Greens calling the shots

The Green Party is calling for further investigations following a ruling by NATO that New Zealand SAS troops were acting in self-defence during a night raid in Afghanistan.

It's not just a ruling by NATO, but our own Defence Force brass.

Greens spokesperson for defence, Keith Locke, says according to a Wikileaks document the President of Afghanistan, Harmid Karzai, had asked for night raids to cease because of the dangers involved.

So what? It wasn't a night raid, as such. The men had orders to go out, in response to a suspicion of imminent attacks on the US Embassy. So they went out, they got shot at, and ultimately returned fire resulting in the death of 2 security guards.

It isn't enough that a full investigation was carried out, and it isn't enough that an Afgan General was suspended, and a Colonel fired for the overall handling of the incident. No, they want more blood, because they don't agree the SAS should be there. However, it is one thing not to want our boys there, and quite another to look for ways of putting the boot into these men just to make a political point.

I'm not impressed.

Investigation clears NZ SAS, so the Greens want another investigation, and another..

But the Greens like calling the shots. Which is why they were shooting from the hip at the poor people of Queensland.

Russel Norman, Green Party Co-Leader, blames Queenslanders for the floods they experienced, because he is certain this flood is down to man-made global warming, caused by, you guessed it - the Coal the Queenslanders have dug up:

It is also noteworthy that Queensland is one of the biggest coal exporters in the world and so is making a significant contribution to climate change. I hope that, once the cleanup is underway and people have a chance to recover from the impact, the 2011 flood leads to a debate in Queensland about whether they want to continue to be such a big contributor to climate change given that climate change makes such extreme weather events more likely.

Any comedian will tell you that timing is everything, and consequently, what Russel wrote isn't funny.

And if we extrapolate the message only slightly, does Russel believe that stopping all mining will forever remove the threat of flooding in Queensland? Bizarro.

Anyway, a lively debate followed, and what puzzles me is Russel's attacks on LibertyScott. Scott expresses a reasonable opinion that the content and sentiment of the article is in poor taste given the timing. Russel debates that point how?

really do love the way “Liberty”Scott tries to shut down debate. Keep on writing LS I think you demonstrate nicely the kind of freedom that the far right believes in, and it ain’t freedom of speech!

That's not the kind of illogical (and clumsy) response I'd expect from a party leader. If you go read Liberty's comment, it was quite reasonable. This does seem to be a good example of left wing thinking that freedom of speech is when you must agree with everything they say, and therefore to say anything else, is not freedom of speech. Bizarro.

Well, one thing is clear, man-made climate change style extreme events such as flooding have been going on for hundreds of years in Queensland. The last one was in 1974 and there are plenty of charts around indicating man-made climate change induced extreme events were kicking off in mere anticipation of coal mining at Mount Isa. This one has been particularly tragic as many people were killed, and some of the stories I've read have been truly heart-breaking. Those stories seem far more important right now than speculating on who or what is to blame.




Greens shooting point blank

Right of reply: LibertyScott on Greens Blame Game