Australia Day
Someone must have slipped me some meds as I seem to be in a much less insane state of mind today. Nevermind – on I shall press with the mad rantings and ravings.
Whether it is because our unique sense of humour, our rough as guts accents, or just our “she’ll be right, mate” attitude – we Aussies are loved throughout the world.
On my recent trip to the United States, you should have seen the eyes of people light up when they found out I was from Australia. Even these scary, drunken big ass bikies (tats, piercings, chains et al) on my Ghost Tour in New Orleans were like “Hey you’re from ozstralia aren’t ya? That is awesome. I have always wanted to go there. Can you give us a G’day mate?”
We are a proud bunch here Down Under. And for the most part we are entitled to be proud. Sure we have our black marks on our history as all nations do. But though we have a short history – just over 200 hundreds since the first colonies were founded, just over a hundred years since those colonies formed one nation – we have achieved a hell of a lot for a country who has only just now passed the 20 million population mark.
We have always had a political stability the envy of the rest of the world. Political assassinations are almost unheard off. To my knowledge there have only been two attempts with only one success. I cannot recall there ever being a physical punch up such as those that seem to plague the parliaments of Asia and Europe. Of course, just recently the leader of a pathetic leftist minor party was drunk in parliament, pushed a female senator and called her a fucking cunt. And in typical leftist fashion he does not see that as cause to resign.
But what we are entitled to be the most proud of is our history of fighting for what we believe is right.
Let’s look back at WW1. What possible danger would we, so many thousands of miles from the battlefields of Europe, be in from a fight about some assassination? None – but Great Britain was at war and we saw it as our duty to support her in a noble cause. And it cost us dearly.
A small stretch of beach in Turkey near Gallipoli is where the ANZAC legend was born. Go and read about here. Long story short – we were slaughtered but kept on fighting. Even the Turks were impressed with the courage and determination of the Anzacs. There was no animosity between our nations back then and there is none now.
Many of those who survived Gallipoli were sent to the European front. The Aussie troops were considered undisciplined and insolent by the English officers, yet time and time again the Australian divisions pushed so far ahead and captured so much land so quickly that they often found themselves surrounded and taking heavy enemy fire while waiting for the other troops to catch up to them.
Now the thing to remember is that we have never had conscription here in Australia. We have come close a couple of times and that was one of the most bitterly divisive issues we have ever had here.
No - all those troops, who fought so hard and so bravely were there because they volunteered. Many of them were 16 and 17 year old boys who had lied about their age in order to enlist. They fought and died willingly because they thought it was the right thing to do.
Come WW2 and again Australia joins the fight in Europe. In latter years our attention was drawn to the Japanese aggression. We came close to falling with Darwin being bombed on February 19, 1942. Once again we fought to liberate invaded countries despite our losses.
In Borneo, Korea and Vietnam – we fought side by side with the US to prevent the spread of the scourge of communism. We had seen the millions killed by communist regimes in the USSR, China and Korea and we had no interest in seeing it spread closer to us but above that – we saw it would be wrong for us to sit back and allow another genocide to be committed.
Our Special Air Service troops – one of the most highly trained units the world – truly made a name for themselves. So feared were our SAS troops they were named “phantoms of the jungle” by the VC – able to appear from nowhere, kill you quickly and silently, then disappear back into the jungle without a trace. All this to an enemy hiding amongst civilians too scared to turn on them.
The Australian military tradition has not changed.
Gulf War 1 – Australia joined the effort. We saw it as our duty as a world citizen and free democracy to protect the Kurds (finally) and liberate Kuwait.
Australia played her greatest role in East Timor. We led the force that restored order and allowed the country to regain her independence. For too long it was a black mark against our honour when we did nothing to even protest Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor. Now we have cleansed it.
And then of course there is our stalwart support in Afghanistan and Iraq again. We stood up to be counted with those few with the courage to fight terrorism and oppression.
But I fear greatly for our reputation in the future. And I fear for the Australian military tradition. And most of all I fear for our national pride.
During my day at the San Diego Zoo last October I got chatting to an old couple from Switzerland who had immigrated to the US. We got to discussing the war on terrorism and Australia’s support.
I will tell you the same thing I told them after being told how grateful they were for Australia’s support.
In future you may not be able to look to Australia for support. You had it this time because we have a conservative government and John Howard is a proud Australian and wants to ensure that we remain proud. If the opposition was in power it would have been a very different story.
If the opposition was in power, Australia would have run and hid like cowards.
“Oh we can’t fight back or stand up for freedom and basic human rights – we will become a terrorist target.”
That sort of cowardice makes me physically ill.
