FALSE PREMISE "DISCOVERED"

The ABC today aired an interview with former Australia Defence Force supremo General Peter Cosgrove. The way the ABC plays up Iraq's non-possession of WMDs you'd think this was a point of contention:

ELEANOR HALL: The former leader of Australia's Defence Force, General Peter Cosgrove, has acknowledged that Australia entered the war in Iraq on a false premise.

It was the first time General Cosgrove has made such a definitive statement on the debate over the Iraq war. He made the comments in Sydney where his biography was being launched by the Prime Minister.

The banner for the interview reads, "Australia went into Iraq on false premise: Cosgrove." I'm sure Elanor Hall and the majority of ABC staffers would have much preferred Cosgrove to have insisted that Iraq actually did have WMDs. Anyway, what did Cosgrove say that's so revealing?

Well, I think at the outset, we went in on a premise which we now know was not correct - that there were weapons of mass destruction - so, set that aside, I think you would want to make sure that the defence force that they had at the time could somehow help you earlier than they were able to by being sent home and then having to be re-recruited, retrained.

Yep, Cosgrove admitted some mistakes were made but says nothing about lies or deceptions. And what of the notion the Iraq war is making us less safe?

ANNIE GUEST: You've made comments about the effectiveness of the campaign in Iraq, in quelling terrorism. Do you think it may have fuelled that activity?

PETER COSGROVE: No, I believe that what we've seen is obviously an ability for people of that ideology to focus on a particular geographical space. But if you look at this perhaps as a global campaign, in many other places, terrorism has been thwarted.

ANNIE GUEST: Sure, so what you're saying is there's been success fighting terrorism some parts of the globe, but those campaigns in the Middle East haven't held?

PETER COSGROVE: No, I didn't say that at all. I'm saying that obviously where the coalition presents a critical mass, people who are focused on terrorism see an opportunity there, but by the same token, this global war in terrorism is showing us that we can keep the populations safe.

Hmm, it seems to me the ABC could have used a banner like "War in Iraq does not make us less safe: Cosgrove" instead of the obviously much more negative non-revelation concerning WMDs. The leading question from Annie guest makes the ABC's anti-government agenda clear.