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John Howard: Profile of a Coward
by finch Tuesday, Feb 13 2007, 11:52am
national / peace/war / commentary

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, has managed to gain some international attention after his hysterical attack on U.S. presidential candidate, Barack Obama. The seasoned Australian politician knowingly stated that a victory for Obama OR the Democrats would be a victory for al-Qaeda, “I mean, if I we're running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and pray as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats”.

Helen Clark

Howard’s extremely unwise inclusion of the American Democrats earned him strong rebukes from the Labor ‘opposition’ party in Oz and politicians from both camps in the U.S. If Howard imagined his antics would in some way assist his idol, George (bereft) Bush, he had better take a long and considered re-appraisal of his ‘strategy’. Many analysts and commentators in Australia consider Howard’s outburst to be the clearest indication to date that he has come to the end of his political run. Former PM, Paul Keating, stated in characteristic style that Howard had remained too long in office, ‘if his own party doesn’t put the sword through him, then the public will do it for them’, he said.

Howard’s attention seeking and agenda grabbing stunt has only increased the chances of the opposition in the forthcoming elections. Howard’s political colleagues, while displaying open support for their leader, have been murmuring amongst themselves; do they go down with their extremely unpopular leader or do they opt for ‘leader change’.

Howard has been unable to gain the offensive in parliamentary debate since making his inflammatory remarks; the opposition leader has pursued him relentlessly. In response to the PM’s provocation to openly state the position of the opposition on Iraq, the opposition leader openly challenged the PM to a public debate on the issue. Howard predictably refused to accept the challenge; Howard now faces open accusations of being “gutless” – and in that description lies the entire story of John Howard the shameless, cringing, coward who leads Australia.

Consider for a moment other nations in the region, from the tiny city-state of Singapore to the teaming millions of the Indonesian archipelago. Not one leader in the region seeks to cling to another nation’s apron strings or seeks to willingly surrender its sovereignty to a foreign power. But not our spineless Johnny, when faced with the challenge of taking Australia into the 21st century as an independent nation, Howard cowered in fear and sought the protection of a big brother or father figure. This disgusting, cowardly, treasonous act has earned him the infamy that history will be quick to record.

In contrast to Australia’s cowardice, the tiny nation of New Zealand has proudly maintained its independence – but at huge cost. After refusing American nuclear war ships access to her harbours, the tiny south pacific nation faced trade and other brutal economic sanctions from the international bully, AMERICA. Nevertheless, much to the credit of the female Prime Minister, Helen Clark, New Zealand stood firm and maintained its neutrality and integrity.

Howard has been at pains to defend his now very unpopular stance on Iraq; his remarks have taken on a shrill tone, which is indicative of an alarmism consistent with the cowardly personality. Howard’s entire argument rests on the supposition that American withdrawal from Iraq would result in the ‘sky falling in’! Howard’s monumental assumption is reminiscent of the 'domino theory' (tactic) that fuelled the prolongation of the Vietnam war – much to the surprise of all the pundits the loss in Vietnam did not see the whole region fall to the communist bogey man. But it did see the unnecessary deaths of over two million civilians in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos! Do we really need to repeat the same mistakes again and again?

It would be difficult to imagine a worse hell in Iraq than the one that Howard, Bush and Blair have already created. To state that the war must continue on the basis of unfounded conjecture is absurd and is an obvious alarmist, fear tactic. A viable solution for Iraq would involve the immediate withdrawal of the detested American coalition forces and the introduction of United Nations forces, including the stabilising participation of Russia and China. The region would welcome the involvement of familiar and friendlier superpowers.

John Howard’s fear mongering tactics are transparent and intentionally alarmist. The fact remains that Howard, Blair and Bush have the blood of over half a million innocent civilians on their hands. It is now incumbent on the opposition leader to institute immediate proceedings for the arrest and trial of the known war criminal, John Howard.

We would offer John Howard the fair trial that he did not offer over half a million dead Iraqis!

Defeating Howard is child’s play, if you are fair dinkum – are you listening, Kevin?

[Please forward or link this article to all concerned citizens and others who may be swayed by the shallow lies of desperate politicians.]

Peace.