20 Mar 2023

Iraq Invasion 20 Years On - A Tasmanian Hero, A Tasmanian Villain

This week is the 20th anniversary of the '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. It also made Australia a target for terrorists.

Left. Federal MP Andrew Wilkie member for the Tasmanian seat of Denison. Wilkie has 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 advocating the invasion of Iraq.

"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 wrong, Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction and the invasion made terrorism worse. It set-up the 20 year long religious war in Afghanistan (that failed) and opened the door for Islamic State in the Middle East. 

It's been said the Iraq invasion caused the end of US global dominance. For conservatives to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine after they invaded Iraq and Afghanistan looks idiotic. If Guy Barnett tried to play on the international stage he failed miserably.

In Hansard Barnett said "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 spent the next 9 years in the Tasmanian parliament where he enabled North Korea via Communist China. Where does Barnett think North Korea get their high-grade magnetite and pulp wood fibre from? Does he just ignore the fact everything North Korea wants comes from China? Does Kim Jong Un eat Tasmanian rock lobsters? Barnett's main job is photo ops. 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 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 Chinese and Filipino wind energy to the mainland. Barnett would struggle to explain the logic of this scheme. His GBE's (government front companies) are a scam designed to steal money from Tasmanians and his law degree is from the Faculty of Applied Genocide at UTAS Hobart. They killed all the Aborigines here under the 'rule of law'.

On a lighter note. The hapless Tasmanian government wants to ban n@zi-era salutes similar to this:

We hope they vote to ban this provocative salute and all n@zi symbols. The n@zi-era genocide was insane and terrible just like the Tasmanian genocide. Incredibly, the Tasmanian government uses the same symbols and swears allegiance to the same regime today. 

Above. Tasmanian genocide memorabilia.

So the Tasmanian Liberals want to ban images of the German genocide but not their own genocide? Finally. Why has Guy Barnett never publicly acknowledged the 'Black War' in Tasmania?



No comments: