Speaking of deluded politicians and their Middle Eastern adventures, here’s a story about Australian defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon’s barracking for our endless involvement in Afghanistan:
Mr Fitzgibbon remained optimistic that the conflict could be won.
“I think we can win the war in Afghanistan,” he said.
“What does winning the war in Afghanistan mean from my perspective? Well it means winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people, proving to them that [what] we’re offering is better than what the Taliban or any other group can offer them.”
Now I’m reluctant to hang anyone on the basis of a news story from Our ABC, given their proven habit of turning snippets of conversation into totally misleading summaries. However if Fitzgibbon said anything remotely like this, his capacity for meaningless pompous “Western values rule! Yeah!!” tripe promises to be every bit as impressive as Alexander Downer’s.
Perhaps someone can explain to Joel that the Taliban are actually Afghanis whereas we are not. The idea that ‘the Afghan people’ (which in itself is a vague and insubstantial expression) are sitting there expectantly weighing up what the invaders are ‘offering them’ and comparing it to what their fellow countrymen are offering is … well, let’s be kind and just say it’s idiotic. Nearly as idiotic as declaring that we’ll have won the war when we have won their hearts and minds, which we will presumably know because they will spontaneously rise up and drive the Taliban and the terrorists from their land.
At least we know now why Rudd keeps saying we’ll be there for a long time.
But what I would really like to know is what Joel thinks we are offering the Afghanis. Billions in aid? Correspondence courses in Western values? Series of Home and Away translated into Pushtu and Dari? Sub-prime mortgage futures at a heavily discounted rate? Seriously, I’d like to know.
