Gerard Henderson, Obama, Chairman Rudd, and John Howard lives!

There's nothing that stirs the breast, sets the heart beating faster in the armchair warrior, than a damn good war. Provided someone else fights it.

And there's nothing like a damn good bout of severity, dished out to recalcitrants, ne'er do wells, half hearted, weak kneed, pussy foot softie lefties and liberals. A bit like a scene out of 24, with a ticking clock, and the end of a civilisation at hand, and a little severity required to discover the truth. Unless of course it involves sex, and then it's deeply perverse and kinky, and perhaps needs the NSW government to discover the finite, most marvellous and accurate difference, between art and pornography.

Never mind, the most important thing when discussing issues of national security is never to actually discuss the net benefits of war - say in Iraq or Afghanistan - nor brood about the unfortunate few who might get caught up in the fracas, as with Maher Arar, the Canadian who claims he was extraordinarily renditioned and sent to Syria in 2002 to be tortured (and who has managed to fill up the liberal media full to overflowing in the likes of the New York Times).

No, triumphalism is the go, and who better as a triumphalist than Gerard Henderson in Little room to change tack on matters of national security.

This leads to the bizarre spectacle of Henderson claiming Barack Obama as one of his own tribe:

The President was unequivocal in declaring last week: "We are at war. We are at war against al-Qaeda … and we will do whatever it takes to defeat them." He also spoke about al-Qaeda's "murder of fellow Muslims". Sounds a bit like George Bush, or perhaps even Dick Cheney.

Um, who's got the ticker to tell the news to Dick Cheney? Not me.

And really Kevin Rudd is just John Howard in disguise. Well to be fair, there's no news or insight there, not since Chairman Rudd's reign of utter tedium was implemented:

... The Rudd Government has also continued John Howard's tough line on terrorism. To be fair, Howard's wide-ranging 2005 legislation enjoyed bipartisan support when it was implemented.

(And if you were still conducting a book on the number of appearances in a Henderson column, you'd be pleased this week there's four mentions, with the first in fifth paragraph).

Now you might think that John Howard was kicked out because people were a bit tired of his policies, and that Tony Blair was overthrown by his own party because even they couldn't stand his preening ponciness any more, and that when George Bush cantered off to the gated community (the ranch just being a part of the art department decor), he did so with much cursing because of his failures, not least his failures as a posturing warrior.

No, no, no, don't you worry about any of that, everything's going spiffingly well, and the ship of state is being steered in the same steady direction:

In other words, the foreign policy and national security legacy of Bush, Howard and the British prime minister Tony Blair has lasted longer than some might have expected. There have been changes in detail, particularly involving Obama's as-yet unfulfilled commitment to close Guantanamo Bay. But the move from conservative to social democratic government in the US and Australia has seen more continuity than differentiation in foreign policy and national security. Not surprisingly, in Britain, the Labour Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has continued Blair's approach.

Well lordy and hurrah for that, but why am I reminded of the end of Animal Farm, when the humans return to the farm and Mr. Pilkington makes an excellent and neighbourly speech to the pigs, but mistakenly refers to Animal Farm, only to discover that the farm is now known by its original name of Manor Farm, and Napoleon proposes a toast to its prosperity:

There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs. But as the animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to them that some strange thing was happening. What was it that had altered in the faces of the pigs? Clover's old dim eyes flitted from one face to another. Some of them had five chins, some had four, some had three. But what was it that seemed to be melting and changing? Then, the applause having come to an end, the company took up their cards and continued the game that had been interrupted, and the animals crept silently away.

But they had not gone twenty yards when they stopped short. An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.

Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

Which if nothing else provides a nice break from reading the smugly complacent Gerard Henderson. Or brooding about the way that whomever you vote for, the government gets back in:

In democracies, governments move on but security scenarios tend to have a certain permanency. The change of administration has demonstrated that jihadists are as much opposed to an America led by Obama as to a US led by Bush.

