I must confess I was a little surprised to see the Prime Minister turn our national day into a forum for discursions about invading the Middle East. Perhaps, having made peace with Titewhai Harawira some years back, he assumes no foe is now insurmountable.
But quite apart from the questionable propriety of turning a monument to arguably one of the least-worst incidences of British imperialism into a soap-box for justifying our involvement picking up the pieces of a more recent and far more egregious example of same … what stood out to me was this quote.
Which is, I suppose, a noble (if entirely inaccurate) sounding sentiment in principle – if we leave aside the legacy of international peace-keeping, nation-building, and Afghanistan-occupying efforts of the previous Labour government, for instance.
But not, regrettably, one that is borne out either by Key’s recent actions as applies the Middle East (New Zealand’s laudable Security Council effort at assisting and defending Palestine being a commendable exception) or his newfound choice of friends.
Let us be perfectly clear about this. The Anglo-American “family of Nations” that Key wishes us to step-(son)-toe into have a litany of egregious human rights issues to answer for themselves. Extraordinary Renditions, illegal wars, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and all the rest of it.
I’d take Key’s more recent lip-service commitment to acting as the champion and defender of human rights a helluvalot more seriously if I’d seen clear and compelling evidence of him standing up for same when the violations were being committed by his golfing-partners, rather than merely cited as a cassus belli of convenience.
Oh, and just to add insult to injury … here’s a photo of New Zealand “looking the other way” when it came to *another* Middle Eastern regime that specializes in decapitation-based-theocracy…
He justified it on the basis that “Saudi Arabia has been part of the Western Alliance for a very long period of time, standing up against ISIL and Al Qaeda and others.”
So that’s alright, then.
My inner pedant wishes to note that the Islamic Republic of Iran has *also* taken an exceptionally strong stand against both ISIS and Al Qaeda (and have inarguably done *far* more against either than the recalcitrant House of Saud) … yet you don’t hear Key citing them in effusive terms by “[acknowledging their] contribution [to] global affairs”.
To cut a long-winded rant short … I reckon it’s far better for one to loudly, proudly and authentically proclaim that one’s “whole DNA is laced with” a commitment to human rights and empowering or defending the marginalized than to simply don the language of international justice and the Colour of Right as a cloak of mere rhetorical convenience while choosing to tactfully overlook other, closer to home, instances of problematic conduct.
But then, I suppose that’s just … how did Key put it? Ah yes. The “Price of the Club” that we now apparently belong to.
Key has a point on this one
By that I mean that this quote is not without merit. – “So the very people who tell me their whole DNA is laced with human rights and standing up for people who can’t protect themselves tell me to look the other way when people are being beheaded by kids, burned by kids and thrown off buildings. Well, sorry. Give me a break. New Zealand is not going to look the other way.”
Key has a point on this one if the point is he is all to keen to send other peoples kids to get killed, Key should lead by example & send his kids too.
Key sending troops will only succeed in painting a huge target on NZ with a big sign saying, come to NZ & commit acts of terror because we are in the club & party of the family.
This is exactly what will happen if we get to cosy with the Americans, you only have to look overseas & see what’s happening to countries that align themselves closely with the Americans.
Which one would that be, bro?..
The one where he violates the Universal Declaration of Human rights Article 9 by continuing drug prohibition?..
Or the one where he violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 17(2) when they confiscate people’s property for drug offences?..
Or the one where he violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19 when people are charged and convicted of “Breech of the peace” or “Contempt of court”?..
Or the one where he violates the universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 22 with his ridiculous economic and social welfare policies?..
Or when he violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 23(1) and (3) with his ridiculous social welfare policies?..
Or when he violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 25(1) with his ridiculous economic policies?..
John Key should be in prison.
You, sir, are an imbecile.
‘Which one would that be, bro?..
The one where he violates the Universal Declaration of Human rights Article 9 by continuing DRUG prohibition?..”
I lost interest in your argument when you started on the above..
well, theres some other answers you could be interested in – but you skipped past those
keys only point is this “agree with me or i will attack you”
theres more than one way to skin a cat – and using the skinning method that has failed multiple times before will only achieve more of the same.
