Australia's own version of George Bush - the Oz PM, Tony Abbott - has taken on President Putin in as much as he has said he will "shirtfront" Putin at the upcoming G20 Conference to be held in Australia next month. Mmm!
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has escalated the war of words with Vladimir Putin, promising to "shirtfront" the Russian President when the pair meet at the G20 summit in Brisbane next month.
Mr Abbott's vow to confront Mr Putin over the loss of Australian lives in the MH7 Malaysian Airlines tragedy marks an escalation of tension between the two nations over the tragedy.
The Prime Minister told reporters on Monday he would tell Mr Putin that Australians were murdered by Russian-backed rebels in the Ukraine when MH17 was shot down, and that "we are very unhappy about this".
Needless to say the PM's statement is idiotic and simplistic. It may go down well with some electors....but what does it mean. Meanwhile, an op-ed piece "Vladimir Putin is no saint, but G20 is a club full of sinners" in The Sydney Morning Herald makes the more than valid point that most of the other participants at the G20 Conference are not much better than Putin.
"If the states responsible for genuine murders and those that have carried out killings equivalent to the MH17 deaths were excluded, the Brisbane meeting would be a much smaller affair.
Among its least savoury members is a feudal state that regularly murders people. Saudi Arabia beheads individuals for the crime of sorcery, among other things. Don't try to hold a church service there unless it's of the approved variety – the Saudis officially go in for a medieval, hard-line interpretation of Islam. It's the country that won't even let women drive cars. Adultery? Compared with Saudi Arabia, Russia is a bastion of democracy, a beacon of equality, a paragon of human rights.
In some ways, Russia also looks good compared with China, or at least rather similar. There is an opposition in Russia. Beijing doesn't allow such decadence. China officially kills (as in the death sentence) more people than the rest of the world combined – and then some. China is only slowly and partially repealing its appalling (and economically damaging) one-child policy. You don't have to be a Right-to-Lifer to consider cases of near-full-term abortion to be murder. Best not mention the occupation of Tibet or the oppression of the Uyghur minority. When it comes to encroaching on borders and unilaterally taking liberties, ask Vietnam and the Philippines what they think of China's South China Sea behaviour.
Turkey is another G20 member, a wonderful and interesting country, a NATO member and, unlike the three already mentioned, a genuine democracy. It's in a very tricky position with some extremely difficult neighbours, but if you want to start fingering countries being responsible for ghastly deaths, it's the one that has not been permitting reinforcements for Kobane to cross its border as Daesh attacks the city with murderous intent. Turkish tanks stand mute. And Turkey is actively supporting some of the worse elements of the Libyan anarchy as President Erdogan takes an increasingly interventionist and apparently religion-based world view. Turkey also has never shown the maturity required to face up to the Armenian genocide. But with the 100th anniversary coming up of our failed attempt to invade the country, absolutely none of that is to be mentioned.
Among the democracies (and fifth overall in the world), the greatest perpetrator of official killing is the United States, but when it comes to terrible deaths similar to the MH17 victims, the US is the unchallenged leader this century with a figure well into six figures and still rising. I haven't heard an Australian Prime Minister suggest an American President was responsible for "murder".
This is where it's necessary to spell out why the MH17 victims weren't "murdered", as Tony Abbott keeps claiming - or agree that the US, UK, Australia and others are guilty of the same crime."
Update: Not surprisingly Pravda has a piece in which it responds to Abbott's hairy-chested threat:
"Once again, we see a country whose political class is divorced from the collective will of its people, yet we see a politician who thinks it is cool to be rude, insolent, insulting, impolite, impertinent, unpolished, gross, unpleasant and downright impudent"
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has escalated the war of words with Vladimir Putin, promising to "shirtfront" the Russian President when the pair meet at the G20 summit in Brisbane next month.
Mr Abbott's vow to confront Mr Putin over the loss of Australian lives in the MH7 Malaysian Airlines tragedy marks an escalation of tension between the two nations over the tragedy.
The Prime Minister told reporters on Monday he would tell Mr Putin that Australians were murdered by Russian-backed rebels in the Ukraine when MH17 was shot down, and that "we are very unhappy about this".
Needless to say the PM's statement is idiotic and simplistic. It may go down well with some electors....but what does it mean. Meanwhile, an op-ed piece "Vladimir Putin is no saint, but G20 is a club full of sinners" in The Sydney Morning Herald makes the more than valid point that most of the other participants at the G20 Conference are not much better than Putin.
"If the states responsible for genuine murders and those that have carried out killings equivalent to the MH17 deaths were excluded, the Brisbane meeting would be a much smaller affair.
Among its least savoury members is a feudal state that regularly murders people. Saudi Arabia beheads individuals for the crime of sorcery, among other things. Don't try to hold a church service there unless it's of the approved variety – the Saudis officially go in for a medieval, hard-line interpretation of Islam. It's the country that won't even let women drive cars. Adultery? Compared with Saudi Arabia, Russia is a bastion of democracy, a beacon of equality, a paragon of human rights.
In some ways, Russia also looks good compared with China, or at least rather similar. There is an opposition in Russia. Beijing doesn't allow such decadence. China officially kills (as in the death sentence) more people than the rest of the world combined – and then some. China is only slowly and partially repealing its appalling (and economically damaging) one-child policy. You don't have to be a Right-to-Lifer to consider cases of near-full-term abortion to be murder. Best not mention the occupation of Tibet or the oppression of the Uyghur minority. When it comes to encroaching on borders and unilaterally taking liberties, ask Vietnam and the Philippines what they think of China's South China Sea behaviour.
Turkey is another G20 member, a wonderful and interesting country, a NATO member and, unlike the three already mentioned, a genuine democracy. It's in a very tricky position with some extremely difficult neighbours, but if you want to start fingering countries being responsible for ghastly deaths, it's the one that has not been permitting reinforcements for Kobane to cross its border as Daesh attacks the city with murderous intent. Turkish tanks stand mute. And Turkey is actively supporting some of the worse elements of the Libyan anarchy as President Erdogan takes an increasingly interventionist and apparently religion-based world view. Turkey also has never shown the maturity required to face up to the Armenian genocide. But with the 100th anniversary coming up of our failed attempt to invade the country, absolutely none of that is to be mentioned.
Among the democracies (and fifth overall in the world), the greatest perpetrator of official killing is the United States, but when it comes to terrible deaths similar to the MH17 victims, the US is the unchallenged leader this century with a figure well into six figures and still rising. I haven't heard an Australian Prime Minister suggest an American President was responsible for "murder".
This is where it's necessary to spell out why the MH17 victims weren't "murdered", as Tony Abbott keeps claiming - or agree that the US, UK, Australia and others are guilty of the same crime."
Update: Not surprisingly Pravda has a piece in which it responds to Abbott's hairy-chested threat:
"Once again, we see a country whose political class is divorced from the collective will of its people, yet we see a politician who thinks it is cool to be rude, insolent, insulting, impolite, impertinent, unpolished, gross, unpleasant and downright impudent"
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