HoWARd’s chant begins…
It seems we need 2,600 more soldiers because according to our PM,
“This country faces ongoing and increasing instances of destabilising and failing states in our region.”
“It is quite obvious that we do need a larger army. This country does continue to have responsibilities broader than our own immediate region and quite properly as part of a coalition fighting terrorism around the world, we cannot fully anticipate where extra challenges in that area might come.” – John HoWARd
More soldiers inevitably leads to more war. I am much more inspired by Kofi Annan who said, in amoungst other things,
“War is not, and I repeat, war is not “the continuation of politics by other means”. On the contrary, it represents a catastrophic failure of political skill and imagination – a dethronement of peaceful politics from the primacy which it should enjoy.”
HoWARd has started his electioneering already with a chant that won’t end- “TERROR, BOMBS, FEAR and PANIC,” but we don’t have to buy it. We can say enough.
Image from here
September 17th, 2006 at 10:34 am
Suki:
I’m definitely with Kofi Annan on this one. War is a failure.
Didn’t the Spartan general who won a battle get to sacrifice only a chook whereas the general who scored a victory through deception, guile, cunning and negotiation, without even a single spear being thrown, get to sacrifice a whole bullock?
September 17th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Geez Graham, I don’t know nearly enough about my barnyard animals 🙂
September 17th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Suki:
🙂 Well, there you go ….
There’s an Australia general who, a few years back, managed to avoid a pitched battle and to defuse a potential disaster by discussing the situation face-to-face with the commander of the opposing forces. So there’s one example for aspiring ADF officers to emulate….. and it’s a lot less bother than signing all those condolence letters to bereaved families too.
September 18th, 2006 at 8:22 am
Agreed Graham,
Then there’s a certain (now portly) Australian general who gave a boy a radio instead of the gun he asked for.