Australia and the CoW
Australia in Iraq - - Posted on May, 8 at 1:21 pm by Ken L
It’s past time for Kevin Rudd to make a clear statement of the government’s attitude towards the occupation of Iraq.
Rudd has had a saloon passage so far on foreign affairs, dazzling the media with a round the world trip in which his ability to speak Mandarin caused universal acclamation. As usual from our media, celebrity and symbolism were privileged over anything of substance. Rudd was therefore allowed to get away with a highly confusing stance over Afghanistan, in which affirmations of indefinite Australian involvement were mingled with vague warnings that the Europeans would have to lift their game, or else … well he never said what would happen if they didn’t, and the media didn’t ask because they were too busy writing about the important stuff like whether or not he had saluted George Bush.
However, at least there have been some government pronouncements on Afghanistan, even if they’ve left us little the wiser. About Iraq there’s been a deafening silence. The impression was given that Rudd had sternly advised Bush that he would honour the election commitment to bring home the troops (but not just yet, in fact not for many months after he was elected) and that Bush accepted that meeting election promises was the honourable thing to do.
Yet at the same time, Angus Houston was announcing that the combat troops’ mission had ended and that was why they were coming home, which was consistent with some opposition claims that they would also have brought them home mid-2008. And now, from Stars and Stripes of all places. there’s this:
Australia will keep a headquarters unit based at Camp Victory near Baghdad and a security force that protects Australian assets in the capital’s International Zone, each with about 100 members. Roughly 600 navy and air force troops assigned to a “dual-force” mission encompassing Iraq and Afghanistan will also remain, a spokesman for the Australian Defence Force said.
“There has been some speculation that Australia is abandoning the coalition, but that is not the case,” said Brigadier Damian Roche, the commander of Australian forces in Iraq. “We’re reducing our ground force, but Australia remains just as committed to the coalition and just as committed to the future of Iraq.”
What does ‘just as committed to the coalition’ mean? That we remain fully supportive of the occupation? If that is the case, the withdrawal of the troops is pure tokenism and Rudd is trying to have the best of both worlds: maintaining the uncritical support of US actions in the Middle East which was a hallmark of the Howard/Downer years while allowing anti-war Labor supporters to believe that there has been a significant change in government policy. Does ‘just as committed’ mean that if things in Iraq get really sticky again we’ll send some combat troops back?
Whatever the truth it’s unsatisfactory to try to piece it together on the basis of statements by a brigadier reported in Stars and Stripes. The Australian media has virtually ceased to show any interest in Iraq so it’s possible I’ve missed it, but I don’t recall any clear statement by either Rudd or Stephen Smith about the situation in Iraq which this country was complicit in creating.
Many people, of whom I am one, regard the invasion/occupation of Iraq as an appallingly immoral act, comparable to the Italian invasion of Abyssinia in 1935, Japan’s invasion of China in 1931 or the USSR’s intervention in Czechoslovakia in 1968. If Rudd is not prepared to distance himself and his government from it clearly and publicly, he will give the lie once and for all to the meme that the actions of the Howard/Bush mobs were somehow unrepresentative of their nations. Australia will be identified for all time as a nation that is prepared to wage aggressive war in order to curry favour with the USA.
Rudd should make a major speech - preferably in parliament where it can be debated - setting out his government’s attitude to American actions in Iraq and its future intentions with regard to our involvement. People may agree or disagree with what he has to say but we deserve an explanation in depth of what he believes and intends to do; something substantially more than a few carefully crafted lines at a press conference or a radio interview.
He should make such a speech, but I won’t be holding my breath.
Posted in Australia in Iraq |
May 8th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
“Many people, of whom I am one, regard the invasion/occupation of Iraq as an appallingly immoral act …” says Ken.
Like the rape of Nanking, says I.
As much as I admire sweet and charming Kevin ‘07, and as much as I kiss the ground each morning in thanks for the end of Howard’s nightmare decade of horrors, with sorrow I must announce that Rudd’s been nobbled.
That’s right: Kevin Rudd has been nobbled, probably by some late-night phone calls from the HQ of Lunacy in Washington, or some strident lectures from the US Ambassador - or whomever. He’s had the big squeeze put upon him and Aussie PM’s traditionally do what they’re f’king told by America - or else.
It doesn’t matter who was the nobbler, it’s us who are the nobblees. Yes, told to shit in it, to shut up, to retain our troops in Iraqnam as a token until we’re given permission to leave, while perplexingly allowed to send some home and whilst simultaneously keeping the lot in Afghanistan.
