Just Makin the Point.....

Now, anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a great fan of the UN. I'm still at a loss as to what these people actually do, apart from mouthing off...Like this guy.

Diggers in Iraq symbolic: Blix John Lyons | November 07, 2007 FORMER chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has described the 500 Australian troops in Iraq, at the centre of the political debate between the two major parties, as being of "political and symbolic value". Hans Blix, who will receive the Sydney Peace Prize from Paul Keating, says Australian troops in Iraq are of "political and symbolic value". Picture: Alan Pryke The reference came yesterday when Mr Blix was asked whether there was any real difference between the policies on Iraq put forward by John Howard and Kevin Rudd. Asked whether 500 soldiers could make a crucial difference to the future of a country such as Iraq, the former Swedish diplomat said: "I don't think so. They (the US) have over 140,000 people in Iraq and then on top of that presumably a lot ofcontracted people, so I don't see quite that it has more than the political and symbolic value." Last night, Labor defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said he would never describe Australia's troops as symbolic but added: "I am not surprised by his comments." "I think Hans Blix has vindicated the Labor Party's position on Iraq," he said. "There is no doubt these resources could be better utilised elsewhere." Mr Blix was the UN weapons inspector who warned against an invasion of Iraq after his team was unable to find any weapons of mass destruction from about 700 searches at 500 different sites. He is in Sydney to receive the Sydney Peace Prize tomorrow. It will be presented by former Labor prime minister Paul Keating. The Opposition Leader has said Labor, if elected, would withdraw the 500 soldiers in the overwatch battle group based at Talil in southern Iraq and move them to neighbouring countries. The Prime Minister has said those troops would be kept in Iraq but dispersed to other parts of the country. "I would have thought the presence of foreign (non-American) troops in Iraq, the value of it is that it somewhat improves the appearance of a multilateral operation, rather than anything else," Mr Blix said. Read more here

And for that we're going to give the guy a medal??? Makes sense.

I am, of course, well aware that our contribution to the Middle Eastern conflicts seems unimportant and in numbers alone insignificant. But let's look at those numbers for a moment...

Australias entire population is approx 20,434,176 (as of July 2007)

The United States population is 301,139,947 (as of July 2007)

Our Military Force has 51,000 fulltime and 19,400 Reservists. Australias entire force is 70,400 Personnel. The United States deploys twice the amount of Personnel in one country at one time. There are currently approx 140,000 United States Service Personnel deployed to Iraq alone. The United States full force is somewhere closer to approx 1,426,713 personnel who are currently on active duty in the military with an additional 1,259,000 personnel in the seven Reserve Components.

It is beyond my comprehension that someone charged with the responsibilities that Mr Blix was, with the threat of war hanging over his head as he searched for WMDs, can not understand that Australia can simply not commit a force as large as that of the United States.

Current operations Current ADF deployments. Deployments of over 1000 personnel are coloured red, deployments of between 999 and 101 personnel are coloured orange and deployments of 100 or fewer personnel are coloured blue. In July 2007 around 3850 Australian Defence Force personnel were deployed on overseas operations. An additional 450 personnel were also deployed on domestic maritime security tasks.[23] While these deployments have placed pressure on some elements of the military, and particularly the Army, the ADF is not currently 'overstretched'.[24] The ADF currently has two-large scale deployments in the Middle East. The ADF's contribution to the rehabilitation of Iraq, Operation Catalyst, forms the largest ADF deployment. As of July 2007, 1575 ADF personnel were deployed to the Middle East as part of this operation. The other main ADF operation in the Middle East is Operation Slipper, Australia's contribution to the international coalition against terrorism. In July 2007 approximately 970 ADF personnel were also deployed as part of this operation.[25] The Australian force in Afghanistan will be expanded to more than 1000 personnel over 2007 and 2008.[26] The ADF also maintains three small contributions totalling 52 personnel to peacekeeping operations in the Middle East and Africa. Read more here

So Mr Blix, whatever the reason the Diggers are there as part of the Multi National Force. They're doing their jobs and they're doing them well. Australia is contributing what they can, where they can and their efforts are far from 'symbolic' for those of us waiting at home for their return. To us, be it 5 or 500, they are heroes. They have our respect and gratitude for any and all of their contributions to our countries future well being.

AC