An Easter Message

My day of reckoning is upon me......

Tomas Young’s letter published in Dangerous Minds 19 March 013:

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

—Tomas Young

 

Quote of the Week

“In the end, all that transpired was that a bunch of self-entitled blokes finally cleared out of the cabinet and left Gillard to get on with the job of running the country instead of baby-sitting their egos.” {Corrine Grant How to burst a blood vessel 26^th March 2013}

If this is what several hundred coal seam gas wells would leave behind in Pilliga, what would Metgasco's 1,000 wells do to the Northern Rivers?

No-one could seriously believe that the O’Farrell Government, in its headlong rush to satisfy the coal seam gas industry, has given any thought to the consequences for north east NSW economies based on agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism after reading what it is prepared to visit on another region.

The Sydney Morning Herald 27 March 2013:

Artificial lakes will be dug out of the arid soil of the Pilliga district, in north-western NSW, to hold millions of litres of contaminated water from coal seam gas wells.

Gas company Santos plans to drill several hundred wells in the area. The plastic-lined lakes will store the huge volumes of water that will be sucked up, along with gas, from a kilometre underground.

Construction of the lakes, which will hold enough salty brine to fill about 240 Olympic-sized swimming pools, was approved by the state government this week.

That was despite the NSW Environment Protection Authority writing to government planners in January, warning of the "inherent risk" of approving construction before a complete water management plan had been developed.

The site has been plagued previously by contaminated water spills, which were only made public after local residents tipped off the EPA. Investigations continue into the damage caused by the spills, which took place when the site was being managed by another gas company, Eastern Star, in 2010…….

Santos regards the new water storage scheme as a way to close down and rehabilitate the network of small, polluted ponds which dot sections of the Pilliga Forest as a result of drilling test wells, and to consolidate the waste water in one place.

But it is unclear what will happen to the water once it is in the lakes.

The company says it could be treated for use on farms, or injected back underground to "recharge" aquifers that may have been partially drained by the drilling.

Yet treating the briny water will leave behind mounds of salt, probably laced with traces of arsenic and heavy metals, which have been detected in water from test wells already operating on the site.....

Metgasco’s preliminary plans for Casino in the Northern Rivers in 2012: Metgasco says it needs about 1000 wells to make the money it predicts in a recent economic forecast report.

Abbott's plan for Australia?

First make a train wreck of the Australian Constitution and democratic processes……

But if the Senate proves intransigent, the Government could increase the stakes by including amendments to the Electoral Act as part of a double dissolution trigger.

A parliamentary secretary, Mr Tony Abbott, who is close to the Prime Minister, has weighed into the debate by floating two radical options to curb the power of minor parties.

The first involves expanding the size of the Parliament, making it easier for the main parties to win a majority of Senate seats in each State, thereby diminishing the ability of the minor players to affect the outcome of votes on legislation.

The second option would divide each State into two Senate constituencies, with minor parties having to achieve a much higher quota of votes to get elected.

While conceding there are drawbacks with both, Mr Abbott said the options would give the Government a handy weapon to threaten the Senate if the Upper House refused to acknowledge the Government's election mandate. [The Sydney Morning Herald, 7 August 1996, “Senate voting rethink to curb minor parties”]

This is Gary Gray, Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Tourism and Small Business

For readers on the east coast unlikely to know more than the name - this is the Hon Gary Gray AO MP the new Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Tourism and Small Business, former climate change sceptic and former supporter of the Lavoisier Group.

This is what he said about himself before his recent political elevation to the Gillard Cabinet:

Gary arrived in Australia from Yorkshire, England in 1966 and settled with his family in state housing in Whyalla, South Australia.

Gary got his first job after high school in the local BHP steelworks. In 1981, he graduated from the Australian National University, Canberra with a degree in economics.

In 1983 Gary moved to Kwinana, Western Australia to study education at the University of Western Australia.

He began working for the Labor Party in the Northern Territory and then in the United Kingdom. From 1986 to 1992 Gary worked on every state and federal election.

In 1993 Gary was elected as National Secretary of the ALP holding this office until 2000 when he relocated back to Perth with his wife, Deborah and three boys.

On returning to Perth in 2000 Gary was asked by the Chairman of Wesfarmers, to work as the Executive Director of the West Australian Institute for Medical Research.

In 2001 Shell attempted to take over Woodside Energy, Australia’s biggest independent oil and gas company, which has its head office in Perth. Gary was engaged by Woodside as an Adviser in the campaign to keep the company in Australian hands – which succeeded.

Gary was then asked to join the company, becoming the Director of Corporate Affairs and a member of the company executive team. In this position Gary represented Woodside before governments on four continents as a negotiator, advocate and leader. Gary left this exciting position in 2007 to commit full-time to the community of Brand.

Gary’s contribution to Australia’s democratic process was recognized in 2003 when he was invited to accept the high civil award of Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) and an Australia Medal.

In 2007, Gary was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Northern Australia in the Labor Government. In 2009, he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Western and Northern Australia.

At the 2010 Federal election Gary was re-elected as the Federal Member for Brand and later appointed Special Minister of State & Special Minister of State for the Public Service and Integrity.

In 2007 this is what Gary Gray said about uranium mining:

http://youtu.be/y25Z5udJouY

 Wikipedia had this to add about Gary Gray:

Foreign worker EMAs

As a parliamentary secretary in the Gillard Government, Gray chaired a taskforce comprising employment and training agencies, unions and employers to examine ways of dealing with the expected shortage of workers on major resource projects. In July 2010, the National Resources Sector Employment Taskforce put recommendations to the Australian Government, including a proposed enterprise migration agreement (EMA). After consideration by the government, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Bowen and the Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, announced on 25 May 2012, the first EMA for the planned $9.5bn Roy Hill iron ore mine, proposed by businesswoman Gina Rinehart. The announcement said more than 8000 workers would be required for the construction phase and to meet labour demand, the government would allow up to 1715 457 visas for overseas workers for the three-year construction phase….