Huh?
In Afghanistan, Australia’s shining military history pervades today as we help to keep up the supply of heroin to the world’s addicts. The vast opium poppy fields of that treeless land are, as we speak, proudly protected by slouch-hatted Aussie diggers and their American comrades in the global heroin drug trade.
While the world’s mightiest military with their galaxies of satellites and flotillas of B52’s patrol every square inch of AFG to purportedly fight off a rag-tag bunch of towel heads armed with popguns, our Australian Prime Minister displays no conception of this horror whatsoever when he rambles his muddled and fuddled and mangled foreign policy about our troops overseas.
There is no war in Afghanistan, just the western world’s serf-like militias defending and supporting the massive heroin trade which supplies one-third of the world’s drug addicts. Not one single Australian media jerk questions this aspect or asks how any national leader could aid and abett a heroin trade. Only a two-year-old or a mindless dolt could still believe that a few ragged Taliban can continue to outwit an entire armada and armageddon of B52’s and their armies.
Wonderful. How enchanting that we voting Aussies know nothing of this and our new Prime Minister appears to understand zilcho as well. Or pretends to.
While Ken L. ponders these imponderables, I’m firmly of the conclusion that:
1. Our Aussie troops are definitely pulling out of Iraqnam.
2. Maybe not all of them, and maybe not just yet. But we could. Then again, we mightn’t.
3. We’re pulling out of Iraq because, as Ken said, our stinking and illegal aggression was an appallingly immoral act, so if we pull out half of our troops maybe later, it’s maybe only half an appallingly immoral act.
4.But we’re definitely staying the distance in Afghhan because, even though it’s an identical unprovoked invasion to Iraqnam and Vietnam, well there’s … ah … terrorists, and, ah, militants, rebels, insurgents, and all those other ghastly absurd labels which adequately describe us - yes, us.
Mr Nobbled-Rudd, in all his innocence, has not yet produced once iota of evidence or reason for our continued presence in Afghanistan, or for his waffling in-out of Iraq policies; his inconsistencies only surpassed by his indecisions and uncertainties.
But at the end of the day, it’s all joyous news for the world’s heroin addicts: supply is almost guaranteed for the indefinite needle-sharing future, while arms manufacturers and militias are unlikely to ever be made redundant.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
While Rudd is clearing up your points, he should spare a few minutes on this;
London Review of Books ‘Where do we go from here’,R.W.Johnson in Zimbabwe.And where were the previous incumbents in regard, too busy with George and Dolly lording it over PNG and the South Pacific.Bastards.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Anti-warists to the Left of him, “must crush the evil-doers” to the Right…& the threat by top Yanks of reprisals such as cutting exports & not providing certain codes to some mega-expensive jets to the front of him.
I imagine Rudd’s thoughts are:
That’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into
John…hmmm…then again…
“Hey Julia, wanna see me pull a rabbit outta my hat?”
May 8th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Well it’s like this guys. Defence are telling Kevvy that the ‘good war’ is really turning into a bad war, not helped by the fact that certain darlings of the left in old Europe aren’t exactly over-exerting themselves for the noble cause. Now that sort of advice is hard to ignore, particularly as the bodybag count seems to concur with said advice. OTOH Defence is telling him that due to a recent surge in negative public opinion for Osama and Co, the ‘bad war’ is probably not such a bad place to be after all, particularly if the ‘good war’ goes even more pear shaped than it currently has. Basically it’s best to be cautious here Kevvy and hedge your bets. Naturally Kev being a fairly astute sort of bloke what can win elections when other dumbasses around can’t, is doing just that. So hush your rude, ignorant mouths and enjoy the fruits of mission accomplished Laborites.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Yairs. As opposed to the heroic, massive contribution made by dubyas bestest cobber.
VERY observant.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Nice of Blair and Bushie to drop in by video hookup for the Man of Steel’s farewell bash eh? Looks like that mantle passes to Kev now, judging by the tone of this post.
Now seriously, I told you all that good war/bad war stance was untenable and here we all are. Besides Kev was guilty of drinking intels own bathwater on Iraq too, so he can’t go in too hard on Iraq now and in any case there’s always the ‘we beoke it we have to fix it’ stance, which has a fair bit of validity about it. Look at it this way, in 30yrs or so, Iraq might be coming along nicely like Nam and a few Iraqis that served with the COW might be marching along in the Anzac parade, along with the Vietnamese contingent. Hopefully the Afghani brigade too for that matter. Here’s hoping.
