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Letters to the Editor

“Handwashing, Then and Now ”

05/05/2003

 

Watching "Passion of the Christ", I was of course, appalled by the ultra-violence and the enormous power of Christ's sacrifice for us.

 

But I was also surprised at my own response in becoming pre-occupied with the similarity between the dilemmas faced by Pontius Pilot and by Paul Bremer (Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq).  Pilot was disgusted by his job of administering occupied territories in Palestine.  With Caesar on his back to avoid any more popular uprisings of the Jews, he knew he would be in strife whichever decision he made about the fate of Jesus. Alas, his notorious attempt to wash his hands of the matter was to no avail.  The Romans over 2000 years ago had no idea of the burden they took on by invading foreign territories and becoming an occupying power.

 

Why have we not learnt from experience?  We (the "Coalition of the Willing") invaded a country which was no threat to us, and we knowingly took on the role of an occupying power.  More than a year later, we are still killing, maiming and torturing the Iraqi people and destroying their property.  The Prime Minister, when asked why we are doing this, replies with the question "Well, would you rather still have Saddam Hussein in power?"  He doesn't quite say how many tens of thousands of Iraqis it is worth killing to liberate them from their despotic leadership.  He doesn't quite say whether it is Government policy to topple despotic governments on humanitarian grounds (What about Zimbabwe, North Korea, Burma, etc etc)? 

 

Now I read (CT 3 May 2004, P5) that we have been released by the UN from our legal status as an occupying power in Iraq.  How convenient! Our dreadfully dishonest, immoral and simply wrong decision to storm in with little understanding of probable consequences apparently carries no ongoing responsibility!  How can we not be struck by the analogy between the Pontius Pilot's hard-washing, and Mr Downer proclaiming that Australia is "not an occupying power" in Iraq?      

 

Our people serving in Iraq and elsewhere do a heroic job in the most trying of circumstances.  Julius Caesar might well have blamed faulty intelligence for his failed leadership.  But history will not remember that when it pronounces judgement on the leaders who took us to war on false pretences.

 

Yours faithfully,

Robert James,

Watson ACT 2602

 



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