Dear briar rose,

I was going to mention Zimbabwe myself - and if you refer back to an earlier post of mine on this thread, it will become clear that poor old Zimbabwe only qualifies for one "preventive war" characteristic in that it is virtually defenceless - however it's not important enough to be worth the trouble of intervention and there is no real way available at present to portray it as an imminent danger to our survival.

Dear rpg,

I agree with you that it is extremely poor tactics to bury your planes in the sand - makes taking off really difficult, lol.
Furthermore...ho hum...I do not hate America. I'm interested in it (as I am in may countries) It's always the same old argument - or lack of it. I criticize a certain administration flying the U.S. banner, in line with my moral judgment, and am daubed with a "You hate America" accusation. Empty rhetoric as far as I'm concerned.

Dear David f.
That is interesting - what a valuable insight for your wife (and perhaps for all of us one day).Is it not possible for her to try and have it published in the future? Viewpoints such as hers are so important from an historical angle.
Your point about the emancipation of women prior to the first war is well made. Many people would be surprised to learn such things as they tend to lump all Middle-Eastern countries together in that regard.

Dear Poirot,

My wife was at a conference in Sydney where she met a Palestinian woman who was a professor at an Iraqi university. They became good friends, and my wife was invited to visit Iraq.

Iraq was not a tourist destination. The only people who went there were business people, reporters or relatives of Iraqis. There was a lot of red tape, but she eventually got in. We were on a trip around the world, and my wife went to Iraq from Greece. I continued on.

They were suspicious of her and did not let her stay at her friend’s house. However, they put her up at a first class hotel, the Al-Rasheed, and gave her a car and driver – all free. She was unrestricted, and the driver took her any place she wanted to go. She met many Iraqis through her friend and visited many places.

At that time there were fifteen Iraqi families in Brisbane. We live a bit north of Brisbane, and I met some of them. One of the families was that of an agent of the Iraqi government who was there to keep tabs on the other fourteen families. The Iraqis were students at universities in Brisbane. In general they spoke good English, and I talked to them. I remember talking to one of them, an architecture student, at the staff house on the University of Queensland campus. The first Gulf War was going on, and I told him that the US and Australian soldiers were volunteers. He would not believe me as nobody outside of the officer class volunteers for the Iraqi army. They are all conscripts.

One Iraqi veterinarian studying at uni discovered a cure for a cattle disease affecting the cattle in northern Queensland. That saved millions of dollars for Australia.

The war broke out a couple of months after she left. Since the war the few Jews who still lived in Iraq and most of the Christians have fled. The war did a lot to promote religious hatred.

Dear rpg,

Just noticed your imaginative narrative lauding John Howard as being a man of conviction.
I have to admit that he was fairly impressive in his role as a George Dubya groupie. Seldom have we witnessed such slavering obsequiousness to a third rate world leader. I found it somewhat nauseating, however to watch Mr Howard toadying around Washington attached to the coattails of the reigning neo-cons.
Mr Howard was not, in my opinion, a man of scruples or conviction, he was a man who regularly showed no compunction in opportunistically mustering all of his faculties of cunning and doublespeak to seduce the electorate whenever it was politically expedient to do so...one of his final exploits in this regard was the shameful treatment of Dr Haneef as a last ditch political ploy to avoid annihilation in the 2007 election campaign.

rpg: << Howard will be remembered in time as the greatest leader we have ever had >>

There goes my coffee... but thanks for a Sunday morning laugh.

How about that Iran, Time has gotta be gettin close now. This out of controll system has got to be silenced.
I recon israel could handle that quite well.

CJ/Poirot and there I was thinking the ultimate grovelling moment in Australia/US relations was PM Rudd saluting to President Bush, in public - beautiful, really shows who is who in international politics.

Did PM Howard top that? What short and selective memories you both have.

Then again, an ever greater grovel was Geraldine Doogue with her "we salute you" moment at the 2020 Best and Brightest lovefest of Ruddites. She is now defined by that incident, no greater grovel ever seen on the ABC and we see some doosies don't we from them.

Now I didn't like everything PM Howard did, but he showed leadership, he was not afraid of owning a fight and he went to the Australian people with things they did not always like. What has the ALP done in recent times? In 2.5 years the government is a disaster, defined by it's lack of leadership and vision - so what do they do, team up with a bunch of no hopers who have never had to be responsible in their political careers. If the ALP gets back in, it should be one heck of a ride, albeit, a short one and the last for many of them and any of the greens.

PM Howard, like PM Hawke, could commit and stick with it .. no one else has their guts .. that's why PM Howard will be remembered.