So, The Age reports that a Canadian study found that on measures of quality of life Australian Aboriginals were the second worst in the world, only China fared worse. That sets The Green Man a thinking. If only China was worse that means that those poor beleaguered individuals in Iraq actually have a better quality of life, and probably did have under Saddam, than our own indigenous community.

Now that the WMD have not turned up, the focus of the justification for the invasion has changed to the liberation of those poor oppressed peoples. Imagine that, it seems that a section of our own community is more even oppressed. How embarrassing. No doubt John Howard will be flying into Alice Springs or some other centre of Aboriginal poverty for a photo opportunity, just like his recent trip to Iraq for ANZAC day.

And speaking of his recent trip to Iraq, it just shows how little The Green Man knows of the complexities of national security. It seems that it was OK for Channel 9 to invited along on the PMs secret trip to Iraq because he could be guaranteed good coverage. The ABC, on the other hand, which is our publicly funded national broadcaster did not even get told about it. And, by way of a further demonstration of the complexities of the security involved, it seems that photos of the PM in his flak jacket did not endanger his security. Photos of him in a helmet that did not fit him properly and made him look like a bit of a dork on the other hand were banned on the grounds they breached security.

To drift into the serious for a moment, it is extremely disappointing that our esteemed Prime Minister could not see past his potential personal tragedy of not being re-elected at the next election to the greater tragedy of all those poor boys, 8,400 to be precise, who were suckered into volunteering and then sacrificed shores of Gallipoli on the whim of some pampered English private school graduate who regarded the soldiers from the colonies as less important or valuable than his English mates. ANZAC day is a day to mourn and should be above such petty grabs for photo opportunities.