Rank hypocrisy really is the order of the day when it comes to international relations.
After all, Western nations ganged up to invade Iraq on the basis of a farrago of lies. For dessert, we jumped in with the UN to overthrow the sovereign government of Libya, creating a disastrous power vacuum in north Africa. A power vacuum which, at the very least, led directly to the invasion of Europe by millions of illegal immigrants, mostly fighting-age single males and the establishment of a jihadi fiefdom complete with open slave markets.
Go the West.
Yet, we play at being outraged when Vladimir Putin does the same thing in Ukraine, on a slightly less-threadbare excuse. After all, the violent persecution of Russian speakers in the Donbass region and the presence of neo-Nazi regiments in Ukrainian government forces, two of Putin’s casus belli, were well-established facts.
Putin’s other justification, that NATO nations were pushing into Russia’s sphere of influence, was dismissed out of hand. What Ukraine does is its own democratic business, Western sabre-rattlers retorted.
Once again, it’s different, though, when it’s us.
Anthony Albanese says Australia is opposed to Russian influence in Australia’s neighbourhood.
“We obviously do not want to see Russian influence in our region, very clearly,” the Prime Minister said […]
On Tuesday, a report emerged that the Russian government had put in an official request for Russian Aerospace Forces to be stationed in Manuhua Air Force Base at Biak Numfor, 1380km from Darwin.
Wait, isn’t what Indonesia does entirely its own democratic business?
“We have a position, which is we stand with Ukraine, we regard Vladimir Putin as an authoritarian leader who has broken international law, who’s attacking the sovereignty of the nation of Ukraine.”
See above, re: Iraq and Libya. Or is it not breaking international law and attacking the sovereignty of other nations when we do it?
It’s not just Albanese who’s laying the hypocrisy on thick and fast.
Peter Dutton says Russia is not welcome in the region “at all” and that a Russian military presence would be “deeply destabilising”.
“We’ve seen Russia in action under President Putin in Ukraine,” the Opposition Leader said.
“We’ve seen women and children who have died in Ukraine as a result of decisions of Vladimir Putin.
Because no women and children died in the aforementioned countries as a result of our own leaders and allies?
But my message to President Putin is that we don't share any values with President Putin, and we do not want a presence, a military presence, from Russia in our region.
So, he’s pulling the ol’ Uno reverse card on Putin’s identical objections to a NATO presence in Russia’s region?
Ah, but, I hear you say, Putin has people killed! Two words: drone. Strikes.
To be clear, this is not an endorsement of Putin or of a Russian military presence in our region. Both are obviously bad – but that doesn’t make the sickening hypocrisy from our leaders any less nauseating and two-faced.
On another note, though, the revelations could be a devastating blow to Albanese’s election campaign. Coming just weeks after China sailed an entire fleet past our country with the government completely unawares, the prime minister getting caught on the hop yet again is not a good look.
And he clearly knows it.
The prime minister has been pressed on whether he knew about the request before it was reported.
"We are seeking further information from Indonesia about it, I've answered the question," he says.
Well, no he hasn’t. Not directly – but the tacit implication is clear that he was utterly clueless, yet again.
Anthony Albanese has declined to provide more information on the reports of Russia seeking to station military aircraft in Indonesia, suggesting he did not know all the details ahead of time […]
Peter Dutton says it is a “catastrophic failure of diplomatic relations” if Anthony Albanese did not know ahead of time that Russia had sought to station long-range aircraft in Indonesia.
Finally, Dutton is showing signs that he’s ready to really grasp the nettle in this election and hold the PM’s feet to the fire.
“This would be a catastrophic failure of diplomatic relations if (Foreign Affairs Minister) Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese didn’t have forewarning about this before it was made public,” the Opposition Leader said.
“This is a very, very troubling development and suggestion that somehow Russia would have some of their assets based in Indonesia only a short distance from, obviously, the north of our country […]
“The Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister should have the depth of relationship with Indonesia to have had forewarning of this. And if they haven’t, I think they need to explain to the Australian people what has gone wrong here. Because this would be a very, very significant development and a negative one that’s obvious to all of us.”
Or, let’s be frank here – a very positive one for an opposition on the ropes in an election campaign.
Will this be Dutton’s reverse “Tampa moment”?
