When AWB executives returned, triumphant, to Australia, they told the Government that not only had they saved the old wheat deal, they had actually signed new contracts, at even higher prices. Even to the Government, it must have seemed a miracle. Except it wasn't.

Trade Minister Mark Vaile had a long meeting with AWB executives when they got home. He says he believed everything they told him, to wit: that Iraq's corrupt officials had happily signed a $300 million wheat deal with Australia - a country that was about to send troops to topple their Government - "out of respect for Australian farmers". Mr Howard says he believed it, too. -- Caroline Overington: Active choice to see no evil, The Australian, 4 February 2006

A businessman is to corruption as a pedophile is to children: In neither case can the culprit help himself. Much as we'd like to think it is possible, these poor saps cannot be rehabilitated.

That is why we are disgusted but not surprised over the AWB kickback scandal. Or over all the corruption scandals that have preceded it in the ten years of Honest John Howard's rule.

Nor are we surprised by the Howard Government's involvement. As the political wing of big business, the Liberal Party could hardly be expected to have the interests of Australian citizens as a priority. While it is true that all political parties are prey to corrupt influences, none has quite matched the subterranean brilliance of John Howard Pty Ltd.

All the righteous posturing all these years over the reasons for going to war in Iraq have been blown away by the real reason: it was good for business. It was good for Bush's corporate cronies, as well as Howard's. As Kevin Rudd says, "[The Government allowed] $300 million to flow through to Saddam; money which we now know was used to purchase guns, bombs and bullets which were then used against Australian troops."

The full implications of this are almost beyond comprehension. However, one dictionary definition of treason might apply: the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery. In this case not against the government, but by the government.

The moral degeneracy of the Howard Government is bad enough. Worse, though, is the unthinking support of such degeneracy by a disengaged electorate, an electorate for whom tax breaks matter more than their humanity. This is an electorate that would have been at home in Hitler's Germany: "What's this? The Jews are being herded into concentration camps for extermination? No worries mate, she'll be right, the interest rates are still low." It's like being the only sane person in a hospital for the stark raving mad. Sooner or later you have to revert to the foetal position … or escape.

Howard will probably survive the AWB. He's like one of those movie monsters who cannot be stopped. Or an undead zombie who just keeps coming. In the end he is merely a symptom of a worldwide failure of conscience. The momentum is gathering speed and it appears there will have to be a head-on crash before people wake up. Bush is in a corner and his puppet masters have no intention of giving up. The anti-Islam cartoons in the European newspapers -- a totally unnecessary provocation that has more to do with right wing aggression than free speech -- can only escalate religious hatred between the two fundamentalisms. The one, Islam, may have as its goal the destruction of Israel and America, but the other, Christianity, has as its goal the destruction of the whole world: Armageddon. The new president of Iran, like Bush, has God on his side, and quite conceivably could unleash nuclear retribution to satisfy both.

The eternally incarnated genetic garbage who dominate the world stage as "leaders" have never had it so good. Because no one cares enough to try to stop them.

The human species had better start evolving, or it's going to be lights out.

Links:
The Age Editorial: Evidence demands ministers explain themselves
The Australian Editorial: A crisis for Canberra