I wanted to write about the children of Baghdad...

I wanted to write about the children of Baghdad, but I cannot because I cannot watch them any more than I can watch Aussie kids play. In the first case they are far removed from me in the horror in which they live unless they pop up in some sentimental rave by a correspondent; in the second I could be arrested, though a respectable grandpa, because of the activities of a powerful international network of pederasts. I sit and watch as tears go by.

One thing this Curmudgeon does know is that they are always hungry. Because I once was a kid too. The fastest motion of time is that between the slamming of the back door and the opening of the fridge. Heaven was, for me, the latest Phantom comic book, and the tin of broken biscuits. Lord, give us our daily biscuit!

The Children of Baghdad are hungry for different reasons. Years of sanctions which brought man-made famine and sickness and death to their fertile plain in the Garden of Eden, followed by two military interventions for questionable reasons and the dreadfully hypocritical Oil for Food program, promoted by that gentle man who never sounds his gs, Koffi Annan.

A sound journalist always apologizes. Now I have an admission: I had it wrong. I thought the latest invasion was because the Powerful had had enough of their puppet Saddam Hussein, not because he was poisoning Kurds with American-made poisons, but because he was uppity, unpredictable and demanding He wanted, not multi-printed American dollars, but the solid, stodgy and reliable Euro. He was a dead-set bastard, but the Yanks support many such men until their use-by date.

My apology is that I was so dumb I did not realize the Big Money that is made from Reconstruction. Just as the carpet baggers arrived in Georgia after that war starring Leigh and Gable, they have come to Baghdad.

A bridge blown up, a bridge destroyed, a water supply gone? Where do I sign for the contract. Thousands of children disabled, starving or dying. Medinc of New York, Foodinc of Chicago, Bridgeinc of Dallas ….and so on.

But we have overlooked Wheat Inc.

When we think of wheat we think of the rolling plains of Kansas, of Australia - the harvester, the silos, the sun glinting on golden grain. Or of Iraq until the war and hunger came.

Lord, give us our daily bread.

It's the first thing, the primary staple to go missing when the bombs and guns and planes arrive. Ask any German or Russian survivor who has lived on dark bread half-filled with sawdust. No bread, you're dead!

A loaf of bread in postwar Berlin would have got you a prize virgin. With respect I suggest the same opportunism applies to the former City of Dreams, Baghdad. Without bread, we cannot pray and dream.

So, the children of Baghdad want to dream of a Spiderman DVD, like kids everywhere. But they need bread so they can sleep to dream.

All of this kerfuffle is to lead you, reader, to the worst story this week.

What were the headlines today?

What were the headlines today? Let's have a quick look before the curative amnesia sets in and we have another quick fix.

What was the worst?

Rabbit mutilator jailed?
Mourners farewell slain schoolgirl?
Man murdered in house fire by his girlfriend?
David Hicks's escape route in danger?
Driver ploughs into football fans, 21 injured?
More dead in Iraq............?

No, it was Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer demonstrating that while a fearsome arsenal was unleashed on the people of Iraq, he was engaged in a private war with the United States over wheat trade...

It is part of the Christian metaphor that a grain of wheat must die so that it can be resurrected – but is it part of our story that if it be ground and made into our 'daily bread' that the merchants can fight over the spoils of war while children—orphans—go hungry?

Surely this is the path of hell for Australians.

What can our new slogans be?

'Stop Killing Customer Survivors of Oz Wheat in Iraq'?

or

'Stop Yankee Imperialism from Banning Aussie Wheat in Iraq'?

Lord, give us our daily bread.

What are we on about here – kill people and barter over bread for the survivors? War as a bargaining chip over wheat trade? Soldiers for Wheat?

How much is human life worth per bushel of wheat? What happens when in one country wheat silos are full and the cemeteries are full in another? I sit and watch the children play.

Read the following news story and weep. There are no broken biscuits in the tin for the children of Baghdad.

Revealed: how Downer waged war with US to protect Iraq wheat trade

THE Howard Government used Australia's support for the US in Iraq as a bargaining chip to protect the country's multibillion-dollar wheat trade with Baghdad.

Documents seen by the Herald detail how Australia feared the US would muscle in on Australia's dominant trading position with Saddam Hussein's regime.

They show that more than six months before the outbreak of war, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, suggested that military support for the US in Iraq would benefit Australia's commercial position. Once war had broken out, he was concerned the US would use its battle deaths as justification for seizing Australia's wheat trade.

At a meeting in August 2002 in Mr Downer's Canberra office, the Prime Minister, John Howard, senior government officials and executives from the wheat exporter AWB discussed the outlook for Australia's sales.

The documents reveal an idea was floated at the meeting whereby Australia would provide military support for the US on the condition its wheat trade was protected. A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade record of conversation shows Mr Downer suggested Australian support for the US would benefit "Australia's commercial position in Iraq".

Before the March 2003 invasion, Australia tried desperately to strike a deal with the US. Documents show Mr Downer raised the wheat trade with the then secretary of state, Colin Powell, at least three times. He also discussed it with Mr Powell's deputy, Richard Armitage.

In one dispatch, a Foreign Affairs official reported Mr Downer telling Mr Powell words to the effect that the US could "forget Aussie support in future" if America flooded Iraq with wheat after the war.

Mr Downer stipulated that his request for Australia's Iraqi sales to be protected be formally recorded in the minutes of his meetings with Mr Powell. Senior Australian officials in Washington were instructed to press the issue at every opportunity.

Once the war began, the wheat issue was never far from the Government's mind.

On March 24, 2003, Mr Downer and AusAID officials met the then head of AWB, Andrew Lindberg, to discuss its impact on wheat sales. A record shows Mr Downer's "prime concern" was the US concluding that "its sacrifices on the battlefield entitled its farmers" to the Iraqi wheat market. "He was sure the US well understood that Australians would go 'feral' if the US was seen to steal our wheat market, though he felt it unlikely that we could avoid losing a portion of it," the Foreign Affairs document records the minister as saying.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

What are your thoughts on this commentary? You can contribute to the discussion in our forum.

Cliff Baxter can be contacted at:
Cliff Baxter <cliffbaxter@catholica.com.au>

©2006 Clifford Baxter

[Cliff's Take Archive]