KEY POINTS:
Despite the fact that Auckland City will be virtually fielding a full rugby team of Mayoral candidates in the forthcoming elections, first prize for bizarre political duck-shoving would have to be awarded to the six Government departments that all knew we were taking Aussie troops to Iraq, but
failed to inform a single Cabinet Minister about our involvement in the war.
I've always claimed that 'Yes Minister' was a documentary rather than a comedy show. Basically the primary function of bureaucrats whether they are in local government or central government is to keep politicians as ignorant as humanly possible; distract them with trivia at every opportunity; leak embarrassing information on them so that they remain constantly insecure or paranoid; and maintain the status quo so that their own jobs are secure.
American democracy recognises this. All senior bureaucrats are sacked when there is a regime change, but in New Zealand we tend to follow the British system and senior bureaucrats remain in office regardless of who wins the elections.
I'm not suggesting that all our bureaucrats are bad people. During my 18 years as a Mayor some senior officers have become good friends and some have become nasty enemies, but regardless of personal relationships, their modus operandi is always the same. Mayors come and go. MPs come and go. Prime Ministers come and go. Officials provide stability.
I first learned how our democratic system works during the Vietnam War. When politicians kept insisting that we were winning the war in Vietnam, they were not deliberately lying. Senior officials and military leaders would inform the politicians that they were winning and elected leaders had no way of knowing what was actually happening.
In war the first casualty is always the truth. The other irony of war is that your worst enemies always end up being your best mates. In the Napoleonic Wars, the Germans were our best mates and the French were the enemy.
Then in both World Wars, the French and the Russians were our allies and the Germans were the enemy.
Then in the Asian wars, the commies in China, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam were our enemies. Now they are our mates (except for North Korea) and the Moslems are our enemies.
The commies in Russia and China used to be our Cold War enemies, but they are now becoming our mates. It just keeps going round and round in circles like musical chairs.
Pacifists often blame our constant involvement on the biggest industry in the world, the arms industry. Personally I think there's some genetic flaw in humans that keeps the world in a constant state of war.
Whether it's Black Power fighting the Mongrel Mob or US marines fighting al-Qaeda, or the Hutus fighting the Tootsies, it doesn't really matter.
The fear and the passions aroused by war are similar. It seems to give us a sense of purpose, feelings of unity and comradeship. The culture of war is ingrained at an early age, Cowboys and Indians for our generation, and Star Wars for this one.
We all know that in reality war is hell on earth and innocent civilians always suffer, but we just can't help ourselves. Pacifists are despised as traitors or dismissed as cowards.
We have this overwhelming, deep desire to murder and maim each other. Even benign organisations such as Air New Zealand have this lust for war.
The main reason they didn't tell politicians they were getting involved in war was that they subconsciously knew the trendy lefty liberal Labourites would stop it. They've tried to hint that they were just doing it for cash, but I suspect it was more than that.
For the first time in the history of warfare, passenger jets were used as missiles during 9/11. Air New Zealand officials would have been shocked and strongly opposed to this kind of attack.
Without wanting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, I really don't believe that the bureaucrats went out of their way to let this Labour Government know what was going on.
Equally it wouldn't surprise me if one day we discover that someone on Cabinet knew more than they are presently letting on. It seems at present that their indignant moral outrage and protestations of innocence are just a wee bit too cute.