What he told The Australian in June 2012 about bringing in foreign skilled workers:

without the EMA, "we won't get the next generation of mining and oil and gas facilities constructed on time and on budget".

Quoted in The West Australian in May 2012 on the subject of cash incentives to encourage workers to relocate to WA:

WA Labor frontbencher Gary Gray said there had long been a deep reluctance to head west for work, conceding financial incentives had generally failed to get people to shift.

"For many, the relocation is difficult because of the great distance, the lifestyle change, and the separation from family and friends," he said.

"Today, there is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all Australians to be part of the amazing economic expansion in the north, where miners are offering the best wages and conditions on new projects."

On the matter of coal seam gas exploration in 2012:

GARY Gray, the federal Special Minister of State, is assessing an application for coal seam gas exploration at Holsworthy Military Reserve.

If approved, it would be the first time seam gas exploration work would take place on military land and could possibly set a precedent for future applications.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Finance and Deregulation confirmed to the Champion an application had been made by AGL.

"AGL has expressed interest in obtaining access to commonwealth owned land located in NSW, including in the Holsworthy area," the spokeswoman said.

"Under the Lands Acquisition Act 1989, all decisions to authorise or to refuse access to Commonwealth land by mineral explorers are made by the Special Minister of State."

An AGL spokeswoman told the Champion consultations had begun for preliminary exploration….

On Sky News PM Agenda, 19 March 2013:

 I'm a strong supporter of the coal seam methane industry, of the shale gas industry, of unconventional gas as we call it.

On the subject of mining generally:

In The Sydney Morning Herald,  25 March 2013

Our resource industry rests on a secure and sound environmental approvals process,

A good approvals process is as essential to a successful mining operation as good engineering and sound banking.

Speaking with Emma Alberici he stated that the mining industry needs bankable approval processes.

Hansard, 17 September 2009 on the subject of his contact with James Hardie:

I rise to discuss a matter recently published in a book called Killer Company by Matt Peacock, a book about James Hardie and about James Hardie’s actions in seeking to deal with asbestos issues. In that book the author records as follows:

Baxter quickly sought advice from Hardie’s other PR consultant, Gavin Anderson and Co, which suggested hiring Stephen Loosley, a former secretary of the New South Wales Labor Party and then consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he had been joined by the former national secretary of the Labor Party, Gary Gray.

At no time have I ever worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers. At no time have I ever provided advice to James Hardie. At no time have I ever been a paid consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. Indeed, this allegation as recorded by the author, Matt Peacock, followed an article in the Sydney Morning Herald five years ago which prompted me to write a letter to the editor which was published in that newspaper. In his article about the James Hardie inquiry, ‘Guns are trained on Hardie’s messenger’, in the Sydney Morning Herald dated 24 September that year, Richard Ackland wrongly asserted that I had been engaged by James Hardie to work for it behind the scenes. The facts are as follows. In 2000 I worked for the West Australian Institute for Medical Research. One of the research projects was on mesothelioma, funded in part and for many years by James Hardie. The research was highly regarded. I approached James Hardie in late 2000 specifically with regard to its funding of this research. During that approach I was asked if I was able to work for James Hardie as a consultant. I said I was not able to work for it but that I might be able to if I accepted a position, which I was at that time considering, as a consultant to the legal firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. As things worked out, I did not work for that legal firm. I did not work for James Hardie and I received no payment from James Hardie, and I did not provide it with any advice. I was not engaged to work behind the scenes, and I said in that letter that if Mr Ackland had checked his facts with me he would have known that to be the case.

Unfortunately, it is the case that Matt Peacock did check the facts with me and I did inform Matt that at no time had I ever worked as a consultant to PricewaterhouseCoopers and at no time had I worked as a consultant to James Hardie. I find the way in which Mr Peacock has recorded this fact pattern to be both bizarre and inaccurate. He could have done better in order to better illustrate his story of the need for adequacy in the funding vehicle which was to be created by James Hardie to fund future actions with regard to victims of asbestosis. I am more than prepared to say to Matt Peacock that his book is a fine piece of work. I have not found any other inaccuracies in it and regard it to be an excellent study of the dynamics and the consequences of Hardie’s actions.

Snake! Snake! Snake!

The Daily Examiner 22 March 2013:

EIGHTY-seven-year-old bingo enthusiast Una Walters responded to the cry of "snake" faster than she could say "house" at South Grafton Ex-Servicemen's club last week.

A red-bellied black snake interrupted the weekly meat raffle on Friday by crawling up a lady's leg.

As the club's secretary manager Col Green panicked and scrambled for a handbag to capture the metre-long intruder, one of his most loyal customers leapt into action.

"I turn around, and here's Una standing there with the snake in one hand," Mr Green said.

"I'm not scared of the bastard!" Una shouted as she held the snake near its head.

It was about 6.45pm last Friday and the meat draw was well under way when someone from a table in the centre of the room yelled: "Snake! Snake! Snake!"

Commotion ensued and people scattered from their chairs as the red-bellied black slithered its way between the feet of scurrying patrons and club staff.

"He (the snake) had crawled up a woman's leg and tried to curl around it," Mr Green said.

"I grabbed a lady's handbag, hoping to get the snake in there so we could send him on his way."

The perpetrator evaded being caught for some time until Una intervened.

"I turn around and here's Una standing there with the snake in one hand," Mr Green said…..