Hear no evil, ...

The deteriorating situation in Iraq, a consequence of Western blindness to local conditions and Islamic religiosity, has been mentioned in the previous post Unstated questions, hidden answers.

The same fundamental negligence can be found in the West's relationship with Afghanistan. An Islamic history going back over a thousand years, the more recent spectacular failure by the Soviets trying for nine years to tame a region that cannot even tame itself, all this was not enough to prevent the US and its Allies to go there once more.

Those outside pressures managed to hone what was a demographic wracked by sectarian strife into a cohesive foe, answering to no-one but his own agenda. The rise of militant Islamism a consequence of attempts to "civilise" the country - what a grand irony!

How immune to rational information the current leaders are can be gleaned from the correspondence between myself and Teresa Gambaro MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In a letter to her on the 1 Nov 06 the precarious nature of the situation was outlined pointing to the research under the Otoom model, a perspective which has already demonstrated its validity in so many respects.

Nothing was heard until a letter arrived from Andrew Park, Senior Advisor to Senator Santo Santoro, dated 9 Jan 07. Why him? I happen to reside outside Ms Gambaro's electorate.

Apart from anything else my letter did not involve local issues; rather, it concerned Australia's foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan about which the good Senator, with all due respect as Minister for Ageing, would hardly be the man to ask. (Surely that redirection couldn't have been a sarcastic reference to my own life span?)

Instead a serious concern by a citizen is once again fobbed off, a concern that relates to a significant error of historical proportions, leading an entire nation into a conflict the full ramifications of which have not even materialised yet.

How can it be that a supposedly democratic country can be led into such strife by only a handful of people with no time for a profound analysis of their ideas? Especially at a time when Australia and the West face challenges that require efforts to the tune of billions of dollars, not to mention the cooperation of many of the world's nations.

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil may well be the attitude of those wise monkeys - but they're still monkeys.