That's an ex-parrot...

One entry found for former.
Entry Word: former
Function: adjective
Text: having been such at some previous time
Synonyms: erstwhile, late, old, onetime, past, sometime, whilom
Related Words: bygone, dead, extinct

Comments by former CDF Peter Cosgrove have led to a frenzy of fulminating and ridiculous rhetoric. At the head of the list of bleaters is the ALP, quicker to jump on to any chance to harangue faster than Kim onto a baked ham. Before I continue, I'd like to point out that as a former commander, his views have about as much creedence now as mine. If it was so important to outline a timetable for the removal of Australian troops from Iraq, why didn't he do it 2 months ago when he really did have the chance to influence policy?

Peter Cosgrove, former CDF;
“I think weve got to train the Iraqis as quickly as we can and to a point where we take one of the focal points of terrorist motivation away, and that is foreign troops. When there is an adequate Iraqi security force, foreign troops leave Iraq.” Asked how quickly that should happen, he said: “Well I figure that if we could get that done by the end of 2006 that would be really good.”

These comments were enough to drag the ALP out from under their rock. Quagmire! Turmoil! Exit strategy! Buzzwords bandied around by armchair critics and self-appointed experts. Definition of an expert? X is an unknown quantity, spurt is a drip under pressure. Expert=unknown drip under pressure.

Robert McClelland, former sports lawyer;
"Our government is not identifying what our mission is, let alone when that will be completed and there is a real risk that we are going to be sucked into a quagmire. This is clearly something the Government has to now start talking about and that is setting out details of our mission in Iraq and when that mission is going to be completed."

Kelvin Thomson, former lawyer and ALP party drone;
"He was saying that the presence of foreign troops in Iraq is a principle focus of terrorist motivation, and, I think, if we're serious about reducing the risk of terrorism in Australia and wanting to do everything we can to reduce the risk of terrorism in Australia, then we should get Australian troops out of Iraq."

Mr Thomson would not comment on whether General Cosgrove should have expressed this view earlier when he had the power to influence defence strategy.

Wayne Swan, former lecturer and ALP party drone;
"Well, everybody else has been saying that, except for the arrogant Howard government. But the truth is that this is the common-sense view throughout the Australian community and throughout the world."

Kim Beazley, former lecturer and still an ALP party drone;
"In going into Iraq we distracted attention from the real struggle with terror and now we have a quagmire on our hands. At least Peter Cosgrove is out there suggesting some form of exit strategy. It's time the Government came clean.The commitment of foreign troops provides a rallying point for the foreign terrorists operating in Iraq and that obviously this has been a consideration in his mind but that's never been articulated by the Government. Well, this is a wrong commitment."

Duncan Kerr, former social worker and lawyer and another ALP party drone;
"We want our government to deal with facts rather than a world they imagine it ought to be, and to pretend that you can dismiss the assessment of the Australian Federal Police, the assessment of the former head of the defence forces, is to live in a fantasy land which is not in the interests of Australia."

Unfortunately, I am unable to find a comment from the SWAT Womble. I have no doubt when he gets around to it, he too will use those critical keywords 'quagmire, lying Prime Minister, arrogant government, exit strategy' etc.

So, at the end of the day, former CDF Peter Cosgrove merely outlines what is still probably the ADF's concept of operations. Continue the training of the Iraqi security forces and provision of security to the JDF, then start a hand-over commencing this time next year. All troops rotated out of the MEAO by end 2006. That's still some 18 months away. A lot can change between now and then. What won't change is the strategy of appeasement and policy of placation that the ALP endorse and engage in. It is disturbing to envision these people as the alternative government.

Cross posted at Bastards Inc.

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