This week people around the World are commemorating the failed 'Desert Storm' invasion of Iraq by George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard. It's now apparent the invasion achieved absolutely nothing except misery and death for Iraqi civilians that lasts to this day.
Left. Tasmanian Federal MP Andrew Wilkie member for Denison. Wilkie has now represented Denison for 13 years.
Before John Howard joined the invasion in 2003 Wilkie told the ABC "I think that invading Iraq at this time would be wrong. For a start, Iraq does not pose a security threat to any other country at this point in time. Its military is very weak."
He also said "there is no hard intelligence linking the Iraqi regime to al-Qaeda in any substantial or worrisome way." This was the complete opposite of the cooked-up rubbish 'Deputy' John Howard was using to justify Australia's role in the invasion.
In 2016, after appearing at the Chilcot enquiry, Wilkie said the notion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and co-operated with terrorists had been "a lie ... No wonder John Howard and Tony Blair and George W Bush do stand accused of war crimes". Compare that to another sitting Tasmanian politician Guy Barnett?
Right. Guy Barnett entered the senate in 2002 representing Tasmania and has been living off the public purse for 21 years. 20 years ago he was baying for the blood of Iraqis.
"This is not simply a war against Iraq. I call it a war against Iraqism. It is a war against terror, and that is why I am pleased, humbled and honoured to be able to stand here and say that if we withdraw now at this time it would certainly cause an increase in insecurity and terror around the world tomorrow".
Barnett was completely wrong, Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction and the invasion only made terrorism worse. It set-up a 20 year long religious war in Afghanistan (that failed) and opened the door for Islamic State in the Middle East. Do you think Guy Barnett ever asks himself why his reality is one huge failure?
In Hansard Barnett went on "I raise the issue of North Korea. What hope would we have of dealing with North Korea? Our ability in that regard would be deficient. Both Iraq and North Korea present grave security concerns for this nation. Both have pursued weapons of mass destruction in breach of their international obligations".
Barnett has wasted 9 years in the Tasmanian parliament and has devoted some of that time to enabling North Korea via the Peoples Republic of China. Where does Barnett think North Korea get their iron ore and wood chips from? Does Kim Jong Un eat Tasmanian rock lobsters? Barnett's role in Tasmania is photo op after photo op. He is the minister for people living in tents and the minister for stealing Tasmanian electricity.
It's almost impossible to compare an ethical, caring humanitarian like Andrew Wilkie with a permanently confused dim-wit like Guy Barnett. Now Barnett's is focused on getting the poorest state in Australia to subsidise his stupid Marinus Link so he can sell Communist and Filipino wind energy to the mainland. As usual Barnett would struggle to explain the logic of this scheme. His GBE's (government front companies) are a big scam designed to steal money from Tasmanians and his law degree is from the University of Genocide in Hobart.
On a lighter note. The hapless Tasmanian parliament is about to ban n@zi-era salutes similar to this one:
We hope all of Tasmania's Liberal nutters vote to ban this provocative salute. As well as all n@zi symbols. There is one ex-Tasmanian senator whose whole family can no longer be shown publicly because they wore uniforms with these symbols. The n@zi-era genocide was terrible yet the Tasmanian genocide was much more acceptable. We still fly flags with Tasmanian genocide symbols on them today. Weirdly, they want one law for Germans but another law for themselves.