings. Liberals everywhere joyfully suggest that McClelland supports terrorism, and the media and Labor themselves do nothing to help. (First it was “Labor to fight death penalty” (SMH 9October2007), and then hours later it’s “Bali survivors slam death penalty call” (SMH 9October2007) and McClelland is forced to “express regret”.) To add to the irony, his speech included snipes at the Libs for their hypocrisy — in claiming to oppose the death penalty but for supporting it in the cases of the Bali bombers and Saddam. So Labor’s hypocrisy in the matter is all the more biting.

But the best line in today’s reading comes from Cardinal Pell, buried at the bottom of an article on Labor’s (boring) education policy:

Cardinal Pell declared the two major parties “scarcely distinguishable”.

cf “Pell endorses Labor’s education policy” (SMH 10October2007)

* Aside: I actually read about this one in the Financial Review, but they have a ridiculously unusable Flash-based site (AFR.com) and I can’t figure out how to link to articles there…

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