To be fair, of the 3 ventures at the time I always thought RT was the riskiest long term, but blow me down if the Indos didn’t take the view-’You want em dumb skips, you can have em and good riddance!’ and chucked a match on them and drove off. It could have been a whole lot uglier like the Graveyard of Empiresm if you’d asked me then. With the new democratic(my hasn’t that got a nice ring to it) Iraqi Govt kicking Moqtada out of Sadr city now, the beacon of light is flickering ever stronger. Let’s all hope it bursts into full light ASAP, so we can get out of there and leave them to it, in order to concentrate on those other crackpots in Afghanistan and Iran. Nothing would piss Ourmadjihad off more than a decent civil Iraq to hold a mirror up for Iranians to see their fruitcake leadership reflected in it. Bush, Blair, Howard and the COW- naive fools or great statesmen? The balance of history has just bugun to tip in their favour and Rudd knows it now too, even if you lot are too blind to see what he so clearly can.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:44 am
oops..I always thought ET was the riskiest..
May 9th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Hopefully Obs the Iranians will see the light…& the doom scenario of their predicament…& make a deal. This buildup to war is giving me a neck ache & migraines…and plenty of bodies are being discovered in the oddest of places…and money lost in strange circumstances…but as Wolf Blitzer said the other day: “Better a cold war than a hot one”. Tho i’d prefer NONE. But i guess someone has to keep the spy novelists & fake rock makers in business.
BTW Ken, did you know Dubya has a relative involved in another COW project. It’s called Curriculum on Wheels (COW)…& is part of… yer gonna chuckle…Ignite! Learning.
Isn’t that subtle? So Bushy.
It’s co-founded & owned by GWs bro Neil…& check out who has helped finance it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignite!
May 9th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Looks like Wiki is stuffin’ up, the link goes to some Aussie programme now. Here’s some of what it should say:
To fund Ignite!, Neil Bush and others raised $23 million from U.S. investors, including his parents, Barbara Bush and George H.W. Bush, as well as businessmen from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As of 2006, at least $2 million had come from Taiwanese interests that had given Neil Bush a job consulting for a semiconductor manufacturer, and at least $3 million came from Saudi interests. A foundation linked to Reverend Sun Myung Moon donated $1 million for a research project by the company in Washington, D.C.-area schools.
In 2002, Ignite! entered into a partnership with a Mexican company, Grupo Carso Telecom to outsource many software and product development functions. Regarding the deal, Ignite! President (then CFO) Ken Leonard stated, “That’s turned out to be great.” Ignite! laid off 42% of its in-house workforce (21 individuals) in preparation for the partnership. Leonard said that outsourcing production will give it the resources to develop additional course software more quickly, and that the company wants to develop an entire middle school curriculum featuring the basics of language arts, math and science.
In December 2003, a Washington Post Style article said that Ignite! was paying Neil Bush a salary of $180,000 per year.
——
small world eh?
May 9th, 2008 at 11:05 am
@6 “in 30yrs or so, Iraq might be coming along nicely like Nam and a few Iraqis that served with the COW might be marching along in the Anzac parade”
You think there’ll be a march in 30yrs time? I mean who’s going to stand on a street and salute a bunch of people who weren’t there (offspring of those who served). The RSL’s instructions for avatars to march at the back this year were a portent. It’s even harder to sustain a myth when all of your original cast are dead.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
They’re the exact same “towel heads” who actually defeated the Soviet Union, Argus; the 1st world’s armed forces aren’t quite as godlike as you imagine. Unless you’re suggesting the USA should carpet-nuke the whole country? All the Taliban have to do to “win” is not lose for a certain amount of time. They don’t actually have to militarily defeat our blokes in a decisive battle or anything.
As to the Australian body count, it’s probably mostly the luck of the draw - 2 recent combat deaths out of a total of 5 fatalities during the operation. 4RAR are commandos and may have a different way of approaching the enemy than the SAS, who are largely supposed to be sneaky bastards, but it’s a very small sample from which to derive any statistical meaning.
There has been a resurgence in poppy cultivation. We don’t get much concrete information and that fact indicates that things are not going well, that our side has lost control of a lot of the countryside or no longer has the available manhours to destroy the crops, or both.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Maybe the just don’t want to destroy the crops and risk turning more Afghans against them.
