I was wrong about Tony Abbott

[Mofra]

You should maybe speak to people who have fled the wars, they would take Saddam back.

Due very much to US mismanagement post-initial ground phase.
Even US leaders admit the dissolution of the Iraqi army - leaving tens of thousands of angry, disillusioned, pride-wounded and unemployed men armed to the teeth and with little prospect of supporting themselves legally - was a huge mistake and one of the biggest factors in the current mess we currently have.

 

[carnthemlions]

Due very much to US mismanagement post-initial ground phase.
Even US leaders admit the dissolution of the Iraqi army - leaving tens of thousands of angry, disillusioned, pride-wounded and unemployed men armed to the teeth and with little prospect of supporting themselves legally - was a huge mistake and one of the biggest factors in the current mess we currently have.

I still can't get over how staggeringly incompetent Paul Bremer was. Surely that was a bit much even for the Bush administration.

 

[little graham]

Surely there has never been a bigger religious fundamentalist arseh*le elected to power in this country.

 

[Pie eyed]

Menzies was a man of of his time.
Abbott was a man of Menzies times too.

 

[apparentlydead]

Menzies was a man of of his time.
Abbott was a man of Menzies times too.

LOL, very well put!

 

[little graham]

Menzies was a man of of his time.
Abbott was a man of Menzies times too.

 

[Pie eyed]

Gough was so progressive the country shit itself...idiotic comparison.
The man lead the country out of the middle ages with a handful of associates, dragged it kicking and screaming.
Definitely the man for "It's Time"

 

[little graham]

Gough was so progressive the country shit itself...idiotic comparison.
"

I don't think you understood what I meant.
These are the same old fogies who doffed their lids and tugged the forelock to the British establishment; they now try to grind down Australian kids by denying them a technical school education and want to put a tax on the back of the poor. The same old sterile ideology, the same old fogyism of the 1950s, that produced the Thatcherite policies of the late 1970s is going to produce Fightback. We will not have a bar of it. You can go back to the fifties to your nostalgia, your Menzies, the Caseys and the whole lot. They were not aggressively Australian, they were not aggressively proud of our culture, and we will have no bar of you or your sterile ideology

http://australianpolitics.com/1992/02/27/keating-blasts-liberal-party-fogies.html

 

[crackerjack4X4]

Gough was so progressive the country shit itself...idiotic comparison.
The man lead the country out of the middle ages with a handful of associates, dragged it kicking and screaming.
Definitely the man for "It's Time"

Not all his many social reforms have survived. The Hawke-Keating government removed remaining vestiges of his unmeans-tested age pension and ended the failed experiment with free university education, which did little to raise the proportion of poor kids going to university, but cost a fortune and delivered a windfall to the middle class at the expense of many workers.

O'Mahony's review of the economic statistics tells part of the story: "the years of the Whitlam government saw the economic growth rate halve, unemployment double and inflation triple".

But that conceals a wild ride. By mid-1975, inflation hit 17.6 per cent and wage rises hit 32.9 per cent. The economy boomed in 1973 and the first half of '74, but then suffered a severe recession.

From an economic perspective, Whitlam did two main things. He hugely increased government spending - and, hence, the size of government - by an amazing 6 percentage points of gross domestic product in just three years.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/comm...ors-making-20141024-11b1kp.html#ixzz3rvXmfLpq
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

Yeah go Gough.

 

[Pie eyed]

Yeah go Gough.

No pollies are perfect, but a few make real change. Gough lead the charge.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Say what you like about them mate, they were highly successful in keeping their population within their own borders, and not "invading" your country.

They were in hindsight, but what were your thoughts on all of them before it all went to custard?

 

[medusala]

You should maybe speak to people who have fled the wars, they would take Saddam back.

I am sure the Kurds and Shia majority would love to have him back.

No pollies are perfect, but a few make real change. Gough lead the charge.

Humour, only on figbooty can Australia's worst PM get talked up so much.

Odd how that on an Abbott bashing thread people forget how anti boat people Gough was. He and Abbott shared the same views on that.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/...oor-on-refugees/2006/04/17/1145126051892.html

 

[Windhover]

I am sure the Kurds and Shia majority would love to have him back.



Humour, only on figbooty can Australia's worst PM get talked up so much.

Odd how that on an Abbott bashing thread people forget how anti boat people Gough was. He and Abbott shared the same views on that.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/...oor-on-refugees/2006/04/17/1145126051892.html

You climate change denialists demonstrate your idiocy is not limited to that one issue. Apparently you can't read beyond the headline (to a Gerard Henderson article - so perhaps that is understandable). There is nothing in Gerard's critique that supports the headline. Most importantly, when in opposition Whitlam DID NOT USE VIETNAMESE REFUGEES AS A POLITICAL FOOTBALL. Fraser was always very generous in his praise for that piece of bipartisanship.

