Bannerman is feeling decidedly cynical. Hardly surprising, given that he’s given the last weeks news articles regarding David Hicks the once-over again. Why cynicism? Why not cynicism. John Howard is cynical. Phillip Ruddock is cynical.
Bannerman is in complete agreement with Terry Hicks.
“Why should he take a plea bargain for something he may not have done,”
Why indeed? Five years held without charge, without due process, without justice. As David McLeod stated last evening, Hicks is surely Australia’s longest serving Prisoner of War.
Bannerman will be frank. The Howardian cabal is only now making noises about David Hicks’ situation because 2007 is an election year, and polling day may well be prior to July. The platitudes and ‘look-at-me’ claims of petitions to the U.S. administration are the epitome of cynical opportunism. For five years Howard has ignored David Hicks, even pointedly accused him of being something he has been denied the right to disprove, because doing so suited the Howardian political advantage. The politics of fear and loathing have grown mouldy and clearly are no longer seen to be effective enough for another election campaign. Now the cabal is playing the sympathetic, concerned government card. The caring government desperate to bring home a persecuted citizen.
Bannerman exhorts the reader to not be fooled. Don’t be sucked in by this turn of face. The Howardian cabal has many. This is just another face, easily replaced as and when the need arises. Will David Hicks be home soon? That, reader, depends on those of us who maintain the line. Who spurn political cynicism and keep up the pressure. David Hicks is a Prisoner of Warm and as such, must be repatriated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. Nothing less will do.