Was Peter Gray a voice of reason? Yes, that shoe thowing guy!

[4channel]

Most of us remember that night when Peter Gray threw his shoes at John Howard  when Howard was a guest on ABC's Q&A. My personal opinion was that it wasn't the right thing to do but I could kind of understand where Gray was coming from. Not liking Howard for some of the things he had done and IMO his lack of truthfulness on certain issues, I thought ....  "OK mate, you wanted to make your point but maybe there could have been a better way". I just thought of Gray as an overly passionate lefty type if guy.

Years later, listening to some clips on Gray on YT etc., I was quite surprised at the intelligence and compassion of the guy. Perhaps he took his cause too seriously but there's many good points in what he said.

Peter Gray passed away from cancer in 2011.

---

Interview with John Howard shoe thrower Peter Grayhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neK9hTHnEfg

---

[peteepie]

Thanks 4.  I agree he shouldn't have thrown the shoes.

But he was a man of great integrity and a sad loss to his country and the world.

[4channel]

Yes, it was definitely a great loss. Just looking at one small part of what he stood for which was voicing concerns about  the total wrong in invading Iraq, looking today at the mess that was left behind, I dare say many folks who bought into the hype back then would now be in agreement with him that the invasion was wrong.

[chameleon54]

Both of your recent posts raise an issue that has been understood for centuries.

John Dalber Actons famous quote sums it up perfectly - Power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. All great men are bad........

Howard appeared to be a pretty decent sort of a person when he first became Prime Minister, genuinely in the game to serve the community. It was only in his last couple of years as Prime Minister that he sold himself out to lies and politics and adopted the do and say anything to win attitude. I think it hurt people more than some other politicians, because he actually deserved the mantle Honest John earlier in his career. It was quite sad to see a basically honourable person sell their soul to the devil of politics.

[4channel]

Well I don't know if Howard was honest to start with. Yes, he conducted himself better earlier on than he did later. But the Tampa business and the Children Overboard affair should have seen him punished. The exploitation of the Sept 11 tradgedy and what came about after with an unjustified and immoral war leaves many speechless.

---

Howard hits out at Rudd over Iraq

John Howard has defended his decision to commit Australia to the 2003 invasion of Iraq after Kevin Rudd accused him of lying about Sadam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, rejecting claims he misled the public. The former Liberal prime minister said the “available evidence” from Australian intelligence agencies prior to the invasion was that Iraq was in possession of WMDs and noted this had been previously acknowledged by Mr Rudd.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2F...

---

[4channel]

---

@peteepie wrote:

Thanks 4.  I agree he shouldn't have thrown the shoes.

But he was a man of great integrity and a sad loss to his country and the world.

---

Tony Jones was hostiing it. He was a good guy. I undestood his position when he said that throwing the shoes was not the thing to do.  BTW: Sad to see Tony go. Kerry O'Brien was great too.