Jim Wallace: is the ex-SAS Commander Australia's holiest man?

The rising star of Australian Christianity, Jim Wallace, is stepping up his campaign for government control over the content of Australia’s Internet, presumably to protect the nation’s youth and save us all from too much online sex.

Later this very morning, it’s expected that Jim Wallace will debate Mark Newton on ABC Radio National. It should be interesting.

In my secular opinion, Mark has the best command of the facts and superior understanding of the technology. He’s also strong on civil liberties.

Mr Wallace, on the other hand, as Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, presumably has Almighty God on his side.

Not really a fair contest, when you think about it.

I checked the ABC Radio National archives for some of Wallace’s past performances. He has been a busy Christian soldier over the years – and seems to specialize in unfair fights.

What’s more, like his role model Jesus Christ, Mr Wallace is not afraid to criticize mainstream religious leaders of his day when he feels they’re out of line:

Here’s a report from 2nd September 2003, when Mr Wallace supported (then Australian Foreign Minister) Alexander Downer’s attack on Australian religious leaders (emphasis added):

Last week, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, gave church leaders a serve for straying too far into the political arena, and in particular, opposing the recent Iraq war.

Today, he received some backing from Brigadier Jim Wallace, the former SAS Commander who was a strong supporter of Australia’s involvement in the US-led invasion.

It’s interesting because Jim Wallace is also the head of the Australian Christian Lobby, a group that wants conservative Christian values to have more of an influence on politics in this country.

Peta Donald, with this report.

PETA DONALD: Jim Wallace is better known as the former SAS Commander, who was a nightly commentator as the US-led troops pushed towards Baghdad. It was as head of the Australian Christian Lobby that he spoke to the NSW Council of Churches about the need for traditional Christian values to be more prominent in political debate.

JIM WALLACE: You’ll excuse me as a soldier if I just say that, you know, I’ve studied tactics and strategy, and as a soldier I know that if you’re going to go into a fight you’ve got to take the high ground. You let someone else take the high ground then you get run around, you never win.

PETA DONALD: But Jim Wallace believes it was a mistake for church leaders to take the high moral ground and oppose the war in Iraq. He thinks Alexander Downer had a point when he attacked religious leaders last week.

Iraqi deaths due to war, as at late January 2009: does Jim pray for their souls?

PETA DONALD: Weren’t they though providing moral guidance on one of the great moral issues of our time?

JIM WALLACE: Well, I think Downer would probably say that they stepped beyond that. And I think that certainly to provide a moral viewpoint of it was quite right. I’ve got no problem with that. I would expect that to be done.

But I think it was the strength with which they came out with their opinions which gave a view, or gave the opinion that they knew, you know, more about the facts than perhaps they did.

PETA DONALD: And despite the troubles in Iraq now, Brigadier Wallace is standing by his original support for the war.

JIM WALLACE: It’s easy to be revisionist. But I think you’ve got to look at the facts as they were put before us at the time, and on the basis of the facts, which was what the decision, that was the basis on which the decision was made, I would still say it was the right decision.

Now, the reason, that it’s a quagmire at the moment is because not enough effort was put into the planning of the peace, and I certainly cautioned before the war, and particularly on the Four Corners program that if we were going to go into this we had to be prepared to get out of it quickly. We had to be prepared and have planned the peace so that we didn’t end up with Western soldiers occupying, for any length of time, Iraq.

PETA DONALD: So what are you saying should have been done?

JIM WALLACE: Well, what should have been done is that the regime that was going to take over should have been identified and arrangements made to put that quickly into place a lot earlier than that was done.

It was very important that a regime be established and put into place and operating as quickly as possible to get Westerners out of Iraq. Now, of course, it’s very problematic, I would say, because if you couldn’t do that you would have had to really consider whether you go in there in the first place.

Any war is not there to prosecute the war in itself, the war isn’t the end in itself, it’s the peace that you’re able to obtain at the end of it. And if that peace is seen to be elusive or is not possible, then you would have to reconsider whether you go in there.

MARK COLVIN: Brigadier Jim Wallace, speaking to Peta Donald in Sydney this afternoon.

So there we have it. The ex-Brigadier can cope with lousy outcomes, millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Presumbably they are ‘Acts of God’?

The important thing is to have faith:

“I think you’ve got to look at the facts as they were put before us at the time, and on the basis of the facts, which was what the decision, that was the basis on which the decision was made, I would still say it was the right decision.”

The saintly Mr Wallace, it appears, is not only a bonza Man of God. He’s a scholar and philosopher too.

I may review Mr Wallace’s fascinating views on the Afghanistan conflict, another good war supported by the saintly Mr Wallace.

In case he reads this blog, I invite Jim to supply a guest article on any other good wars he’d like Australian troops to wage.

I am a supporter of peace, but believe in free speech too.

UPDATE: The Mandatory internet filter debate with Mark Newton and Jim Wallace can be heard via this webpage. Comments from the public in the ABC’s moderated Guestbook start here.

Ashley has produced an informal trascript of the program and there’s follow-up comment on the Somebody Think of the Children website:  Mark Newton Vs Jim Wallace on ABC Radio National net censorship debate