Quick Thought #5

Another loony comment from the Australian Defence Force — this time from the Returned Services League (RSL).

It was suggested recently that, since nearly thirty years have passed since the end of the Vietnam War and since thousands of Australians have visited Vietnam as tourists, it was about time that Aussie veterans declare peace and begin treating the Vietnamese as human beings again.

“No,” said some Old Diggers. “I can’t forget what they did to my mates!”

Well, dear Australian soldiers, you seem to have forgotten something important — it wasn’t the Vietnamese who invaded your country … it was you who, at the behest of your “Great and Powerful Friend,” Uncle Sam, invaded theirs. So, I would think it would be the Vietnamese who had reason to be resentful.

In their hatred, the Diggers were spurred on by those Vietnamese who had come to Australia as ‘refugees’ — those bourgeois who were offended that the Vietnamese communists wouldn’t allow them to own two houses instead of just one.

Interestingly, Australians were much quicker to forgive the European fascists – they only killed Communist workers and other such ‘subhumans’!

Quick Thought #2 - Crap Anywhere, But On The Front Lawn!

The Australian Minister for Defence, Stephen Smith, recently castigated several members of the ADF for homophobic slurs against serving personnel and civilian staff on departmental social-networking sites.

Note that he did not take them to task for being homophobic or sexist — he took them to task for “misusing social-networking sites in a manner liable to bring the Department [of Defence] into disrepute.”

So, Aussie military boys and girls, you can be as homophobic as you like, you can rape ‘lezzos’ (or any of your female colleagues really) to “put ‘em in their place,” you can bash ‘poofters’ ‘cos they’re not ‘real men’ (http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/04/06/the-dark-side-of-mateship-in-australian-military-ranks/) — just don’t go putting hate-speech up on websites where it could get us, your bosses, sued.

Remember, boys and girls, if you can’t be good, be careful. Above all, don’t leave any evidence — when you do do the sexual assault or even just the hate-speech thing, you can rest assured that your conduct will be whitewashed, because we, your bosses, will be the ones running any inquiry and we don’t want the departmental budget crippled by compensation payouts either.

That’s right folks. It’s never about rights, dignity or even safety — like all issues in capitalist society, it’s all about money.