I remember this. For months #Howard refused to discuss possible deployment, saying ‘it’s hypothetical & I will not discuss hypotheticals’. Then it was ‘oops too late’. It was brazen.

So much of the poison we see manifest in Australian politics today was seeded & cultivated under Howard. The ‘nation of shareholders’. The demonisation of anyone who was not cis het white Anglo people with well paid work. Reframing social problems as individual deficits. Sending our country to war based on a lie. The tragedy is, as politics, it worked. Howard the cruel, unscrupulous ‘strategist’ is still their hero.

That government caused so much damage. We remember. #AusPol #CabinetPapers #IraqWar

Australia kept quiet about early deployment of forces ahead of Iraq war, cabinet papers show https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/01/australia-kept-quiet-about-early-deployment-of-forces-ahead-of-iraq-war-cabinet-papers-show?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other