Boneheadedness reaffirmed

This week has marked four years since Australian Prime Minister John Howard committed Australia to a war he said would be over in a month or two — tops.

Our Great Helmsman this week has “stared down” critics of his Iraq war policy, arguing that staying the present course “is in Australia's long-term national interest.”

Almost as an afterthought, the Man of Steel added, “And it happens to be the right thing to do.”

Readers may recall that Mr Howard last demonstrated his grasp of “the right thing to do” late last year, when he candidly admitted...

“If I ever develop reservations, well, I hope I would have the grace to keep them to myself because I think you take a position and you’ve got to live by that and be judged by it, and that’s my position.”

• John Howard, The Australian, 23 November 2006