Alleged war criminal and economic vandal to get honorary degree
Academics from the University of Sydney are protesting against the bestowal of an honorary doctorate on John Howard, saying the former Prime Minister is "considered a racist and a war criminal" and "not a fit recipient of the university's highest honour".
The university said it is conferring the honour "in acknowledgement of his achievements including world-leading gun law reform, leadership in East Timor and contribution to Australia's economic reform".
Read more ath The Sydney Morning Herald
Personal opinion: think this thread is a Hot Topic and therefore I am replying: This was copied from the SMH and the rest can be read via the link below: I am in complete agreement with the writer of this article.
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"On Friday some 200 unruly activists gathered to protest Howard's award ceremony. I was there, and it was on the verge of getting ugly. Insults normally cast only at criminals with no reputation to lose were hurled at him with wild abandon. The university's Great Hall was ringed by placards proclaiming Howard a "racist" and "war criminal".
"It should be obvious to even primary school students that a war criminal is someone who has actually committed a war crime. More to the point, to equate a democratic leader who supported the toppling of a brutal dictatorship with the likes of the Nazis and the Khmer Rouge is a cheapening of moral language."
"One could oppose the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and still believe that Howard, like Tony Blair and George W. Bush, was motivated by good intentions. Saddam Hussein, after all, was a murderous despot who had invaded Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990 and subsequently defied about 17 United Nations resolutions. He also used chemical weapons in the murder of tens of thousands of Kurds in the north and the Shiites of southern Iraq."
"As last week's university protests show, the old rancour and hatred lingers among left-wing radicals: they seek to deny platforms to anyone they decide is politically unacceptable to them."
"But the truth is that Howard's support, like that of Margaret Thatcher's a generation earlier, never rested with the intellectual elite. Indeed, it has always been found among the great mass of ordinary, decent, hard-working people. Howard is the proud son of a petrol station owner, and he has never forgotten his roots."
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/john-howard-is-demonised-beyond-rational-understanding-20161003-grtjfq.html