Hark Pulls Troop Out
Harold Hark
6 April 2004

Today's news is a veritable reflection of the schizoid world we live in.

First we see that our worst nightmares of Iraq are confirmed by US experts who now claim that the invasion has exponentially increased terrorism: Bin Laden's vision 'spread by Iraq invasion'.

Next, Paul McGeough confirms the hopelessness in his article on the uprising of Shi'ite's pissed off at the US retaliation for the grizzly murder by Sunnis of its mercenaries--oops, I mean American Security Contractors, and the resulting chaos that will likely escalate to civil war: A nightmare of nationwide chaos faces the occupiers.

Then we hear that John Howard's sleeper agents (aka his supporters in voterland) were awakened by his scared weird little guy hammering of Mark Latham last week and promptly dropped Latham in the Newspoll by some 14 points: Mark Latham's bubble bursts.

As if that isn't bad enough, Labor veteran Gareth Evans, he of East Timor Oil fame, came out to blast Latham for daring to suggest that our participation in the illegal invasion of Iraq should be terminated by Christmas. Needless to say, Little Lord Downer and The Weasel Who Gnawed At The Foundations Of A Nation Until It Collapsed were ecstatic: Evans backs PM on troops.

Is it possible to be gobsmacked and depressed to the point of catatonia at the same time?

That's how I feel. And the reason I feel this way is because words are no longer sufficient to sublimate the outrage.

Enough is enough.

The 2001 election was supposed to coincide with SCATT's glorious demise, a bell-ringing final issue to celebrate Australia's liberation from the grubby hands of Illiberal Huns. Like the genie released from the bottle in The Thief of Baghdad, I was going to be FREE-E-E-E...

Alas, when confronted by John Howard's twin trump cards of Tampa and 9/11, the majority threw out the baby of reason with the bathwater of experience.

Like a battered wife whose husband momentarily suspends his ritual abuse because of a suspicious noise in the street, the electorate, fearing a greater unknown, voted to retain the husband.

Thanks to them, we've been in The Abuser's hands ever since.

Such have been the extremes of John Howard's reign, that centrist folk have been driven to extremes too. Few occupy the middle ground any more. Yours truly has become so extremely left that he has almost met the extreme right.

Most unhealthy, wouldn't you agree?

I've always wanted to be a dispassionate bloke, the kind who was of the earth but not in it, who understood that beating his head against the walls flanking the narrow hamster's run on the wheel of life was a fruitless waste of time.

But I'm stuck with a genuine hatred of John Howard, Alexander Downer and Philip Ruddock, not to forget Peter Reith, Michael Wooldridge, and the arsehole who inspired and helped to unleash their arrogant extremism, Jeff Kennett.

What a waste.

I'd like to think that despite the above reports, the chances are good that Howardism has had its day. It's hard to believe he or George W. Bush will be re-elected; people are not that stupid. If not consciously, then on a cellular level they know that to re-elect these homuncular madmen would be to remove the present governor on the planet's descent into hell.

But maybe I'm wrong. At heart, Aussies--after all, the genetic remnants of "Britannia's sons"--are a warlike nation (as opposed to a warrior nation...the difference being that a warlike nation joins the wars of others to consolidate the power of its rulers and the bloodlust of its gun fodder, while a warrior nation is always ready for noble battle but takes up weapons only when threatened). The hobgoblin who sits on the shoulders of larval voters and dogwhistles slogans like "get the job done" may succeed in awakening once again the bloodlust. Instead of pulling our troops out of Iraq with no casualties, we may wind up sending more. From the historical point of view of the Australian Liberal Party, what good is going to war if no one is killed? The warmongers need fresh memorials to justify their grip on traitorous power.

We are approaching a perilous moment for this country and for the world. There is a polarity dividing the world's population rarely seen except in times of civil war. And the brake on this escalating tension is in the hands of a few of voters, generally described as "swinging" but who in reality should be described as indifferent to issues that do not directly benefit their selfishness.

Unbelievable!

I'm willing to go to jail on behalf of my right to dissent, to speak against a government that is increasingly totalitarian--that is the duty of every aware citizen who believes in the fair go--but this web site, with its limited reach to the already converted, is long past its use-by date.

SCATT will remain online until after the election, but yours truly will henceforth divert his energies to more effective ways to fight the good fight. Or, if I had the Moxie, to indulge in something completely different.

In solidarity and with best wishes to all those who gave me inspiration,
Harold Hark