Posts by Craig Ranapia
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linger:
Eww, indeed. Some__thing__ not someone. I believe that's a case of what Private Eye used to call unintentional vileness.
Otherwise, I'm not buying it. I did actually quote a speech Clark made at the Oxford Union earlier this week. There's nothing 'unfair' about noting what Goff and Clark were saying in the House, what they're saying now and pointing out an apparent 'flip flop'. Or does that only apply to John Key?
Sorry, folks, Clark and Goff can't have it both ways. If "the war" never ended, then Helen Clark and Phil Goff sent NZ troops into that war. What part of that don't you understand?
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Oh, and for anyone who is still interested (and do hope you'll mention this Russell) Fran O'Sullivan has an interesting column on Phil Goff's Iraq-induced political Alzheimer's.
Money quote:
The Defence Minister should not be allowed to get away scot-free with this criticism given the statements he made as Labour's Foreign Minister in April-May 2003 after the US coalition of the willing disposed of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.
In April 2003, Goff issued a number of statements foreshadowing that de-mining was one of a range of options that the Government was considering to ensure New Zealand played its part in humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in post-conflict Iraq.
In May 2003, he set out the Government's position on Iraq. After reaffirming the Government's principled opposition to the precedent-setting potential of pre-emptive military action to effect regime change, Goff went on to say: "We should all, however, acknowledge with great relief and satisfaction that the conflict was short. Anticipated refugee flows did not take place.
"There were, inevitably and tragically, civilian and coalition losses. All will welcome the fact Saddam's apparatus of terror has gone. The death, destruction and abuses inflicted by this dictator on Iraqi people through self-initiated wars and civil repression has at last been stopped. It is now time to look forward. The strategic stakes in Iraq are too important not to."
Goff later welcomed the passage of UN Security Council resolution 1483. "New Zealand supports the establishment of the Governing Council of Iraq and welcomes the passage of this new resolution. It provides a sound basis for the engagement of the international community in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq."
Prime Minister Helen Clark was also in no doubt that the war was over when she later made a statement to Parliament trumpeting the Government's decision to commit non-combat engineering troops to Iraq.
"The Security Council resolution provides for those countries like ours, which did not participate in the war and are not occupying powers, to play a role in Iraq without acquiring the status of occupying powers. The Government has always said that New Zealand was prepared to play a role in post-conflict Iraq, but that there needed to be appropriate multilateral cover and authority."
As these quotes show, Goff was quite happy to use the terms "post conflict" and "post war" to justify the Government's contribution of engineering troops to Iraq in 2003. But four years later, he ridicules Key for making the same judgment.
To honour Clark's recent performance at the Oxford Union, I smell someone on Clark and Goff's breath - but it's not uranium. More like bullshit.
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Of course you can argue that the Iraq war is over if you define war only as the one-sided fortnight preceding the occupation of Baghdad in 2003, rather than the longer, messier bit since, in which perhaps hundreds of thousands of people have died and four million fled their homes.
Oh, you mean as Helen Clark did this week at the Oxford Union:
Iraq did not meet our criteria for intervention in 2003 and we did not participate in the war there. We did, for one year, send New Zealand Defence Force engineers to do civilian reconstruction work, believing that was consistent with the United Nations mandate established in the course of 2003.
Sorry, but is Iraq at war or not? Or does it depend on whether it's politically useful to the Government - if this is the Clark Doctrine at work, it's a wee bit troublesome.
Then again, we've seen a Government who seem to be a little confused about the current status of Kuwait - which is, as far as I'm aware, is neither part of Iraq or at war with New Zealand, or anyone else. Well, at least that's what Air New Zealand thought.
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Shit... after listening to that again, I just want to give him a most un-rawk 'n roll cuddle. The big, dumb pop anthem that sticks to your head like the facehugger thingy from Alien is nothing to be sneered at - doing it more than once... proof there is a loving and benign God. :)
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I want to know what National are going to do.
I'd rather no Government writes policy via press release and speech notes - because I think it's fair comment to say both National and Labour governments have been bit in the arse on that score in living memory. (Most recently, Steve Maharey exasperating the usually unflappable Geoff Robinson while trying to explain his definition of 'free' is somewhat different from... well, everyone else's.)
And sorry for being tediously pragmatic, but an incumbent Government does actually have one massive advantage over the Opposition at this point in the electoral cycle -- one more budget to cannibalise any policy from the other side that's going over with the focus groups. And I don't think it's naive to assume there's some nice fat spending bombs tucked away in the Budget process and the campaign strategy.
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Hadyn:
None taken - to run some sports cliches through a blender, it's a game of two halves on PA System and you can't bitch when someone is playing the ball not the man. :)
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Hadyn:
To paraphrase Elizabeth I, I do not seek to make windows into another man's soul but I sure wish the courtesy would be repaid.
Ironically enough, it was an Australian who coined the phrase 'cultural cringe' back in published in 1950. But A.A. Philips was also equally pointed on what he called The Cringe Inverted, "‘the attitude of the Blatant Blatherskite, the
Gods-Own-Country and I’m-a-better-man-than-you-are Australian Bore.’Yes, I guess it's a more benign expression of mindless jingoism than invading Poland (not least because they've got more than enough nationalistic loons of their own without importing any more). But whatever happened to the alleged Kiwi qualities of pragmatic individualism, distrust of pretension and excessive enthusiasm and (above all else) just keeping things in perspective?
Sorry, but if we're going to sink into a national funk if (shock horror!) the ABs come home without the Webb Ellis Cup it's a very sad day indeed.
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Sorry, but you have to do it manually: ie, don't watch it.
My only excuse, M'Lud, is that it was an experiment - the kind you can't perform on bunnies without all kinds of legal and moral hassles. I'm sincerely remorseful and will never do it again. Three's effort is better - at least the twenty minutes of channel surfing I could endure - , but that really is damnation with faint praise.
But to be positive for once, it is useful to know Bill Ralston would prefer being shot with a tazer to being brought down with a gun. In Pamela Sterling's position, I'd be willing to test that out if he doesn't stop auto-plagiarising his Listener column for the one in the Herald on Sunday (or vice versa).
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We weren't trying to wind anyone up. Just to try and capture a little of what it is that New Zealanders think about their national game.
Cough... I won't be quite as vehement as andin, but really. If you want to talk about cultural cringe, why can't we just appreciate the All Blacks as a team of remarkably talented and dedicated young men who are acheivers in their chosen field of endeavour? I don't feel the slightest investment in, or ownership of, their hard work - any more than I do of Lloyd Jones' writing or Teddy Tahu Rhodes' booming career as a singer. (And I know a few opera queen for whom Teddy is more of an advert for Kiwi manhood than Tana Umaga.)
And I certainly feel a little creeped out seeing mindless jingoism being used to pimp running shoes, breakfast cereals,"sport drinks", and credit cards. You have a problem with that - tell someone who cares, and don't even think about questioning my patroitism.
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OK, Russell, time to answer the hard question: Do Freeview boxes have a special chip to make breakfast television less humiliating for everyone concerned? Hate to say this, but at least the Aussies can treat you like a moron with some style...
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