Howard Just Won't Go Away

Former Prime Minister Ready To Collect His Iraq Blood Money From NeoCons And American War Industries

Yet another example of the incredible arrogance and utterly oblivious-to-reality character of former prime minister John Howard. Within weeks of losing the federal election, all but destroying the Australian conservative movement and bailing out as leader of the Liberal Party, Howard was on the phones begging to be installed as party president. Incredible :

Party sources confirmed that Mr Howard put himself forward as the next Liberal Party president to replace outgoing Chris McDiven.

One source said that "Howard contacted people to make it known he wanted the presidency", but his candidacy was scoffed at by senior Liberals.

They were amazed he seemed to want a role so soon after the Liberals' worst defeat. "They told him, 'Don't be ridiculous'," a senior source said. "Howard wanted the presidency so he could control the review process the party was conducting into why the Howard Government lost and what needed to be done," another said.

"He wanted to control the way the history of the Howard Government was written."

Like his buddy George W. Bush, Howard is obsessed with how history will view his years in power, and how he will be portrayed by historians. It's already bad, and it's going to get much worse as official government records and reports of the Howard years are declassified.

It's not all bad news for Mr Howard, of course. He will be spending a few weeks, if not months, this year on tour in the US, gigging at NeoCon think-tanks, institutes and universities. Many of which, by sheer coincidence, receive millions in funding from American and Israeli war industries, arms dealers and bomb makers. Howard will likely receive at least one or two million dollars of Iraq War blood money for 'speaking engagements' as payback for his relentless help in creating the reality of the never-ending and very, very expensive 'War on Terror'.

Don't be at all surprised to see Howard scoring at least high six figures, or low seven figures, for his opinions and memories from a Rupert Murdoch publishing company while he's in the United States. If not for a book, then for a contract writing op-eds for the Wall Street Journal.

Murdoch, like the world's biggest arms contractors, owe Howard big-time and Howard won't hold back from taking every dollar of blood money he can get.

After all, he's earned it. Hasn't he?

Scrapping Mega-Billions Jet Fighter Purchase May 'Harm Australia-US Relations'

It's nice to know that Australia's much-praised and constantly touted close relationship with the United States is worth more than six or seven billion dollars in questionable war industry purchases from Boeing.

Or is it?

Cancellation of the controversial $6.6 billion contract to buy 24 F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter-bombers could hurt Australia's diplomatic and commercial relationship with the US, a national security think tank has warned.

...Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon yesterday reaffirmed his Government's pre-election pledge to review the purchase announced without warning in March by then defence minister Brendan Nelson.

At the time, Dr Nelson said the deal was made after advice from the Defence Department and RAAF that the US-built Super Hornet offered the best solution to a looming air combat capability gap.

Deliveries of its intended replacement, the state-of-the-art but unproven F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) are not expected until 2013 and, at a starting price of $15.6 billion, the project is running over budget and embroiled in production delays.

Andrew Davies, of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute warns :

...that any decision to axe the Super Hornet contract would carry "precipitous" consequences. It would require "careful management in Washington", he said, and would result in fraught commercial ties with Boeing...

"The very first question you have to answer is: what sort of stoush do you think you are going to be in when you need something like that?" he said.

So is Australia only so highly valued by the US because we spend billions of dollars a year buying 'product' from their war industries, and pouring billions more into American owned war machine corporations based in Australia?

It's not often the public gets such insights into the politics and blackmail of war industry business between the United States and Australia. And as usual, it's ugly and more than a little seedy.

Brendan Nelson is one of the more spectacular war industry whores Australia has produced in decades. Under Nelson, and the Howard government, Australia's 'defence' budget was set to roar beyond $30 billion in 2008 (including the "extra projects" never announced in budgets).

It remains to be seen whether the new Labor defence minister will stick to all the deals and promises Howard and Nelson made to international war industry corporations, mostly American ones.

Outside of the United States, Australia under Howard had one of the largest defence budgets of any country in the world, with Russia and China only spending a few billion more in the past few years than Howard did.

Australia To Hand Over $30+ BILLION To US War Industry

Australian Defence Companies Drool Over Arms Sales To Middle East Dictatorships And 'Enemies' Of Israel

It's just like the 1930s all over again. A wider world war looms, as economies crash and burn and powerful military nations move on weak states with vast energy and mineral reserves, while Australia, the US and the UK are busy flooding the world with bombs, bullets, jets, tanks and vast arsenals of new weaponry.

BushCo. recently announced some $73 billion worth of military hardware sales to Middle East "allies" and Australia's defence industry are now hankering to get their slice of this international arms race.

As this story in the Sun Herald explains, to get in the action, the Howard government will appoint its own international arms dealer to flog our "war machines" to allies and potential future enemies alike :

Defence experts said the most likely Australian-made military equipment that could be sold to Persian Gulf states included fast troop-carrying catamarans and the Bushmaster armoured vehicle.

"Australian defence firms could get a slice of the action as we have developed some excellent niche technology and equipment," said Greg Ferguson, editor of Australian Defence Magazine. "The new government unit will use the muscle and reputation of the Australian Defence Force to push the overseas sale of Australian defence products."

Professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University, Hugh White, said the massive US arms deal to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the Gulf States opened up opportunities for Australia.

"The aim of the US is to armour up these countries to contain Iran, which has a long coast on the Persian Gulf. It would be ideal for the Australian-built high-speed catamarans which could be used for military transports," he said.

Thank goodness for Iran's mullahs acting so crazy and supposedly claiming they want to "wipe" Israel off the map. Otherwise, Australia's involvement in the US effort to "armour up these countries to contain Iran" might look...well, dangerous, or even grossly irresponsible.

Nearly all the Gulf states our international arms dealer will be sent off to schmooze do not officially recognize the existence of Israel, like Hamas, and impose horrific human rights violations on their people, while jailing and torturing dissenters. Nor do most of these future arms trading partners of Australia allow fully democratic elections, even though the United States continually claims it is pressuring countries like Egypt to give its people more freedom and liberty.

But forget all that, we're talking billions of dollars of arms sales here.

The Saudis and Egyptians know that one of the best ways to get the United States to shut up about human rights and democracy is to commit to mega-billion arms deals with the US, or its arms-producing allies. Like Australia.

According to the Sun Herald, and other media reports, the Howard government has committed to pouring more than $31 billion dollars into the coffers of American defence contractors in the coming years, for transport planes, jet fighters and second-hand tanks.

The top 40 defence firms in Australia turnover $6 billion per year. At the moment, they sell $400 million worth of guns, bombs and bullets internationally. A figure that is set to rapidly escalate should our new arms dealer be able to score some of the American action in arming up all those Middle East countries.

Interesting how the fact that Australia, a nation of only 20 million people, is funneling $31 billion into American defence contractors, and currently has a "defence" budget of more than $21 billion a year, barely rates a mention in the American or British mainstream media.

Australia and the US had a virtual shitfit last year when it became known that China, a country of more than 1.3 billion people, had raised its annual defence spend to some $40 billion.

Australia's move to help in the mega-arming of Middle East countries is all part of the US-Israel-Sunni Middle East Alliance against Iran. In part, this is also a future front against the Russia and China, who are now tied to Iran through recent oil and natural gas deals worth hundreds of billions of dollars.


Australia's Massive Plan To Become A Military World Power

Australia's Future Role In Helping To Contain China

Our New Arms Trading Partners : The US-Sunni-Israel Alliance Against Iran