Wanker Of The Day

I have said again and again that the Labor spin on Iraq "withdrawal" is a sham, and the only way to get Aussie troops out of Iraq is to vote Green. So it's rather disconcerting to find Dennis Sham-I-am agreeing with me. But the reason Dennis wins my coveted Wanker Of The Day award is that he sprinkles his politically-motivated case with all sorts of furphies:

By the second half of next year, whether there is a Coalition or Labor government, the same number of troops will be committed to doing the same jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Indeed, under a Labor government there is a greater chance there will be more Australian troops exposed to more dangerous situations in the Iraq-Afghanistan military theatres.

That's crap, and the Sham Man provides nothing to back it up. He admits Labor will replace "combat" troops inside Iraq with "training" troops outside Iraq, but then he says "this is exactly how the Coalition’s Iraq policy is evolving":

John Howard has said it, Brendan Nelson has said it and the military is preparing for the change of role.

The size and role of Australia’s personnel commitment to the Iraqi and Afghanistan causes is likely to be exactly the same by the end of next year, no matter who is prime minister; indeed, Labor’s troop commitment may be larger.

Well, if Dennis can point to a Howard or Nelson commitment to pulling combat troops out of Iraq and replacing them with training troops, let him do so. As for the scare-mongering about Labor MAYBE increasing troop levels in Iraq, that's just a pathetic attempt to win voters.

Does Sham-I-am really think that he can con anti-war readers into supporting Howard? The comments at News Ltd suggest it's not going to work.

Dennis, I’ll be voting to punish the idiots who took us in there, regardless of where we are going next.