Please dont say youve engaged in a knee jerk that fails to recognise theres more than one solution
I’d agree, and it’s telling that not a single one of those attacking him can actually come up with a principled argument. All they go on about is his hypocrisy in this, rather than addressing the actual point.
It’s shallow, puerile politiking characterized by sophomoric emotive imagery like the author has included here. If anyone in our armed forces doesn’t wish to fight (and I think you will find they are actually chomping at the bit) they can simply resign.
Yes John Key is hypocritical and shallow, and yes there are other ‘allies’ whose human rights records are also appalling, but that doesn’t mean
we shouldn’t fight against everything ISIS stands for. If we don’t they will continue to spread and at which point the cost in human lives will be far far greater than if we take action now.
I really like It’s shallow, puerile politiking characterized by sophomoric emotive imagery like the author has included here but instead of polishing your insult you should have spent a lot more time on your actual argument.
If anyone in our armed forces doesn’t wish to fight (and I think you will find they are actually chomping at the bit) they can simply resign
As you note yourself, our pumped up excitable military love to go soldiering, but how their enjoyment and rights to resign diminish the point the author is making isn’t clear.
Is your argument that those who don’t want to go in the military have options to resign so they are willing and not being forced? Because even if that’s true, it doesn’t make any of their actions in Iraq justifiable.
Their willingness doesn’t mean shit.
We don’t decide on which wars to go into based on the wants of adrenalin junkies with guns.
Yes John Key is hypocritical and shallow, and yes there are other ‘allies’ whose human rights records are also appalling, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight against everything ISIS stands for.
I love this sentence. On the one hand you acknowledge that even children can sense the bullshit Key is spinning here, but then blow the bugle for war because that’s what us moral crusaders for – what is it this time, Democracy? Freedom? Corporate rights to buy and manipulate whatever natural resources the latest country America is invading this year? Which empty and meaningless word would you like to hang all this justification on? Oh – the evil that is ISIS.
What I love about all the voices that are solemnly declaring war against ISIS is that their sanctimony is supposed to eclipse those of us who are arguing against war. It’s as if the insinuation is that the Left are somehow on the side of ISIS, that ISIS are so evil that their mere existence is justification for extermination.
What this tone masks is that the Left are as determined to end ISIS as those demanding military intervention, the only difference is that the Left has thought it out rather than knee jerked.
Let’s be clear, ISIS are a horrifically medieval cult who have managed to gain power in Iraq because of the power vacuum America has left as a blowback legacy from their last immoral war in Iraq when Bush invaded for Weapons of Mass Destruction that never existed to overthrow a Dictator they funded.
ISIS have been given vast sums of money from Saudi Arabia to counter Iranian influences and have been supported by Turkey by buying oil which in turn helps Turkey quell Kurdish forces who clash with ISIS as well.
ISIS have managed to tap into disillusioned migrant Muslim communities in the West. Instead of seeing their radicalisation as a failure of secular societies reaching out and providing them with a sense of inclusion, we use it as an excuse to impose draconian mass surveillance powers to thought police domestic critics.
ISIS have suddenly dominated media attention because they have basic internet skills and their executions are watched online. This doesn’t make ISIS the most brutal or evil organisation, it just means we are seeing brutalisation that we wouldn’t normally have seen.
The killing of Palestinian civilians by the IDF are as horrific but we don’t see those images. We don’t see the CIA torturing suspects. We don’t see drone strikes that kill dozens of civilians for every terrorist killed. We don’t see the Lord’s Resistance Army kidnap children, feed them drugs and get them to mutilate and murder one another. We don’t see Catholic Priests sexually abusing children.
There is a lack of footage of our crimes and our abuses, hence ISIS suddenly has the gold medal on barbarity.
I am not defending the horror that these mutated and warped extremists are committing, I’m stating that the exposure of their crimes has angered the West in ways the US Military Industrial Complex could never have dreamed of.
The decision to burn the Jordanian pilot was made as a like for like execution. The argument being bombs cause fire, so this pilot will die by the way he has killed. ISIS quickly found themselves in trouble however as the internal dogma and religious arguments of Islam is that only God has the right to punish by fire. This led to ISIS having to produce scripture and religious argument trying to back up their decisions to burn.
