I wouldn’t usually do a point-by-point like this, but Andrew Bolt’s retort to Bob Brown today is absolute rot on pretty much every level. Greens leader Bob Brown demonstrates his unfitness for the position he now holds as the Gillard Government’s navigator and the holder of the balance of power “The position… as the Gillard […]

I wouldn’t usually do a point-by-point like this, but Andrew Bolt’s retort to Bob Brown today is absolute rot on pretty much every level.

Greens leader Bob Brown demonstrates his unfitness for the position he now holds as the Gillard Government’s navigator and the holder of the balance of power

“The position… as the Gillard Government’s navigator”? I wonder if Bob’s been given some business cards with that title, from the Department of Positions That Don’t Exist. And Adam Bandt is just one of several MPs holding “the balance of power” (stupid concept that is) at the moment.

If the Greens were really “navigating” the Government in this area, for a start we wouldn’t be locking up kids in detention.

First, Iraq was not invaded because I wished it.

Brown didn’t say it was. He said you “stridently” called for it. I thought you took pride in your being influential? Are you saying your calls had no impact at all, that your relentless cheerleading for an invasion in Iraq had no effect whatsoever? Really? Declare it proudly then: I, ANDREW BOLT, AM COMPLETELY INEFFECTUAL. If that’s what you really want to argue.

Second, the toppling of the tyrant Saddam Hussein spared more lives than it cost.

Bolt’s link in that sentence claims, let alone establishes, no such thing.

Third, among the dead at Christmas Islands were Kurds, victims of one of last century’s worst genocides at Halabja and elsewhere (see video) – a genocide carried out on the orders of Saddam, who would be there still had Bob Brown got his way.

Not necessarily. Perhaps the Coalition would’ve come up with a competent plan to topple Saddam without leaving the country in utter chaos afterwards.

Tell the Kurds that removing Saddam was wrong and cost lives.

If the Kurds in question had felt the toppling of Saddam had worked out so well for them, why were they on a boat fleeing the region?

Fourth, Brown claims that the dead off Christmas Island included people who fled as a direct consequence of the liberation of Iraq. He has no evidence for that claim.

POT KETTLE! (#getthis)

Fifth, Brown is upset that I made the call while the “bodies were still in the ocean”. Yes, and? When should I have waited, Bob?

Till the facts were in? Till you knew what had actually happened?

When it no longer mattered to anyone,

To those of us who actually give a damn about the suffering of the people in question, and are not merely using them as a political football, it’ll still matter for a long time yet, Andrew.

and we could ignore what lured these people to their deaths – just as you have ignored what lured up to 170 other boat people to their deaths, too?

Australia not being a war-torn hellhole? I dread to think how Andrew plans to “remedy” that “pull factor”.

Sixth, Brown is a hypocrite. The fires were still burning and we’d counted only a fraction of the dead of Black Saturday when Brown rushed out a press release, falsely claiming the fires were a warning to take political action on global warming.

Ah, he who cries “hypocrite” first wins, does he? As it happens, there’s a much more specific claim of hypocrisy to be made against Bolt, who specifically railed against Brown for daring to reference the bushfires so early, even though Brown wasn’t calling for anyone’s resignation or putting the lives lost on anyone’s head. Oddly enough, Bolt apparently couldn’t find the ABC link when he wrote his original piece, but he’s tracked it down now so readers aren’t directed to his own now-ironic words below:

Preaching over the dead At least 36 Victorians die in bushfires, and Bob Brown sees on opportunity to preach politics

Why is what Brown did then wrong, but what Bolt did yesterday right?

Seventh, Brown is a moral coward. He lashes out, rather than accepts his share of responsibility for this tragedy. It’s through the weakening of our boat people laws, urged on most stridently by the Greens, that so many people decided to risk their lives again by sailing to Christmas Island. It’s through the weakening of those laws, that up to 200 people now have died in the attempts.

Says you, Bolt. Or maybe it’s the huge increase in refugee numbers around the world, contributed to by invasions in which we’ve been involved. Maybe it’s locating processing centres in remote and dangerous areas (a policy you support).

Also, the present system is not in any way the Greens’ preferred option, which would not involve us locking up kids when we find them, encouraging boats to avoid patrols.

Seven stupid lines that highlight just how little this guy deserves the pulpit from which he preaches.

ELSEWHERE: I think Bolt might be under some pressure back at News. As noted in an update to the TRAGEDY USED post, they’re rewriting events so it seems like Bolt waited till the next day, after others had tastelessly dropped in. Bolt’s swinging wildly at everyone in response – even attacking John Birmingham quite personally (“The self-obsession of such types is so telling”), which seems a bit ungrateful after Birmo honoured Bolt with a heroic cameo in one of his books.

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