Mr Richardson snows Washington

In a recent address at Georgetown University in Washington DC, the Australian ambassador to the USA, Dennis Richardson, has done credit neither to himself, his country, nor our great American ally.

It all seemed innocuous enough, with our man in Washington extolling the good ol’ USA as a bulwark of freedom in the world, and praising the Americans for doing a lot of the ‘heavy lifting’ for the cause. From what I can gather, Richardson was just a little too unctuous for my taste – okay, maybe that’s just me – but fair enough, credit where due.

Then one reads the following verbatim passage from Mr Richardson’s speech:

The US has been asked to do the dirty work by a lot of the world and Guantanamo Bay has been part of that. . .

But I think there are quite a few countries around the world which want their cake and eat it.

They are prepared to criticise Guantanamo Bay but if you [the US] want to turn around tomorrow and say, “Well, look we understand where everyone’s coming from, everyone in Guantanamo Bay should now be released”, I think there would be issues there.

No! No no no no no no no!!

Is it too much to ask that our man in Washington get his facts and analysis straight?

As presented by Mr Richardson, the issue seems to have become: Either Guantanamo Bay continues as designed by the Bush Whitehouse, OR all detainees walk free. But – hallo, Dennis! – criticising the Gitmo regime is not the same thing as saying all prisoners should walk free.

What has been said by many, both government and non-government organs, is that the regime symbolised by Guantanamo Bay is seriously flawed, and incapable of delivering justice. The world doesn’t want the detainees necessarily to walk free, but rather for them to be subject to a reasonably fair and transparent administration of justice, where indeed they have a case to answer.

That our man in Washington has chosen to very shabbily misrepresent what is, after all, a glaringly obvious problem, is a disservice both to his country and to our great ally. That Mr Richardson is the mouthpiece of our Australian Government in Washington proves merely that our government couldn’t lie straight in bed on the Guantanamo issue. The Government’s culpable inaction regarding Guantanamo detainee David Hicks has left it hopelessly compromised, and pathologically unable to speak to the issue without dissembling.