By golly, someone should tell the teabaggers and the fundie Republicans. They'll be astonished to learn that they're in company with the jihadists. And who's going to tell them that it might even suggest Obama isn't a Muslim born in Kenya? Not me.

As expected, Henderson recounts a couple of tales of Islamic fundies at work - forget the notion of extraordinary renditions and extraordinary and ordinary, banal fuck ups where functionaries are given a rush of blood and power, and an innocent man got shot (I saw Tube man shot - eyewitness, or Jean Charles de Menezes).

As if, you should realise, the average softie leftie of a secular atheist kind is in favour of ratbag Islamic fundies running around killing people in the name of Allah, and cashing in on their 72 virgins in the process. Unlike right wing warrior Christians running around on their crusades, anxious to cash in on a life time of golf on heaven's best course, which I'm told resembles Augusta or maybe Pebble Beach (or any of the top hundred of your choice).

But then cheerleaders are never interested in balance, or consideration of risks, not when they can indulge in cheerleading, and they can embrace the people they regularly revile provided they've upset the left, on the basis that the enemy of my enemy is for at least a moment my friend.

Obama, Rudd and Brown know that their prime role as leaders is to protect the national security of the citizens they were elected to govern. That is why, even though they lead social democratic parties, they are unlikely to be troubled by increasing criticism by the left.

And of course it wouldn't be a Henderson column if the bees buzzing around in his head didn't involve a reference to the evils of the ABC, SBS, Greg Barns and such like riff raff:

As in all democracies, the civil liberties lobby is vocal in Australia. This sometimes reflects the fact that some leftist journalists, producers and directors fail to understand the case for national security. This attitude is most prevalent on the taxpayer-subsidised public broadcasters ...

Yep, the over emoting over empathising fuddy duddies probably imagine what it's like to have shots pumped into you in a tube train when all you've done is race to catch your connection. Because they don't understand the case for national security and the odd bit of collateral damage, which is of minor consequence to any dedicated armchair warrior.

Naturally Henderson provides examples of film-makers who've failed to toe the Henderson line, and gasp, they were funded by the taxpayers, or worse still, they have spoken heresy, as did one Rob Stary in The Trial:Inside Australia's Biggest Terrorism Trial:

Stary was filmed saying there was little difference between an accused terrorist downloading a jihadist beheading and someone downloading a Howard speech. Really.

Which makes one wonder if there's any difference between an ordinary citizen looking at a jihadist beheading and someone downloading a Howard speech - since there's a kind of perverse sickness involved in either case. Really.

I keed, I keed. But not Henderson, who sounds like he's pleased that there will be ongoing attacks on the west, because that will weaken the civil liberties lobby. What was that about the enemy of my enemy is my friend?

The continuing attacks on the West are likely to weaken the civil liberties lobby. National security laws are certain to remain tough - under conservative or social democratic governments. Moreover, there is the pressure to increase the profiling of suspects, since most jihadists are young, well-educated men who have been radicalised.

Uh huh. Roll on those attacks, teach those lefties a lesson, let the mad mullahs make sure we stay tough and war and warrior-like.

Keep it tough and hard and with a dash of luck, sugar, salt and oil, we can make it even worse.

Bring on the profiling, ramp up the fear and suspicion and paranoia and hatred. Why soon enough it'll be hard enough to pick the difference between the Taliban at home and the Taliban abroad, especially if you might have collected a bit of Bill Henson's artwork.

And we can look forward to this state of affairs dragging off into the future, if not in the long long term, then perhaps in the short long term, though that of course is because the known knowns are ultimately the unknown unknowns:

As Michael Burleigh points out in Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism, most Muslims are law-abiding and it is possible "we may have a rather shorter long war" against the jihadists. But the war will not end in the immediate short term, as Obama clearly understands.

Dearie me, what a gloomy gherkin, and how he takes pleasure in his tough talking gloominess, and how he refuses to contemplate a future which might depart from the immortal vision of John Howard.

It's enough to sour the milk in the cornflakes on a hot summer morning ...