Tim Blair opinion: Iran plan hits Greens nuts and ALP wimps

It turns out Greens adore uranium if it’s used by the world’s biggest terrorism sponsor to create weapons able to obliterate entire nations, writes Tim Blair.

It took a while, but we’ve finally found a type of nuclear energy that the Greens happily endorse.

Turns out they hate uranium if it’s used as the safest and most reliable source of large-scale energy known to all of humankind, but adore uranium if it’s used by the world’s biggest terrorism sponsor to create weapons able to obliterate entire nations.

“President Trump’s claim to have bombed nuclear sites in Iran is a blatant breach of international law,” grieving Greens announced following the weekend’s successful air-delivered Iranian de-nuking.

Just like their attitude towards uranium, respect for law is a fluid concept for our Greens friends.

“The world must now isolate the US and Israel,” added Greens defence bunny David Shoebridge, “and come together through peace and diplomacy to end this war and support a pathway that protects the people of Iran”.

Turns out the Greens loathe uranium for clean energy but love it when Iran uses it to build weapons able to obliterate entire nations. Picture: US Department of Defense / AFP

We already know where one protective pathway leads. More than 400,000 people of Iranian background currently live in the US, where they are safe from Ayatollah-encouraged torture and death.

If you’re wanting to dodge a beheading or other unrequested amputation, the Great Satan is always a good option.

Greens NSW Senator David Shoebridge is calling for to end the war and a pathway that protects the people of Iran. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Still, at least the Greens know where they stand – even if it’s in the middle of a highway while special education instructors are yelling at them to go back inside.

Our Labor government, by pitiful contrast, was caught completely flat-footed by Donald Trump’s decisive bombing. And that was after several days of pre-emptive flat-footedness, during which Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her Labor mates ran up a new world record for using variations on the phrase “de-escalate”.

“We have used our voice to urge de-escalation,” Defence Minister Richard Marles told Sky News Sunday Agenda, shortly prior to the first bunker buster impacts. “And that’s our position in respect of both the Iranian program, but also, more specifically, in respect of this conflict.”

Marles isn’t the most articulate of  fellows, which became more obvious as he expanded on the nature of his personal articulacy. “Uh, uh. Um, I’m … articulating the Australian government’s position,” Marles said. “That’s the only thing I can articulate.”

He’s still a better speaker than the Prime Minister.

Now, it isn’t easy to assemble a focus group at short notice, especially on Sundays, which is possibly why it took the Labor government a full 24- hours before expressing support for the US attacks.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, Richard Marles is urging the de-escalation of the war in Iran. Picture: Martin Ollman

Even when it came, the government’s backing sounded more than slightly reluctant.

“We support action to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Wong told Channel 9 on Monday. “And that is what this is. So the answer – the answer is yes.”

If the response to a marriage proposal was so hesitant, you wouldn’t bet on reaching a double-figure anniversary. Even if you’re counting in days.

Incidentally, note Wong’s insistence that “that is what this is”, a  curious assertion that also turned up a few hours later in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s comments. That focus group really paid off.

“The world has long agreed that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon and we support action to prevent that – that is what this is,” Albanese announced in Canberra, having recovered from his recent bout of post-G7 invisibility.

Too bad for the PM and his comrades that this was an issue they couldn’t avoid. Too bad for Labor that  it again stands exposed.

Albanese and Wong lead a government that knows Middle Eastern politics only from the wincingly narrow and bigoted perspective of undergraduate activists – or, in other words, their former share-house selves. It sees Israel as bad and those who would destroy Israel as victims.

Or, as ex-Sydney commentator Shannon Cummings wrote with more detail last week in The Times of Israel: “It sanctions Israeli officials while Hamas digs tunnels under kindergartens.

“It lectures Jerusalem on restraint while Iran perfects its centrifuges.

“And it boasts of resettling Palestinians in numbers that suggest some bizarre form of moral reparations, as though absorbing a population steeped in Hamas propaganda were a substitute for strategic clarity.

“This isn’t policy. It’s posturing. And worse, it’s cowardice dressed in the robes of diplomacy.”

Good call. Cowards tend to stumble over their words in situations where a  straight and strong response is required. The weak and equivocating delay their reactions until they know what might be safe to say. Labor stalls while the world moves.

The US military’s mighty bunker busters broke through Iran’s nuclear barricades. They may also have broken this cynical and craven Albanese government.