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questions:
-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:12, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I just wanted to point out what a great job Adam Carr, JackofOz and Finlay McWalter have done in this article. A huge amount of edits by all of them have turned this from a non-existant to fully fledged article in less than a day! -- Chuq 01:51, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
At the moment, I think the article is somewhat biased in support of Butler. It basically suggests that he was ousted because of the efforts of the Mercury (and others, such as Eric Abetz), without also discussing the allegations against him. Most of those are listed here, if anyone's interested, and there's a decent discussion of the saga here also, that might give some ideas as to what could be added. Ambi 08:41, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
I think this needs to be kept in perspective. What is important about Butler's career is the work he did at UNSCOM. The petty details of what he may or may not have done in a minor provincial ceremonial post will soon be forgotten and deservedly so. I am not opposed making the section on his resignation clearer when the full story is available, but too much space devoted to this kind of piffle would distort the article. Adam 09:02, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Hmmm ... "minor provincial ceremonial post"?
Currently, this article says:
There appears to be some controversy regarding the characterization that the inspectors were "expelled". From the organization FAIR: There They Go Again: The Washington Post's Iraq Tall Tale. It in turn cites a Washington Post article, saying:
I'm aware that many sources, including the Washington Post itself, have subsequently asserted that the weapons inspectors under Butler were "expelled" by Iraq. But the FAIR statement that that characterization is inaccurate bothers me. It's a relatively minor point, but I wonder if anyone has some better sourcing on the question that would help establish conclusively what happened. Or, if such conclusive evidence can't be found, I wonder if it wouldn't be better to mention the controversy in the Wikipedia article. John Callender 15:29, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC)
This is not a a relatively minor point at all and it shows the appalling prevailing bias of the article as it now stands. Butler was not expelled by Saddam Hussein at all. Butler wrote in 'Saddam Defiant' (2000), "I received a telephone call from US Ambassador Peter Burleigh inviting me for a private conversation at the US mission ... Burleigh informed me that on instructions from Washington it would be 'prudent to take measures to ensure the safety and security of UNSCOM staff presently in Iraq.' I told him that I would act on his advice and remove my staff from Iraq." Butler was thereafter a firm opponent of the invasion of Iraq and marched in the February 2003 peace march in Sydney, in the media virtually calling Australia's PM a liar about WMDs and reasons for invasion. Anyone working on this article is advised to see [1] and follow the trail of evidence, and if anyone has the time, which I regret I do not, a rewrite of this atrocious political revisionism is called for. ( Alpheus 02:16, 14 November 2005 (UTC))
Just thought I'd add a bit for the discussion. I had always been under the impression that then US president Bill Clinton told the inspectors to get out of Iraq because he was going to bomb. After all with the documented spying and all at the time. Either way, it is definitely not the case the Iraq kicked the inspectors out. They did not. Here is a bit comparing press coverage from 1998 and 2002. http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1123 67.53.78.15 21:53, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 03:38, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
It reads: Dr Jennifer Grey (formerly married to Senator Susan Ryan). These days, this could easily be read to mean that Dr Grey was formerly married (same-sex) to Senator Susan Ryan. I was just going to remove it, but realised this is the only mention anywhere in the article of Butler's marriage to Ryan. It needs to go somewhere appropriate, with dates. -- JackofOz 15:23, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
I've removed an old neutrality tag from this page that appears to have no active discussion per the instructions at Template:POV:
Since there's no evidence of ongoing discussion, I'm removing the tag for now. If discussion is continuing and I've failed to see it, however, please feel free to restore the template and continue to address the issues. Thanks to everybody working on this one! -- Khazar2 ( talk) 04:12, 27 June 2013 (UTC)