Greens’ attack on Molan a dishonour to those in uniform

BY attacking Jim Molan in the reprehensible manner in which they did, the Greens attacked not just the man but the uniform, writes Peta Credlin.

AS John Howard often said, politics is a constant test of character, and the character of some politicians was well and truly on display this week.

New Liberal senator and former general Jim Molan might have anticipated a respectful welcome to the parliament given his 40 years’ service in the Australian Army. Instead, he was denounced as a racist for sharing on social media, as a private citizen, genuine footage of Islamist violence but from a prejudiced source. The opposition’s claims were bad enough but allegations by the Greens, accusing General Molan of war crimes during his time as Chief of Operations for the Multinational Force in Iraq, are about as putrid as it gets in politics.

To Molan’s credit he didn’t retreat in the face of the outrage industry, observing tartly that it was his custom to apologise only when he’d done something wrong. That’s the kind of steadiness most of us want in our leaders, too many of whom wilt at the first hint of a Twitterstorm.

By attacking Jim Molan, the Greens attacked not just the man but the uniform.

It highlights just how invested the Greens are in hating our country, who we are, and what we stand for. Labor’s not without blame either; let’s not forget they kicked this all off, accusing Molan of racism by sharing the videos.

Jim Molan a racist? What a baseless slur.

Here is a man, invested as an Officer in the Order of Australia for his service in Indonesia and in East Timor. Last time I looked, Indonesia is a country of 220 million plus Muslims. In Iraq, Molan put his life on the line to bring democracy to a majority Muslim country, by fighting Muslim terrorists and protecting innocent (Muslim) citizens. Doesn’t sound like someone who’s anti-Muslim to me?

The attack on Molan from Greens members including Adam Bandt has been relentless. (Pic: supplied)

But the Greens have no line they won’t cross, no grubby depth they won’t plumb, no accusation they won’t throw out in an attempt to smear. What Adam Bandt said is the worst I’ve seen in 18 years of politics: “You are a coward, you are a complete coward I mean own it ... if there was a proper inquiry into the war in Iraq I think you’d find that Jim Molan will probably be up for prosecution rather than for praise for his role in the atrocities in Fallujah,” said Bandt, the federal MP for the seat of Melbourne.

A Fallujah veteran a coward? Bandt doesn’t know his military history. His first apology was anything but sincere and Molan rightly rejected it but late on Friday night, Bandt apologised again, to the senator and all Australian military personnel and their families too. Nothing less would have satisfied Molan and for now, the matter is done.

But Australians who believe this country is something special, and want it to stay that way, need to wake up to Greens. They might claim they’re an environmental party, but in practice, the Greens are against almost everything that Australians typically take for granted.

Here’s some of the policies they’ve advocated for:

They want to change Australia Day, decriminalise drugs, dump the flag, give prisoners the vote, impose a 50 per cent personal income tax rate, scrap border protection policies, ban coal, offer free university education for refugees, give 16-year-olds the vote and reintroduce death duties.

I could keep going, one crazy policy after another, but clearly, you get my meaning.

Grandstanding against Jim Molan to create some Batman by-election theatre sadly embodies the politics of cheap smear and confected outrage that Australians have come to despise. The events of this week make it all the more necessary that the Liberal Party has a change of heart and runs in the seat of Batman.

They won’t win, that’s impossible, but at least their preferences would keep another low-life Green, from taking a seat in our national parliament, and surely that’s enough reason to run?

Originally published as Greens’ attack on Molan a dishonour to those in uniform