Mr Rudd is washing his hands of Australia's committment to a peaceful Middle East. While it is possible that the job our troops have done in Iraq is over and they have been successful, Mr Rudd has not given them credit for the work they have done. Instead, Mr Rudd is proclaiming the success of such as Mamdouh Habib or David Hicks. Following in the footsteps of Whitlam, who managed to manufacture the Timor and Cambodian crisis out of his withdrawal from Vietnam.
Also getting the dirty hand treatment of Rudd is the 'sorry' issue. No one alive today was victor or victim of the first fleet expedition to colonize Australia. However, Rudd's policy is to open the floodgates for spurious claims of 'stolen generations' or displaced persons. And he calls himself a conservative. Reminds me of the description of King Charles 2nd who is said to have "never uttered a foolish thing, nor ever done a wise one."
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Forgetting to Scrub Hands
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Iraq troops to come home by mid-2008: Rudd
From news.com.au
AUSTRALIAN combat troops will come home from Iraq by the middle of next year, Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd says.
Mr Rudd, who will be sworn in on Monday, said he would meet US Ambassador Robert McCallum soon to set up discussions on precise timing.
The troop withdrawal would go ahead, as promised before last Saturday's election, he said.
"The combat force in Iraq we would have home by around about the middle of next year," Mr Rudd told Southern Cross Broadcasting in Melbourne.
"We've not begun our discussions with the United States on that.
"We'll have a meeting with the United States ambassador before too long to set up the appropriate processes for discussing that."
Bishop has no opinion on 'sorry' issue
From news.com.au
NEW deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop has failed to fall in immediately behind her leader's opposition to saying sorry to the Stolen Generation.
New federal Liberal leader Brendan Nelson says he will not support prime minister-elect Kevin Rudd's plan to say sorry for past governments' removal of indigenous children from their parents.
While he said he would discuss the issue with colleagues, Dr Nelson said last night: "In my view we have no responsibility to apologise or take ownership for what was done by earlier generations".
Ms Bishop declined to offer a view on the issue today.
"It's now up to the new government to take a position on this and then we will respond accordingly," she told ABC Radio.
"I think we need to consult within the party to ensure that everybody understands where we are going with this issue."
Ms Bishop said saying sorry "became one of those symbolic issues from which the party would not retreat".
"We are very proud of the fact that we responded so immediately to the Northern Territory report and ... we must continue with that Northern Territory intervention so that we can make a practical difference to indigenous people in this country.
"We've still got to focus on the practical solutions for indigenous disadvantage and that's what our focus will be."
Ms Bishop said Mr Rudd had been "very shy" in spelling out the terms of a Labor government apology.
"I mean, he has been consistently baulking at actually saying these are the words we will use.
"So, I think it would be incumbent on us to consider what the government is putting forward and then take a position on it."
May have cost Turnbull the leadership
Commentators believe Malcolm Turnbull's strong support for saying sorry may have helped cost him the leadership in yesterday's party room ballot, which he lost to Dr Nelson by 45 votes to 42.
Dr Nelson has maintained outgoing prime minister John Howard's stance by saying he is not convinced of the need to say sorry.
"In my view, we have no responsibility to apologise or take ownership for what was done by earlier generations," he told ABC TV last night.
"Our generation cannot take personal or generational responsibility for the actions of earlier ones which in most, but not all cases, were done with the best of intentions."
Today, Dr Nelson said he had cried while reading about the plight of Aboriginal Australians in the past, but Australians should not be sorry about it.
On Aboriginal history, he said: "I am not ashamed to say I was in tears reading a lot of it".
"From the early 20th century through to about 1970, in most but not all cases they were good intentions, devastating outcomes in a lot of cases, arguably good outcomes in others," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
"Our generation will look back with a sense of shame in some of those outcomes, but we don't own them," he said.
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