Beware The Belittled Voters

Should we be surprised? First the Hutton enquiry, then the US Senate committee invstigation, and now the Butler enquiry (let's not bother mentioning Australia's own embarrassing "enquiry"). All have been set up by the government in power, with their terms of inquiry set by the government in power. And - surprise, surprise - all have been reluctant to criticize the government in power.

A few interesting comments from the BBC's Talking Points section:

"I think next year I won't pay my taxes at all and commission Lord Butler to write a report into why my payments did not arrive." - John B

"Is the Government actually accountable for anything now?" - James Russell, Bournemouth

"The biggest problem is that Blair has shifted his grounds for justifying the war to 'regime change'. He clearly has no intention of disavowing the doctrine of pre-emption as a strategic option in future. This is very worrying." - Bob, UK

"Anyone who thinks the Bush/Blair regimes were "misinformed" need to pull their heads out of the sand. Even Paul Wolfowitz has already admitted the WMD excuse was used for propaganda purposes. The war resulted in the death of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Bush and Blair should be prosecuted for war crimes beside Saddam." - Rita, Egypt

"The issue is not the pre-war intelligence. Robin Cook announced before the war that there were no WMD. Everyone who paid any attention knew there were no WMD. Neither is Saddam Hussein the issue. He was indeed a brutal dictator (with our support) but the world is not safer because of the war and death in Iraq. As has been well documented, we are now a higher profile target for terrorism than ever before. The issue is why we went to war against the wishes of the population (who elect our politicians to serve us not rule us) and against the will of the world." - Matt Southall, Nottingham, UK

"They wanted a rubber stamp for the case for war. The intelligence agencies obliged and now take the rap." - Lionel, Leeds, UK

"The poor workman blames his tools." - Kpdodo, Mauritius

As the Economist says, it's now "over to the voters."

But I detect a dangerous groundswell of anger building up among those who are outraged by the lies and lack of accountability surrounding the decision to go to war in Iraq. If these voters do not succeed in voting out Bush, Blair and Howard in the coming year, their frustration may well take other outlets.

The whole point of Democracy is that is is supposed to be representative of the people's will, with a laudable system of checks and balances. If our governments ignore our wishes and defy accountability, how can they expect us to fulfill our part of the democratic agenda?

Like "John B" above, if Howard wins the next election in Australia, I may decide not to pay any more tax. And that's just for starters.