I add that as context, a context the West is missing in their rush to scream ‘barbarians’.
The Left want ISIS gone as well, but surely it’s the cutting off of funding to ISIS by the Saudi’s and Turkey that is going to be far more a success than going to war. UN sanctions against both countries has the power to control this, not a re-invasion of Iraq to try and deal with the consequences of the last failed adventure that saw millions of civilians die.
Chest beating for war is all well and good, but asking the rest of us to go along with a pointless action that has far more chances of making everything worse just seems fucking pointless.
” can actually come up with a principled argument”
how about the principal that based on every single military action in the middle east having failed, to do it again will only make things worse?
or does that lack prinicipals to you?
getting really sick of the way people dont even bother with critical thought the minute key opens his mouth
What point?
He has hardly been the man for standing up for human rights he doesn’t even concern himself with the rights of NZ children to decent meals, warm clothes and a house to live in let alone people in Iraq and Syria.
If New Zealand actually does have a commitment to human rights and we do wish to help people being abused by the hideous IS what about getting our army to help organize liveable camps for the hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and refugees created by events in the Middle East and what about sending more medical staff there and to West Africa. In this way we could do a lot of good for a lot of needy people.
Who is Key taking his advice from …
Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.
~Adolph Hitler
War should never be the default option. It is not even a last resort, it is the complete breakdown of humanity when all other solutions have failed.
So DMAN – just let every one walk all over you at all cost. A great world you promote. We owe our lifestyle and security today to those who fought for us in WW1, 2, and others. If we had it your way, we would have a lawless ruthless society of evil.
If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle…your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos.
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
It could be construed that since quite a lot of our army personnel are Maori then this is the right time to talk about it: but I think that really it is just John Key wanting to project himself as a man of the people and a man of action in front of an audience that lap it up. Excuse me while I now go and p… myself with laughter.
What is obvious is we are being dragged by other nations again into another winless war as Iraq and Vietnam was.
Those should know the rest s of the story if they choose to study history and should be packed off to see how we are just to be used as cannon folder, for the industrial military complex to make more money.
Its all about money stupid so is this a worthy reason to go this time?
First rule is pick your wars first not let others persuade you.
Second is to know your enemies very well and we do not certainly know who they really are similar to Vietnam.
We got out of their prematurely and now we are friends?
Yes @ Dan . I would agree . Key does have a point . That’s why we should march on OUR parliament and drag his arse out into the street while others freeze his accounts pending an inquiry .
The war mongering quisling is a dangerous little fucker and he must go . Now . Today .
My question is ; how the fuck did he manage to slither around Waitangi Marae while surrounded by his goon squad un hindered ? All you big strong Maori guys ? All you fiery Wahini’s ? WTF ?
From my kitchen window I can see a horse . It stands there, rain of shine . It’s well looked after , don’t get me wrong . What is odd however is that it’s a metaphor .
It’s restrained by a string stretched between several light metal stakes . That huge animal, imprisoned by a filament of fibres . It’s unable to comprehend simply walking off and out of it’s prison of string to eat the tall green grasses it spends all day staring longingly at .
You Kiwis ? You who worship and adore your jailor ? You people who voted for Key , the Quisling ? You’re in deep, deep trouble . You don’t know the trouble you’re in . You have no idea where jonky-stien is luring you to . You have no idea just how manipulated, misrepresented and swayed you’re thinking’s become .
If you don’t start demanding answers from Jonky and his minions ? Then you’re fools . You’re fools and you will lose your country to monsters .
” Mark my words ! ” As my old Aunt would say .
Could we stop going on about the flag lowering please. We do it for the death of any Head of State.
Always a pleasure to read your rants Curwen. This particular rant echoes my own views.
Great article exposing the hypocrisy of John Key and the rhetoric of war. Someone needs to educate JK that human rights activists generally don’t recommend war as the solution to human rights violations…. might need to get up to speed on that one.
Love it…
I’d take Key’s more recent lip-service commitment to acting as the champion and defender of human rights a helluvalot more seriously if I’d seen clear and compelling evidence of him standing up for same when the violations were being committed by his golfing-partners, rather than merely cited as a cassus belli of convenience.
Comments are closed.