Howard stands tall as West capitulates

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) ^ | 15th May 2007 | Melanie Phillips

[naturalman1975]

JUST what was that ghostly and unfamiliar noise we heard over the weekend? Good heavens - it was the sound of a country's political leader actually exercising leadership.

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, ordered his nation's cricket team to pull out of a scheduled tour of Zimbabwe in September and even threatened to suspend the players' passports if the sport's governing body did not abide by his decision.

His reason was that the proposed tour would be an "enormous propaganda boost" to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, a "grubby dictator" who was behaving "like the Gestapo towards his political opponents".

.....

This confident outspokenness derives from a quality that is very rare in Western leaders -- being entirely comfortable in his own cultural skin.

.....

He believes in Australia and its Western values. He thinks these values are superior to any alternatives. And it is this total absence of equivocation in upholding the national interest which explains his robust defence of both Australian identity and Western civilisation against attack.

He is an unwavering ally of America in Iraq and Afghanistan - while others are withdrawing troops from Iraq, he has sent more. He has introduced tough anti-terrorism laws, and has no truck with attempts to use human rights laws to weaken Australia's national security. And he and his senior ministers have spoken out against Islamic extremism in Australia, stating there will be no acceptance of sharia law, turning down a proposal to build a mosque with Saudi Arabian money and declaring that anyone who does not want to live by Australian values should go elsewhere.

With the US presidential elections coming up next year, there is a vacancy for the leadership of the Western world. What a pity John Howard can't apply.

[WesternPacific]

I wish Mr. Howard would teach Mr. Bush the finer points of political gamesmanship. I loved it when Mr. Howard refused to let the radical muzzy cleric back into the country.

[blam]

Zim Ping.

[Clive]

-

[mkjessup]

If there is to be a human being cloned in the future, I nominate John Howard to be the one.

The man has forged steel balls and we need more like him.

[Clive]

We need the England and Wales Cricket Board to boycott Zim.

Cricket is not just a game. Engaging or refusing to engage Zim in a Cricket World Cup test match is a geopolitical statement.

[Dave Elias]

Whilst I agree with his stand and indeed the sentiment, I am not sure that politicians should be dictating terms to sportsmen.

[Clive]

How is this reason (which is their reason) to judge a scholar’s worth,
By casting a ball at three straight sticks and defending the same with a fourth?
But this they do (which is doubtless a spell) and other matters more strange,
Until, by the operation of years, the hearts of their scholars change:

From Kitchener's School by Rudyard Kipling

[naturalman1975]

Part of the issue involved is that Cricket Australia would face a massive fine from the International Cricket Council if the Australian team pulled out of this tour. The ICC does not levy fines if a national team is prevented from going by its government. The Australian team didn’t want to go, and by banning the tour, the government gets them off the hook.

[WesternPacific]

Kipling is interesting. Never could understand that game until I spent some time down under. I’m not sure I really understood it but I did get caught up in the playoff fever.

[tioga]

Howard has sangfroid!

[naturalman1975]

Cricket is easy to understand.

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

What could be simpler?

[WesternPacific]

LOL. No one has ever explained it to me that way. Thanks.

[Clive]

Well said.

You have hit for six.

[DeFault User]

I’m outta here. Need a shower. ;o)

[Clive]

"Part of the issue involved is that Cricket Australia would face a massive fine from the International Cricket Council if the Australian team pulled out of this tour. ..."

Yes, that was the excuse tendered by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

[The Great RJ]

I think John Howard is one of the few western leaders with a backbone. George Bush has been effectively emasculated by the Democrats in Congress and would be hard pressed to respond to even a direct terrorist threat on the US without being impeached.

[kalee]

Or more boring? Well maybe curling. ;)

[JZelle]

Yes. The people spoke in the last election. A John Howard would never win over here.

[happygrl]

I wish Mr. Howard would teach Mr. Bush the finer points of political gamesmanship. I loved it when Mr. Howard refused to let the radical muzzy cleric back into the country.

Yes and yes!