I put the above in bold to shout out the difference on this issue between Gough and Abbott, in substance AND style.

Oh, and who is talking up Abbott, so bad even his own colleagues rejected him?

 

[rodney hoo]

I am sure the Kurds and Shia majority would love to have him back.

It's unusual but you are right in this instance. The world would be a lot more peaceful to.

 

[madmug]

It's unusual but you are right in this instance. The world would be a lot more peaceful to.

Its the case of the best of two evils. Or ' be careful what you wish for, it might just come true'

The ME is a bloody mess mainly because of warped US ME policy. The US's arrogance in backing every misdeed of Israel is a big part of it, combined with the US repeatedly backing the wrong horses with money & weapons, low & behold another fork up eventuates.

They never learned a bloody thing from Vietnam.

 

[medusala]

There is nothing in Gerard's critique that supports the headline. Most importantly, when in opposition Whitlam DID NOT USE VIETNAMESE REFUGEES AS A POLITICAL FOOTBALL.

At least you are consistent in always being wrong.

“I’m not having hundreds of ****ing Vietnamese Balts coming into this country with their religious and political hatreds against us!” — Gough Whitlam

Not to mention the Indo invasion of East Timor which Gough accepted without protest. He has blood on his hands of that there is no doubt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_occupation_of_East_Timor

The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor estimated the number of deaths during the occupation from famine and violence to be between 90,800 and 202,600 including between 17,600 and 19,600 violent deaths or disappearances, out of a 1999 population of approximately 823,386. The truth commission held Indonesian forces responsible for about 70% of the violent killings.[2][3][4]

 

[WA ROO]

Its the case of the best of two evils. Or ' be careful what you wish for, it might just come true'

The ME is a bloody mess mainly because of warped US ME policy. The US's arrogance in backing every misdeed of Israel is a big part of it, combined with the US repeatedly backing the wrong horses with money & weapons, low & behold another fork up eventuates.

They never learned a bloody thing from Vietnam.

AHH so it is all the Joos fault

 

[apparentlydead]

At least you are consistent in always being wrong.

“I’m not having hundreds of ******* Vietnamese Balts coming into this country with their religious and political hatreds against us!” — Gough Whitlam

Link to this please.

Considering that a hell of a lot of them were Catholic and/or were sympathetic to the 'democratic' South Vietnamese American puppet government, (or were actual soldiers for the SVA), I'm smelling bullshit.

 

[TropperFarquhar]

Gough put Australia into recession and wiped out all the savings the country built up. He was Australia's worst PM along with Julia.

 

[GuruJane]

Most importantly, when in opposition Whitlam DID NOT USE VIETNAMESE REFUGEES AS A POLITICAL FOOTBALL. Fraser was always very generous in his praise for that piece of bipartisanship.

Naiive or ignorant or both.

Fraser was having convenient memory lapses.

 

[madmug]

Gough put Australia into recession and wiped out all the savings the country built up. He was Australia's worst PM along with Julia.

Very enlightening.

I guess the first oil shock & stock exchange crash in 1973 had nothing to do with things at the time? Gough woke this country up, & set in motion the modernisation of the place. Perhaps you were one of the ones that stayed asleep, dreaming of Menzies?

 

[Schraderbrau]

It seems as if the Abbott supporters itt are attempting to defend his legacy by arguing he is merely the second worst PM of all time. Well done

 

[apparentlydead]

So, if we still had Tone and helmet hair Andrews at the steering wheel we'd have our SAS in Syria by now and most likely further ground troops in the not too distant future.

But they want to make us safer, right?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-23/kevin-andrews-calls-for-ground-troops-in-syria/6962546

Former defence minister Kevin Andrews has joined calls from former prime minister Tony Abbott for Australia to send ground troops into Syria.

Sorry Kevin, no-one gives a shit.

Go hand out a marriage counselling voucher at Mass or something, you tool.

 

[Gough]

Phil Coorey in the AFR on the weekend suggested that Andrews, and his mates on the right see themselves as a government in exile. They're utterly deluded.

 

[apparentlydead]

Phil Coorey in the AFR on the weekend suggested that Andrews, and his mates on the right see themselves as a government in exile. They're utterly deluded.

Is there any data on the recruitment numbers for the SAS of late?

I'd hate to be a soldier of some potential, only to be used as a political pawn in nearly every combat zone on the planet.