The pretence that we live in countries that have values
Gary Younge in the Guardian on the murder of democratic accountability:
"The premise for this war was not security but politics - it's the politicians who should be in the dock.
The fact that they will not be reflects badly not just on the governments concerned but on all of us. If a country can be led to war on false pretexts and there are no substantive consequences as a result, there is something seriously wrong with both politicians and the political culture that produces them. In a democracy worthy of the name, if the machinery of government cannot call those responsible to account, civil society and the ballot box must.
This war is not just killing Iraqi civilians, resistance fighters and coalition soldiers. It's murdering any pretence that we live in countries that value, let alone practice, the principle of democratic accountability. It calls into question our ability to rein in political excess and to root out state-sponsored incompetence."
I guess people have values but nation states/politicians do not.
Alan Ramsey quoting Richard Wollcott, distinguished former Australian diplomat and secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, in the SMH:
"It seems without doubt now that Bush, Blair and Howard exaggerated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and used intelligence selectively to support a predetermined decision to go to war ... In my experience leaders, whether elected or authoritarian, tend by nature to identify the national interest with their own personal or political party interest.
"We have also seen a carefully orchestrated campaign of military censorship and other techniques of news management, combined with the tacit acquiescence of some news organisations, aimed at ensuring that what Australians know about the war and the reasons for it was what the Government wanted them to know. In our dedicated efforts to support Washington in its Iraq adventure, the principle of truth in government was compromised and diminished ...
"To conclude, ladies and gentlemen, I believe the whole concept of truth in government - truth in Parliament - and accountability to the public has been tarnished and the credibility of our political process seriously eroded. It is a sad commentary on the integrity of our Government that the cartoonists in our major newspapers now regularly caricature the Prime Minister and several of his senior colleagues as liars ... "
"
"The premise for this war was not security but politics - it's the politicians who should be in the dock.
The fact that they will not be reflects badly not just on the governments concerned but on all of us. If a country can be led to war on false pretexts and there are no substantive consequences as a result, there is something seriously wrong with both politicians and the political culture that produces them. In a democracy worthy of the name, if the machinery of government cannot call those responsible to account, civil society and the ballot box must.
This war is not just killing Iraqi civilians, resistance fighters and coalition soldiers. It's murdering any pretence that we live in countries that value, let alone practice, the principle of democratic accountability. It calls into question our ability to rein in political excess and to root out state-sponsored incompetence."
I guess people have values but nation states/politicians do not.
Alan Ramsey quoting Richard Wollcott, distinguished former Australian diplomat and secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, in the SMH:
"It seems without doubt now that Bush, Blair and Howard exaggerated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and used intelligence selectively to support a predetermined decision to go to war ... In my experience leaders, whether elected or authoritarian, tend by nature to identify the national interest with their own personal or political party interest.
"We have also seen a carefully orchestrated campaign of military censorship and other techniques of news management, combined with the tacit acquiescence of some news organisations, aimed at ensuring that what Australians know about the war and the reasons for it was what the Government wanted them to know. In our dedicated efforts to support Washington in its Iraq adventure, the principle of truth in government was compromised and diminished ...
"To conclude, ladies and gentlemen, I believe the whole concept of truth in government - truth in Parliament - and accountability to the public has been tarnished and the credibility of our political process seriously eroded. It is a sad commentary on the integrity of our Government that the cartoonists in our major newspapers now regularly caricature the Prime Minister and several of his senior colleagues as liars ... "
"
posted by BorisEarTh at Monday, February 09, 2004
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