The lame-duck Bush bandwagon is still in denial about its abuse and misuse of intelligence when deciding to invade Iraq in 2003:

“We acted on the intelligence that we had, and that the entire world had,” spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters after Mr Rudd’s alleged “abuse of intelligence information” led to regime change in Baghdad.

“No-one else in the world, no other government, had different information and so we acted based on what was the threat that was presented to us.”

It’s a strange kind of zero-sum game when you invade foreign nations on the basis of dubious or thinly-extrapolated evidence of WMD, then argue ‘Well nobody had any evidence that there weren’t WMD…’ Apparently in this ludicrous new world order, you are likely to be invaded for possessing something unless someone else can prove that you don’t have it. And of course, no WMD were ever found, despite some flimsy and often deceitful attempts to suggest that stockpiles once existed and were somehow destroyed or spirited out of the country.

Hindsight and history will paint the Iraq War as a foreign policy folly of significant proportions. It has brought the deaths of 4,000 US soldiers, more than 1,000 civilian contractors and an inestimable number of Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians. It has cost the US in the region of $3 trillion at a time of economic decline and domestic need, such as Hurricane Katrina. The stabilisation of Iraq is now inextricably hinged to an American military presence that, once withdrawn, will see Iraq descend into a sectarian quagmire. There will be gross regional instability that will almost certainly draw in Iran, Syria, the northern Kurds and Turkey, not to mention remnant al Qaeda elements.

None of that belies the contribution of many elements of the multinational force, including the 14,000 Australians who have served in Iraq. It’s worth celebrating their thoughtful contribution in the wake of a thoughtless invasion. But it should also be acknowledged that Iraq is a patchwork of local, tribal and sectarian divisions - some more febrile and unstable than others - and that our zone in the south was considerably more manageable than Baghdad or those in north and central Iraq. We should be thankful because this has allowed us to withdraw without a single military death - but we should also recognise that it wasn’t only the professionalism of our soldiers that permitted this.

We are better off out of it and well clear of our fawning support for US action there, one of John Howard’s repugnant legacies. As for Iraq itself, Andrew Bolt might think the war is over, but I suspect it’s the ‘end of the beginning’ rather than the other way round.

And with 16 simple words former foreign minister Alexander Downer finally tells the truth.

THE decision by President George Bush to overthrow the regime of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and the decisions of the British and Australian governments to provide military support to the Americans, will always be controversial. It was, nevertheless, the right decision.

If only Downer and the shameful government of which he was an integral part could’ve been upfront with the people who elected them five years ago.

ps/- And before any RWDBs get started: YES I think that Hussein was a murderous bastard who heartily deserved his eventual fate. YES I think that Iraq deserved better than his regime and that if the fledging democracy that is slowly beginning to take shape there blossoms the world will be a better place for it. YES I think coalition troops in Iraq are fighting a noble cause and I wish them the very best. BUT the way that our government, along with the governments of the USA and the UK, went about selling this invasion to their electorates undermines the very democracy we are supposedly trying to spread.

1) Feds accept Peak Oil
In a blow to those who deny the theory of Peak Oil, a Senate committee looking into the future of oil and its impact on Australia has announced in its interim report that it accepts Peak Oil as highly likely within about 20 years and that we should get off our arses and do something about it. Of course, this is a blow to “charlatans” like Mangled Douglas who quotes from the world’s dodgiest looking website to prove that oil isn’t a fossil fuel after all, and that Steve Bracks and The Age (et al.) are responsible for a worldwide ruse:

The Gas Resources Corporation explains why oil is produced cehmically, deep below the mantle in abundance, and is not a ‘fossil fuel’. Indeed, the G.R.C. only illminates what, when carefully considered, stands as nothing less than dum beleif in magic, oil is a product of fossils.

2) Steve Irwin’s death huge around world
Just check out The Guardian’s top stories last week:

Bloody Brits letting a bit of cricket get ahead of a True Aussie Bloke.

3) Teflon Pete slides it in
In a campaign effort that will be immortalised in political studies textbooks (what not to do), the National/ Liberal coalition actually managed to lose more seats in yesterday’s election to a widely disliked and distrusted Queensland Labor party led by Peter Beattie. After this clear indication that the coalition’s appeal for a sympathy vote backfired, The Editor has now given up all hope and expects the same reaction in GrodsCageFight voting.

4) US Senate finds no link between Osama and Saddam
No shit.