How Dumb Are We?

Consider Bob Carr's recent words on the subject of Iranian asylum seekers:

"The fact is, these people are middle-class Iranians. They're leaving their country because of the economic pressures - much of it produced, I guess, by the sanctions that apply to Iran, because of the nuclear ambitions of its Supreme Leader and its Guardianship Council." (Rudd plan to return failed refugees to Iran, David Wroe, Sydney Morning Herald, 2/7/13)

Two observations need to be made here.

First - the bleeding obvious - here we have the foreign minister of a suckhole state only too happy to please USrael by helping ruin the Iranian economy through sanctions. Then, when these begin to bite, prompting an exodus, with some Iranians managing to find their way to these inhospitable shores, he blows the whistle and brands them economic refugees who should be returned. And as if that weren't bad enough, he goes on to blame the sanctions on Iran's pursuit of a nuclear program - while all the while maintaining total silence on the subject of USrael's bloated nuclear arsenal. Finally, cap this off what Carr had to say about Iran's nuclear program in his Thoughtlines blog before he became foreign minister - "Iran would not be the only creepy nation to have the bomb. There is only challangeable evidence they are going to get it anyway"* - and you've got a case of hypocrisy personified.

Second, Carr has inadvertently but correctly linked the impact of USrael's and Australia's economic war on Iran (a country moreover that has never done Australia any harm) to the issue of Iranian asylum seekers. The logic here is clear: if Australia has an Iranian refugee problem, it's because we have helped create one, and not because sanctions are in our national interest - they're not - but simply to help further USraeli imperial ambitions in the Middle East.

How dumb are we?

[*See my 2/3/12 post The Carr Doctrine So Far.]