Comment: Douglas Wood - God Bless America, but little thanks to Australian taxpayers

Australian citizen and corporate mercenary Douglas Wood, recently rescued after being held hostage in Iraq for 47 days, has repeatedly called out, "God Bless America."

Fair enough. He has lived mostly in America and prior to starting his own construction company, was employed for 25 years by Bechtel, corporate bed mates of the Bush family.

However, he has not yet said, "God Bless The Australian Taxpayer."

It is they who paid for an emergency task force headed by the tireless Nick Warner, from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, to be sent to Iraq. They also footed the bill for the many Dept of Foreign Affairs staff who tried to sort out the mess Wood got himself into.

It was Australian forces who nine days after his capture, reportedly put their lives at risk in an attempted rescue.

The Australian public were bombarded with daily media reports of his situation and so far he has said little apart from, "God Bless America." Those three words do not go down too well here at the best of times and the little public sympathy he had, is rapidly turning to anger.

In fact Mr Wood - you bore and annoy the crap out of the majority of Australians. Perhaps you can revamp the old Peter Allen classic song and call it, "I still call Australia Home, but I still call Iraq and the U.S. my meal tickets."

You can read more about Donald Wood and his work in Iraq -

Comment: Douglas Wood - don't blame Australia's friendship with the U.S. blame Wood. June 6

Comment: Douglas Wood - I'll save my tears for the real victims. May 18