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Howard style

Who goes there?
Harold Hark
22 November 2002

How does Bush's Axis of Evil speech differ from Iranian mullahs calling America the Great Satan? America can afford to express itself in these terms...because it is the most powerful nation on Earth. For Australians to think in this way...is folly. One factor the Australian public needs to deliberate upon is that if we are part of what is perceived as an American-led assault on Iraq, we can expect to meet an upsurge of hatred in our region, not merely from fanatics, but from people with whom we previously had no difference.
Martin Flanagan, The Age, 20/11/02

In concert with their push to give ASIO Stalinist powers, and to counteract their failure to heed intelligence warnings before the Bali bombing, the Howard Government has gone bananas with terrorist alerts.

Warnings have been issued to Australians throughout Asia to be on the look out for suspicous swarthies bearing bombs; yet when Asian nations warn their nationals to be on the alert in Australia, the government cries foul. [See: Joe Hockey makes a fool of himself.] Does this show that at heart the government has no real grasp of the situation? After nearly seven years in power are they nothing more than a government of jumped-up merchants excited by the prospect of playing war?

Little Lord Downer repeats the terror mantra every chance he gets. From the safety of his plutocratic pedigree, like a general sipping tea miles behind the front lines, he has no qualms in pushing the need for the potential deaths of thousands of Iraqis.

John Howard, the man whom the Silent Majority regards as four times more popular than Peter Costello (to show how low this country has sunk), "will address the nation as part of his campaign to win public support for a protracted global war against terror, which could include military action against Iraq and will require lifting defence spending at the expense of other programs."** In other words, the Illiberals chief priority: removing social benefits to the poor, can now be easily excused by aiding (and appeasing) The Boy Emperor's lust for Saddam's oil and world domination.

Then acting Attorney-General Chris Ellison gets his name in lights by making sure that all Australians at home (or at least the ones who are paying attention) will start looking over their shoulders in a heightened state of paranoia. The entire Illiberal side of parliament will soon be jockeying for position to give their creative take on how we should all be frightened out of our wits. Working on a rotation basis, sniggering members will already be working on their earnest pleas for everyone to be suspicious of everyone.

The trouble is, except for Mr and Mrs Australia and their legion of gullible clones, no one believes a word this cynical government says. We watch incredulously as Jingo Johnny orchestrates a state of fear to ensure no one challenges his leadership on his 64th birthday, now that he has reneged on stepping down. (Even that was non-core.) Well he hasn't actually. But he will.

The other morning Melbourne radio's John Faine took a call from a man who lost family members in the Bali Bombing. This poor bloke was almost in tears, not over his loss this time, but over the government's campaign to invite terror to our shores. He didn't go so far as to blame Howard for the atrocity in Bali, but he let it be known that much of the strife we are getting ourselves into could have been avoided. Howard, he intimated, could have backed the US without jumping up and down like an attention seeking toddler begging for recognition from al Qaeda. (Could this have been Bill Deegan?)

Let me state my position unambiguously. The responsibility for any terrorist attacks on Australian soil will lie solely at the feet of John Howard, the most dangerous prime minister this country has ever had.

Worse, he may have contributed to the future unleashing of terrorist attacks from within by people who have nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalists. Howard's hysterical and unthinking rhetoric could see the rise of Australia's own Baader-Meinhoff gang, its Red Brigade or Weathermen. Terrorist groups like these do not form because they have nothing else to do. They are the result of state terrorism or unchecked corruption.

Meanwhile, like Hermann Goering [see SCATT home page near the top], who knew a thing or two about scaring the shit out of an entire continent, the Howard Government knows it is in their interests to keep Mr and Mrs Australia's knees knocking with fear. They know these witless sheep will never work out that the government's two plus two equals mugs.

The government also knows that while the short attention span of these people works to the their advantage whenever they get caught lying or rorting, it is conversely just as hard to keep the mugs from forgetting to be afraid.

Coupled with the imminent passing into law of the ASIO bill (thanks to Labor's predicted capitulation), we will soon have a highly strung nation ready to follow Chris Ellison's advice to keep an eye out for anything unusual; i.e., anyone who does not appear to be swallowing the government's line.

Dobbing in the neighbours will be commonplace soon, so you had better get to practicing a convincing Heil Howard when Richardson's Raiders kick your door in.

** Louise Dodson" "We need to get ready for war, Howard warns", The Age, 16/11/02

See also: Fake Terror: The Road to dictatorship

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