Economy
CHILCOT REPORT: Crushing Iraq War verdict …
This time it didn’t work, despite millions worldwide marching in protest …
Forty five (or was it six) years ago I reported the marches which – by sheer people power – led eventually to the end of the Vietnam War.
They were huge, even in Hobart.
And I was a fringe dweller, deeply sympathetic to the cause of ending the war, but ‘objectively’ reporting from the sidelines of the march.
Not so in 2002. I, along with thousands in Hobart, marched against the invasion of Iraq.
But despite millions worldwide joining us, the “Coalition of the Willing” (George W Mission Accomplished Bush, Tony Blair, and John Children Overboard Howard were determined to invade Iraq … and unleash a terrible conflagration which led directly to the rise of ISIS.
I was a disaffected Mercury journo back then … earlier resigning all ‘executive’ positions … and downtable subbing.
But for a week – I suppose because they were desperate – I had control of the editorial joystick.
And unleashed it, writing this:
It would be wrong for the US pre-emptively to attack Iraq. It would be wrong for Australia to ride shotgun to any unilateral assault on the hated regime of Saddam Hussein … Australia must side with those nations urging President George W. Bush not to abandon the 50-year political doctrine which has underpinned the interests of the West … [A] blazing ember in the powder keg would be a dream scenario for the future rise of Islamic fascist fundamentalism. It would be Osama bin Laden’s dream come true – and Australia, and the world’s nightmare.
It seems that of Rupert’s 145 newspapers worldwide, there was only one dissenter. While Rupe’s worldwide newspaper chain accorded with the boss’s wishes Mercury did not …
I’m very proud of that …
Not that it lasted long. Four months later on January 17, 2003, the Hobart Mercury was singing the standard Murdoch tune:
History is littered with the victims of tyrants and the tattered reputations of those who failed to take a stand against them … There may be some disquiet in the Australian community about the Howard Government’s enthusiasm for a fight. But this is always the case when a nation – and the world – is confronted by barbarism on a scale that Saddam Hussein, armed with his weapons of mass destruction is capable of. No one wants a war. But the alternative – to let a madman thumb his nose at the rule of international law is an obscenity. Nations who live by the rule of law … have an obligation to confront these dark forces.
As academic Robert Manne says in The Monthly HERE:
What had happened? In late 2003 I visited Hobart. A senior Mercury journalist told me that the newspaper for whom he worked had been instructed in writing by head office to alter its position on Iraq. One senior editorial writer had refused on principle and was given different duties. The paper, however, fell into line. When the invasion took place, like every Murdoch paper, the Mercury cheered. It called the invasion a classical “good versus evil plot”.
After the invasion of Iraq an enterprising journalist at The Guardian, Roy Greenslade, reviewed the editorial stance of the 175 Murdoch-owned newspapers worldwide. All supported the invasion. The editors, with the fleeting exception of those at the Mercury, appear to have acquired the skill of second-guessing their boss and of knowing where they have some leeway for independence and where they have not.
To Murdoch’s credit, he does not even pretend that the editors he employs are allowed to exercise independent judgment when it comes to questions of serious importance to him – like war. As he laconically explained to an ABC journalist at News Corporation’s final shareholders’ meeting in Adelaide in October 2004: “With our newspapers we have indeed supported Bush’s foreign policy. And we remain committed that way.”
Now we have a definitive examination of the war: The Chilcot Report. It is incredibly damning …
*Lindsay Tuffin has been a journo since 1969, mainly in Tassie …
• Andrew Wilkie in Media HERE: … Then Prime Minister John Howard took Australia to war on the basis of a lie and stands accused of war crimes. That he has never been held to account, and that his Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is now Australian High Commissioner to London, is quite simply outrageous …
• Hans Willink in Comments: … At the time I was still a member of the Liberal Party and a member of the Army Reserve. With options to protest limited without “leaving the tent”, I chose to piss from within it. As a Branch President attending the annual Tasmanian Liberal State conference, I tabled a constitutional amendment limiting the declaration of war powers of Australian Prime Ministers. Needless to say, I was out gamed by “he who must not be named”, who placed the motion last on the agenda, thereby ensuring insufficient time for it to be debated or voted on …
• Read for yourself … The Iraq inquiry
• Guardian Opinion: A country ruined, trust shattered, a reputation trashed
• Tim Thorne in Comments: Wars are great for business. The Iraq War 2003 –? has been the most profitable yet. Such wars will continue as long as ripping children’s limbs off continues to fund Armani suits and luxury holidays. It is dangerously subversive to protest against one of the chief props of our capitalist way of life. Without war we would be much poorer. Of course, as we are a democratic society, those of us who choose to do so will be allowed to protest for as long as we are ineffective. But it might be worth pondering that phrase “will be allowed”. Are you comforted or scared by the fact that there is permission being given, a situation which implies that such permission could be withdrawn at any time, and which assumes that there is a permission giver?
• Independent: Iraq and the Rupert Murdoch connection: The media mogul’s network of pro-war campaigners Back in 2003, the Murdoch-owned press beat the drum for the Iraq War, but few of the key players got a mention in the Chilcot report
• Bazza’s view: ‘The Iraq conflict is going swimmingly. I expect oil …’
• Tim Dunlop: Journalism, power and taking sides
• Lynne Newington in Comments: An article worthy of mention, written by Professor of International Politics Mark Beeson on The Conversation, HERE
• Katharine Viner, Guardian: How technology disrupted the truth Social media has swallowed the news – threatening the funding of public-interest reporting and ushering in an era when everyone has their own facts. But the consequences go far beyond journalism
• Geoff Mosley in Comments: Re the inquiry (56) concerning the closing off of the Antarctic to all military action and mineral activities the details can be found in my book ‘Saving the Antarctic Wilderness’. The Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959 and came into force in 1961. In 1991 the Madrid Protocol banned all mineral activity indefinitely and designated Antarctic as a ‘Natural Reserve for Peace and Science’. It entered into force in 1998. The obvious next step is for all nations to share the finest example of international cooperation for peace and conservation by having the continent included on the World Heritage List. Unfortunately, we are going through a long phase where vision is in very short supply.