Bob Brown, the “leader” of the Greens is one of the most disgusting and despicable people in Australian politics. In 1990 he was screaming at the government to go to war to protect the Kurds and liberate Kuwait. But apparently the Iraqi people themselves are not worthy of the same.
I wrote him a letter asking why he hates the Iraqi people so much. I asked what they had done to him to make him oppose them being freed from Saddam when he demanded that we free the Kurds and Kuwaitis from Saddam back in 1991. Of course I did not get a response.
“If we help them, we will become a target??”
Boo hoo. Evil people are gonna hate us and try to hurt us.
Now the opposition wants to throw open our borders to anyone who can pay people smugglers to bring them here. Tie up your refugee status application in our courts for 2 years and be granted permanent residency.
I have a better idea – how about we get rid of tyrants and dictators that force these people to flee their countries and improve their country so they don’t have to leave? How about we try to end the misery and persecution in their countries so they don’t have to up and leave their lives behind?
No no no. Despite all the Left’s talk about helping those “poor” countries, when something is suggested that we get involved and actually do something about it – they are opposed to it because they are all worthless piles of hypocritical shit.
I want to be a terrorist target. I want to be hated by terrorists. That shows we are doing the right thing. I want these savages to hate us with every fibre in the being that they are driven mad by it.
America has achieved this. Though it will never forget the black stain that is the Philippines, America has done more for freedom than any other nation. Start with her Constitution. A document that cements freedom and (unlike every other “empire” in the history of the world) provides political power to ALL its citizens rather than an elite few.
You can go back to the Civil War and the ending of slavery. (I know that was not the initial intent but who cares? Slavery was ended and that is only a good thing).
She cleansed Nazism from Europe. She halted and pushed back and defeated Japanese expansion in the Pacific. She fought against Communist aggression all through South America and South East Asia.
It was the US and Britain alone who protected Western Europe and prevented the Soviets from claiming the continent. It was the US under the leadership of the great man Ronald Reagan who FOREVER freed Europe from the threat of the most bloodthirsty regime in human history by winning the Cold War without firing one shot.
It was the US who got food supplies flowing again in Somali in 1992. The US who stopped Milosevic from continuing his genocide in 1999.
In 2001, Afghanistan was finally freed from one the most oppressive regimes to foul our world. An effort led once again by the US. It is unfortunate that it took the events of Sept 11 to make the world realise that we cannot ignore terrorism and basic human rights offences of that scale – nor should we ignore them. Especially when we have the ability to do something about it and right those wrongs.
And then Iraq. Saddam is gone. No more children are being put in mass graves. No more are women being dragged off the street into rape rooms simply for being attractive and catching the eye of one of Saddam’s subordinates. The US has ended all of that – and Australia was right there beside her.
To get back on track after that rather large digression….
America has earned her place as being the most hated nation by communists, terrorists, and appeasers. She should be proud of that.
Israel is another. Israel has made the desert bloom from nothing while her terrorist neighbours with trillions of dollars in oil wealth have most of their citizens living in their own filth. Israel who has almost single-handedly held off the entire arab world. She too, is entitled to be proud of the fact she is hated by all those terrorists.
And I would be so immensely proud of Australia were we to achieve that level. And we have headed down that path. In world wars past. In South East Asia. Both times in Iraq. In East Timor. Our efforts in the Solomon Islands to restore peace, order and stability to nation for no reason other than they asked us to.
But as stated – I fear for our ability to look at our actions with pride in the future. There is nothing to be found in running like cowards and turning a blind eye to these worst human rights violations all for the sake of “peace”.
What we do will unfortunately depend on who we have in power at the time.
If we were faced with the choice of bringing freedom to another oppressed people or doing nothing for the sake of “peace”, I hope we make a stand for freedom every fucking time. Never do I want Australia to be seen by terrorists or the world as a nation of cowards who will not fight, and even worse, not fight back. But that is exactly what the opposition wants us to be – a nation of cowards.
We must avoid this at all costs.
Thus, as the Australia Days roll around, we will always be able to look back at our conduct, look up at our flag, look at the world around us and be proud that we had done our bit against terrorism and tyranny.
That will make for many more joyous Australia Days.
Time to ‘ave a beer (or a slab of beer) and throw a shrimp
big juicy T-bone and some snaggers on the barbie (and maybe some of the inmates
or surviving staff – we do have a couple of cannibals here at the asylum after
all) and enjoy a lazy arvo around the asylum pool.
Australia is a fucking great country and we must keep it great. Next time you meet someone who wants Australia to be a nation of cowards, kick the shit out of them for me, then do it again for Australia, and then one more time for yourself. Let them know what they are going to be dealing with every time they try to make us a nation of cowards.
© by Tiberius Alatheus 2004