Henrietta Dubb's Diary - 1
My diary is launched the day after the
Government announced its commitment to an invasion of Iraq.
I
launch my diary objecting to my Government. One sentence and already I am in
over my head. But I am really concerned. Still, the Australian Government also
exposes the Liberal Party far more than it realises.
Our
Government has avoided discussion of the slippery slope from which the American
President launches the invasion. The war still has no clear and convincing
justification. It seems that everyone knows that the war is being fought so
that the justification which has not been provided can be found. Is that the
core of the unholy impatient alliance that joins the Australian Prime Minister
to GWB? Sadly, I suspect so.
When
Baghdad is under US military control will evidence be found to justify the
invasion? But if that is the justification for going to war it seems to invert
the logic usually required for authentic political decisions.
Still,
such a logical inversion is an integral part of the philosophy of that
political party which has now made Australia into George Bush's ally. I
remember November 1975. That was after the Liberal Party had torn up its own
standards for parliamentary conduct and used the resulting crisis to entrench
its own power at our nation's expense. It justified its conduct then and
it still justifies similar actions by referring to subsequent electoral
results. Vox populi; vox dei. I say: sic transit any genuine Christian
profession by such a party.
Since
then, how many have used that party as a vehicle for their political careers?
How many use that inverted logic which subordinates party standards to
electoral results. That's the party it has become. After a mere 18 months in
parliament John Howard was elevated to the ministry in December 1975. His
political career ever since has been one attempt after another to find
retrospective justification to his own, and his party's, inverted pragmatic
logic.
Is
this view cynical? My view isn't. I am putting the cynicism, basic to the
Liberal Party, under the spotlight. Since John Howard has decided that
Australia must join this war, cynicism is embedded at a deeper level. The war
is being fought in order to find the evidence needed to justify the war.
HD March 19, 2003
March 2003 © Henrietta
Dubb's Diary, is written and published by Bruce C Wearne, 29
Lawrence Rd., Point Lonsdale Vic 3225 AUSTRALIA, 61-3-5258-3913. Each entry in
the diary may be photocopied or retransmitted in its entirety but
shall not otherwise be reprinted or transmitted without the publisher's written
permission. This personal project aims to
encourage positive Christian citizenship, the development of policies and
political attitudes that better express our love for God and our neighbour.
Comments are welcome.
Email can be sent to bcwearne@ozemail.com.au