Letter From An Aussie

by John Hawkins | December 1, 2003 2:38 am

I received the following piece of hate mail this week-end and I thought it merited a response…

Hi John,

My name is Sarah-Jayne, i’m 17 years old and ilive in tasmania Australia. I’ve been reading some of your editorials on the right wings news website and . As i said I am 17 but i believe that even I, with little life experience, have a more open mind than you do. You fail to understand what is being said and to comprehend that there are other opinions in hte world, you compare to tings that are dead and irrelevant. A prime example is your editorial regarding Ken Livingstons comment[1]; “I actually think that Bush is the greatest threat to life on this planet that we’ve most probably ever seen. The policies he is initiating will doom us to extinction.”

I agree with Mayor Livingston, not only has bush endangered the lives on innocent men women and children in iraq, but also in his allied countries! In fact he went against the wishes of several differnt coun tries and with the backing of only a few (one of which i am, unfortunatly, ashamed to live in) You may laugh at this and think “oh another bloody hippy” But i’m not, i’m a normal girl, i wear jeans and t-shirt, i go out with my friends… i don’t regualarly attend protests.. i believe they are a waste of time but i was recently inspired to go to one and that was George Bushes recent.. but brief (isn’t it nice to know we’re worth his time) visit to australia. He has been branded a killer, a liar and a dictator and i beleive he is, he won his election by an accident and funnily enough the only state that seemed to have a major problem was the one run by his brother in australia.. that never would ahve happened! I am glad I’m not american because if i were i wold be ashamed of my country and the people like you who live in it. I can see from your editorials that you’re old fashioned and senile.

Feel free to chuckle at me behind the safety of your computer desk beca use i can’t hear it and i’ll never meet, you of which i am glad because i know that it would be one less idiot that i would meet.

Your Sincerly (and trust it’s all very sincere)

Sarah-Jayne

Sarah-Jayne, Sarah-Jayne, Sarah-Jane, you dear deluded sheila you! Like Paul Hogan, the charming yet ignorant Aussie from Crocodile Dundee, you’re charming, yet appallingly ignorant at the same time. However, since you’re only 17, you have plenty of time to stop being a koala bear in the zoo of political bewilderment.

For example, do you really, truly understand what life was like in Iraq before we invaded? State sanctioned rape and torture were everyday things, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were slaughtered, there was no political freedom, freedom of speech was non-existent, it was a totalitarian nightmare state — one of the worst places on earth. Yet, you’re worried that Bush went “against the wishes of several differnt coun tries” and “endangered the lives on innocent men women and children in iraq”? Trust me kiddo, having the US invade Iraq and stay to build a Democracy was the best thing that has EVER happened to the Iraqi people. People like Ken Livingstone would acknowledge that if say, France, Germany, and Belgium had been running the show, but they’re so blinded with hate for America that they’d prefer to see 25 million Iraqis in chains and mass graves than have them freed by Americans.

Also, I know it’s probably a waste of time to tell you that you should be proud that your country is one of the few Western nations that has the guts to still fight for freedom, but it’s true. You may be “ashamed” that Australia backed America in Afghanistan and Iraq, but what’s to be ashamed of? That brave Australians risked their lives to free almost 50 million people from tyrants? That your country struck a blow at the same sort of terrorist animals who murdered so many Australians in Bali? If you’re “ashamed” of that, I’d hate to hear what you feel “proud” of.

Even if you care for nothing beyond whatever “jeans and t-shirt” you can buy at the mall, have you ever considered the risks YOUR country faces now and over the next decade or two? You’re a tiny nation of 20 million people. Have you ever wondered what might happen down a road a bit if some of your neighbors, say Indonesia which is 10 times your size or maybe even China at 50+ times your size were to modernize their militaries, particularly their navies and decide that they fancied your country? Do you really think Europe would come to your aid? Ask Czechoslovakia or more recently Bosnia and Kosovo, about that sometime. Let’s just say your country would be left to twist in the wind unless America decided to intervene. John Howard understands that and I suspect that he looks down the road a few years and sees, as I do by the way, a much more isolationist America that will come to know and appreciate the meaning of the word “schadenfreude,” at least when it applies to nations that didn’t help our country in the war on terrorism. Remember dear girl, one day in the future, the only thing keeping some Chinese soldier from burning down your mothers house or an Indonesian mullah from forcing you to wear a veil, may be a strategically located American Battle Group protecting your coastline. Poo-poo that if you will, but trust me when I say that if that day comes, it won’t be international law, the UN, or the opinion of Europe that protects you.

Last but not least, I too am glad we’ll “never meet” since your country is overloaded with dangerous snakes, spiders, and apparently something called drop bears[2] and you might try to slip one into my luggage. While most Australians I’ve met are fine folks, I do keep in mind that you’re descended from criminals and you might have great-great-great-grandma’s “stabbin genes”.

So all the best from over here in American Sarah-Jayne. Oh…and don’t get so distracted by reading this that you let a dingo steal your baby. I understand you Aussies have a real problem with that. Probably because you try to deliberately irritate them like that Steve Irwin fellow. Leave irritating the wild life to the professionals Sarah-Jayne…

PS: Stop reading Margo Kingston and John Pilger, they’re leftist chuckleheads!