Political evasions and half-truths are shaping Australia’s response to the US-Israel attack on Iran, undermining honest debate about legality and policy.

Democratic government is, in a sense, a debating society impelling the tactics of half-truths, the suppression of inconvenient evidence and, alas, a tolerance of bullshit. These influences wax and wane and at the moment in Australia they may be waxing because of:

the insidious effects of modern technology allowing the rapid and extensive spread of rumours and worse;

the decline of serious newspapers, many of whom now appear to assume their readers have attention spans of a spaniel, with column inches mostly taken up with criminal atrocities, tales of personal misfortunes, entertainment and sport;

weak leadership of the major political parties – Albanese, Marles, Taylor, Hume and Hanson may be the least impressive quintet to be at the head of major political parties at the federal levels for a long time; and

the over-weaning concerns of politicians, especially Ministers, about short-term political management that distorts and leaves less time for serious policy effort – Albanese seems to have as many media advisers as policy ones.

In these circumstances bullshit is more prone to breach its banks with corrosive and baleful consequences.

And so to the case of the Albanese government’s support for the Trump-Netanyahu bombardment of Iran.

Australia, of course, has been a consistent backer of US military adventures. Howard joined in the invasion of Iraq........

© Pearls and Irritations