It is sad, but somehow I knew that there would be no
escaping the division over Iraq as the world community attempts to
present a united front in delivering relief to the victims of the Asian Tsunami
disaster.
I had little doubt that headlines like these would
be wheeled out in the days and weeks following the tragic events;
- "America has happily spent more than $US200 billion destroying Iraq, imgaine if those funds had gone towards the poorest nations in Asia."
- "Instead of spending more than $500 million on detention centres, why couldn't the Howard Government have spent that money helping Asia's poorest countries?"
- "If John Howard wants to prove he's moved on from those Asian immigation comments in the 1980s he should allow tens of thousands of homeless victims of the tsunamis to come to Australia and start a new life."
And of course letter
writers around the country didn’t let me down!
I wouldn’t normally trod
down this track, but after scanning around some of the online forums, I want to
expose some of these “losers”; People like Caiti
Wilson, Williamstown who wrote to the Age:
“Thousands of Australians remain stranded in
tsunami-devastated areas and where is the prime of our defence capability? It
is stretched to the limit in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries largely at
the behest of the United States. Australians and our Asian neighbours lie dead and
injured while our limited resources are being used elsewhere. This speaks volumes
about the priorities of this country in deploying scarce resources overseas to
pursue President Bush's interests.”
Moron.
Chris Burgess is no
better (also from the Age);
”America has offered, at least as a start, a paltry $15 million to victims
of tsunami-ravaged Asia, yet it is estimated to spend around $450 billion
annually on military expenditure. Australia has offered a mere $10 million, yet
spent around $21 billion on defence in 2003.
"When will governments learn it is more
cost-effective (if nothing else) to spend money on helping, rather than
endangering life?”
Nor is Gordon Drennan, (in the Sydney Morning
Herald);
“Almost 3000 people died
as a results of events in the United States on September 11, 2001, and our
Government was willing to spend billions to do something about it - even go to
war, and not ask any embarrassing questions about the evidence for or legality
of doing so.
"Tens of thousands of Asians die and all our Government can spare to help
them is $10 million.
"I guess it makes sense. We all know an American's life is worth millions but
Asians' lives are worth only a few hundred. I'm surprised there's even a body
count. Dead Iraqis don't get counted.”
Severino Milazzo continues the parade of stupidity here:
'It would be a tangible mark of the true greatness
of the man were the Prime Minister to devote as many resources to this
overwhelming disaster as he has to the Iraqi disaster and its aftermath."
Richard Sallie on the bandwagon in The
Australian;
“THOUSANDS of
lives snuffed out in the time it took the rest of us to draw a dozen breaths,
and upward of a million injured, homeless, hopeless and bereaved. The US
Government's response? Aid the cash value of ordnance they dropped on Iraq
during the first two minutes of "shock and awe" or a few days' worth
of TV ads pumped out during "schlock and bore" – their presidential
election campaign. Surely a vulgar demonstration of the Bush administration's
priorities, their commitment to global citizenry and the value they place on
foreign human life.”
Marjo Miller,(from
Kihei, USA on BBC Have Your Say) also piped in with:
"We had higher surf
than usual here on Maui. However, I would like to see the tax dollars we spend
on an illegal war in Iraq diverted to help victims of a force utterly out of
their control. As world citizens, this is our first priority.”
But there were some
“winners”, like David Blackburn in the smh;
"I wonder if multimillionaire
Osama bin Laden will donate anything to help his fellow Muslims in their
terrible distress caused by the tsunami”
And John Colebatch (also from the smh);
"Quick. Hurry Osama.
Before you lose the initiative. Spend some of your millions. Send some of your
obscene followers. Get in and help those suffering so much from the tsunami
before the US-led Forces of Evil send in their tents, doctors, nurses and clean
water.
"Oh! Too late, they've beaten you again. Next time, perhaps…”
Why do I point these sad, bitter, losers of the
left, out? Because they deserve to be
exposed. It is sad, but typical that
some of the incredibly ruthless "Left" don't think twice about exploiting victims
of a tragedy to use as a human platform for their anti-American, or anti-Iraqi
war ideology. It might be cynical of me to suggest this, but I can't help but feeling as though this tragedy is just the thing some devoted Bush and Howard haters have been longing for ever since their candidates failed to topple the objects of their hatred at the ballot boxes earlier in the year.
It seems that it is only when the dead come in
handy and can be used to clobber America do these so-called bleeding hearts come
out of the woodwork. Otherwise these victims are ignored.
Why is it that no one cared about the hundreds of
thousands of Iraqi victims of failed U.N. sanctions before the war? Now the
Iraqi dead are like gold to these self-righteous morons, and the victims of the
tsunami catastrophe seem to be developing a similar currency.
Have a look at this and wake up! The devestation in South East Asia has nothing to do with Iraq. Nor America. Nor either is it about George Bush, or John Howard. This is about the families of the 80000 people dead. This is about uniting to help in both rapid emergency relief missions, as well as understanding that we have an important role to play in the long-term reconsstruction of the region. It presents us with the opportunity to be a friend.
Get over yourselves, you pathetic, bitter bunch of losers.
