Leftist Eloquence in Canberra, and Diego Garcia

Al Bundy over at Intemperate Thoughts brought my attention to the nearest thing Byzantium-on-Molonglo (as some of us in Canberra call the joint) has to Indymedia. The Reader Comments section of the Canberra Crimes Times.

The latest example from one of the more, er, Progressive readers:

I find things of this nature towards the power of suggestion as it were very Interesting. To say the least how Sadam was equated with Satan (as if - someone in the USA is so stupid to think Sadam could ever equal Satan).

I could speal off several examples but I think you the reader would know where I would be going.

Kind of like the AID being sent some 5 days after the fact - yet consider John Stupid Government saying that Australia would deploy a rapid responce team within 24 hours in previous months along with the USA, etc.. well THIS IS A SECURITY RISK - JUST GOES TO SHOW YOUR LEVELS OF CONTEMPT FOR HUMAN LIFE!

Fact is your governments are CRAP and send troops to DIE with a CONFORT BLANKET (gas mask) for a lie after OIL for PROFIT at anothers EXPENCE.

Again - How much would it of taken to convert cruse missiols into 'rapid' life support transporters...

YOU BASTARDS!

Given that it was several hours after the earthquake before it became apparant that a major tsunami had hit, the Australian initial response actually beat the 24-hour deadline quite handily. But facts never get in the way of Progressives like these. Neither does grammar, for that matter, and coherence is strictly forbidden.

Then there's the outpouring of goodwill from some on the Left:

Today, at a press conference, Colin Powell was asked how Diego Garcia fared. He replied "I have no information on Diego Garcia". Given that it is a major base and, presumably, will be dispatching some kind of aid to Sumatra I think Powell's reply to be a downright lie.
Still, the qustion should be more correctly be put to the Brits. The islands/atolls are still their property. That is if one ignores the claims of the local inhabitants who were cruelly removed, by force, and dumped, as stateless persons, in the Seychelles. The Brits then offered it to the Yanks as 'vacant possesion'.
A typical foul, money grubbing, colonial stunt from the coalition of the willing. Ring their High Commissioner and ask how it is all going. Bet he doesn't even know where the islands are.
I hope the wave wiped the atolls clean.
Little stories like this, Alan, - facts - might help explain why there are people who hate the coalition and see it as no better than the dictatorship they picked on.

Alas for the writer's wishes, his hopes were dashed. From the NOAA :

At approximately 8:20 p.m. NOAA National Weather Service Pacific Region director contacted PTWC to report PACOM said no tsunami was observed at Diego Garcia in the Pacific.

And from the Diego Garcia website :

Favorable ocean topography minimized the tsunami’s impact on the atoll. Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Archipelago, situated on the southernmost part of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge. To the east lies the Chagos Trench, a 400 mile long, underwater canyon that ranges in depth from less than 1,00 meters below the surface to depths that plunge to over 5,000 meters. It is one of the deepest regions of the Indian Ocean.

Diego Garcia is located to the west of Chagos Trench, which runs north and south. The depth of the Chagos Trench and grade to the shores does not allow for tsunamis to build before passing the atoll. The result of the earthquake was seen as a tidal surge estimated at six feet.

Exactly how many thousand US and British personnel are on Diego Garcia is not public information. But the Diego Garcia website list of Island Commands should give an indication that it's in 5 figures. The wishing that so many people would just die seems at odds with the Left's stated compassion and humanity. Especially since some of those American Militarist Babykillers whose extinction is sof fervently desired are now actively engaged in operations to relieve the suffering in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.

I guess I'm just not sufficiently nuanced to comprehend their peculiar definition of compassion and humanity.