Monday, October 11, 2010

a perspective

what an incredibly powerful programme on four corners tonight. most of the time we only hear the spin and propaganda of the government when it comes to the topic of the invasions of afghanistan and iraq. i think most people know what we have done is wrong; some just hide this knowledge deeper than others. it's all too easy to see things from a parochial, blinkered perspective; it's what we are spoon-fed by the tabloid media that makes up commercial television and the print media in this country. thankfully the abc still has some journalistic integrity and is prepared to report the truth. still, regardless of one's perspective, none of us wants to see aussie servicemen killed and i, as much as anyone, mourn their tragic loss and the devastation it wreaks on their families.

what i find gives me perspective is to think of how i would react if circumstances were different. for example:

a group of nations have decided they have a common hatred for the australian government and, despite our government being largely impotent, disseminate a story that it poses a danger to the international community. they band together and launch a coordinated invasion of our country and overthrow our government. they then occupy our country, kill our women and children and torture australian citizens in makeshift prisons. they humiliate our people and desecrate our places of importance.

so, what do we do? do we welcome them as liberators? some of us will. some will see an opportunity to take positions of power with the invaders backing them. more importantly, what would i do?

i honestly believe i would fight for my country: in today's parlance, become an insurgent. say what you will about the insurgents in iraq and afghanistan, but if my country was invaded and occupied i'd be the first to volunteer to fight in any way necessary to defend it. as much as i hate to see aussies killed in foreign countries, i know that if foreign powers invaded australia i'd be targeting them. and if they came with far superior technology, i'd be using anything available to me to combat that. some may consider IED's to be dirty warfare but if that was all that was available to me to even up the odds a bit, i'd be using them. furthermore, i'd question the patriotism of anyone who wouldn't stand and fight.

i hate to see our troops die abroad but they shouldn't have been there in the first place. howard, bush, blair and the other leaders have a lot to answer for.

4 comments:

Mark Edwards said...

fascinating program
US made a lot of mistakes, no question.

Matthew Lock said...

Not sure Afghanistan would have been better off with the Taliban and Al Quieda running the country. Have a proper read about how brutal they were when running Afghanistan.

dave said...

Don't get me wrong; I'm not defending the Taliban and I recognise they were a repressive and brutal regime. My point is more to do with the issue of the government of one nation (or a 'coalition' of nations) making a decision to invade another country, overthrow the government and then leave a military force to occupy that country. In this case the government that was overthrown was an 'evil' regime but it's the principle I'm against. It is wrong for a more powerful nation to be allowed to decide which governments of weaker nations are allowed to remain in power and which should be overthrown. It was also my point that the media can demonise the 'insurgents' all they like but if the situation was different and Australia was the nation which had been invaded and was being occupied I'd join the insurgents in a heartbeat.

Unknown said...

I think I disagree with you in 58 different ways but I'm going to have to watch the prog first evidently to have that argument properly!! But off the cuff I don't think you can group Irag and Afg under the same philosophy - v diff scenario (just ask a women in Afg about how she feels towards the 'liberators') - and I DO agree with you on the methods used by the US in Iraq etcso this'll have to be a post roast n potatoes chat cos will take more than one woman can type while 2 children sleep =]!