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What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Matthew 16:26.
Truly pathetic, a failing Prime Minister, just like his predecessor, was using the military to bolster his standing.
America, after pulverising Aleppo, Raqqa, Mosul, after flying tens of thousands of its lethal drones over villagers around the world, after committing a string of some of the worst war crimes in history, was taking the high moral ground on Syria and the use of chemical weapons.
Without waiting, of course, for UN inspection teams, or for evidence.
And Australia, of course, was jumping up: me too, me too, us too, us too.
Well, at least this particularly hapless caste of politicians were.
Before he jets off to discuss international security in London, Brussels and Berlin, Malcolm Turnbull has announced a new Australian Defence Force chief and made sure he is in lock step with Donald Trump.
Mr Turnbull says the appointment of the hero of Operation Sovereign Borders, Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, to the top defence job before he departed for Europe was a “coincidence”.
But it did provide a welcome aura of authority to an embattled leader, as he stood surrounded by the nation’s top brass in his Parliament House courtyard.
Former defence secretary Paul Barrett says the air strikes lacked UN Security Council authority, Mr Trump lacked congressional support, and the United Kingdom’s Theresa May avoided a querulous parliament. In other words, the strikes were a clear breach of international law.
It makes Mr Turnbull’s indignant condemnation of Syria’s gas attacks more than a tad hypocritical.
Mr Barrett is not the only commentator who believes Ms May’s and France’s Emmanuel Macron’s weak political standing at home was a key motivator in them quickly backing Mr Trump. It made them look stronger leaders.The next 10 days overseas will be a definite respite for Mr Turnbull. He leaves behind at least four leadership aspirants who have begun jockeying for his job.
The destruction of the leader is inevitable when that genie is out of the bottle... The leaking of a story at the weekend accusing Mr Turnbull of investing $1 million in a contentious fund that profits from Australian companies who fail is a sure sign destabilisation is in full swing. Embattled Malcolm Turnbull goes on a war footing, Paul Bongiorno, The New Daily, 16 April, 2018.
They robbed the poor and gave to the rich.
"Worst government in Australian history," the lad behind the counter at the Tallong store declared, keen to talk about the gay marriage plebiscite which had alienated the constituency Turnbull had so grandly courted, masquerading as a social justice warrior. Without any prompting from Old Alex. The young man's idea of history barely stretched back two decades, but never mind. It was a widespread sentiment.
"I think that, too," Old Alex replied with more enthusiasm than was his wont, and off the conversation ran.
A phone order came in for hot chips and gravy.
"Vegans," the lad explained.
"Healthy!" Alex exclaimed.
Everything was ordinary, too ordinary. Quiet, too quiet.
The valleys were breathing in the air. And everyone waited for the bang.
THE BIGGER STORY:
The Prime Minister just can’t handle criticism or being caught out telling untruths. Because he thought the politics of even having canvassed a cut in immigration as proposed by Abbott looked bad, he raced to deny a report in The Australian that the matter had been discussed among ministers. I called this outright lie “mega dumb” on Richo on Sky News on Wednesday night. Peter Dutton conceded a discussion between himself and Turnbull and other ministers had taken place. Turnbull went into his normal hopeless spin mode. Having originally branded The Australian’s story as fake news and telling the journalist concerned to check his sources, Turnbull resorted to claiming no discussion had been held in cabinet or in a cabinet subcommittee — a suggestion never made by this newspaper.
Declaring a jihad on The Australian when the newspaper is right on the issue and needs only to rely on Dutton’s public utterances to prove it shows Turnbull has learned nothing from past mistakes. He still believes he is the smartest man in every room he enters but the evidence to the contrary is continuing to mount.
Friendless and floundering, this Prime Minister knows time is running out. He would be stark raving mad to call an early election, so he will have many, many more mornings when he wishes the alarm just won’t ring. The mob have well and truly worked him out.
Graham Richardson, Turnbull's lack of political nous proving deadly, The Australian, April, 2018.
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