Marines Ignore Poppy Crops to Pacify Afghan Locals
Tuesday 06 May 2008
Garmser, Afghanistan - The Marines of Bravo Company’s 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant’s gooey resin smile and wave.
Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world’s largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin.
The Taliban, whose fighters are exchanging daily fire with the Marines in Garmser, derives up to $100 million a year from the poppy harvest by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees - money that will buy weapons for use against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops.
Yet the Marines are not destroying the plants. In fact, they are reassuring villagers the poppies won’t be touched. American commanders say the Marines would only alienate people and drive them to take up arms if they eliminated the impoverished Afghans’ only source of income.
Many Marines in the field are scratching their heads over the situation…
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Marines-in-Poppies.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I suppose you could call it pragmatism.
May 9th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Thanks Sean, I accept your valuable comments, but I must add this: during Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. These billions were eventually to fall into the hands of Osama bin Laden and his cohorts who helped to lead the Afghani resistance to the Soviet Union.
In those days when Osama was America’s shining boy, it was his Mujahadeen that won victory in that war - certainly not the Taliban. I don’t believe that the Taliban had even been created back in the 1980’s, although I could be wrong, but I think you’re confusing today’s small bunches of Taliban fighters with those fierce armies of Mujahadeen fighters who enjoyed massive US backing with arms and money.
Lastly, I still don’t see why the USAF can’t easily destroy the Afghan poppy fields when they had no troubles defoliating large swathes of Vietnam with Agent Orange dropped from the air. This procedure eradicated entire jungles, so a few innocent fields of pretty poppy flowers should be a “turkey shoot” as they say.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Meanwhile back in the bad war guess what’s been picked up sticking to the flypaper-
“IRAQI and US forces have detained a man suspected of being the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi security officials said today.
The Arabic television station al-Arabiya, quoting the Iraqi Defence Ministry, said the detained suspect was the al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, an Egyptian called Abu Ayyab al-Masri, but also known as Abu Hamza al-Muhajir.”
Cheer up Surfdomites, the ’sour’kraut and cheese eaters will take care of that good war of yours. Well as long as they don’t hang about the UN passing too many motions that is. Not like ‘our’ new Man of steel naturally
May 9th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
lol…that’s one way of looking at it Mars.
Iraq & Afghanistan might be the least of our worries if the Lebanon tensions continue to brew:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lysandra-ohrstrom/the-clashes-in-beirut-is_b_100882.html
(The Clashes in Beirut: Is the Bush Administration Stirring the Pot?: Lysandra Ohrstrom, Huff Post, 8th may 08)
Tho I imagine it’s all part of the GRAND PLAN to own every inch of Arab/Persian land, oil & other resources, incl. water…& introduce Walmarts & McDonalds & REAL soda to the lifetime traumatised as they serve in the largest hotels in History & kiss the robes of bankers & energy barons/shieks…their entourage of ladies high, possibly on Afghan spoils:
U.S. President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia next week and is expected, for the second time this year, to publicly ask the Saudis to pump more oil in order to ease the burden on a damaged U.S. economy. Few analysts expect the No. 1 producer to comply.
David Kirsch, an analyst with PFC Energy Group, said OPEC’s market leaders - notably Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates - are now maintaining high prices in order to finance their ambitious development plans.
And they are building massive overseas investment funds that are recycling the oil money into Western economies, notably Kuwait Investment Authority’s purchase of a $3-billion (U.S.) stake in Citigroup Inc. and $2-billion share in Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. And late last year, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority invested $7.5-billion in Citigroup Inc.
That recycling of petro-dollars is widely seen as a benefit for the world economy, given the shift in financial power to commodity-rich countries and away from consumer nations. However, the OPEC countries face growing pressure to ensure their state-controlled funds play by accepted Western rules for governance and transparency.
“We’re into uncharted territory with the kind of financial flows that are going into a small set of countries,” said David Pumphrey, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
“We’re seeing a rebalance of the world’s players … and they will be playing a different role in the future, so the established players are going to have to make space for them to participate.”
(BARRELLING AHEAD, Cartel members are using record crude prices to finance their global ambitions, SHAWN MCCARTHY, Repory on Business . com, May 8, 2008)
—————
Guess i better by me a camel. And order Kosher food. I can adapt. But it’s gonna get messy for awhile.
Is it me, or does Citigroup come up a hecka of a lot in the grand scheme of things? Kinda like the Carlyle Group & Credit Suisse. I don’t know why these Corporations don’t just refer to themselves as Nations?
GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS, WAR WITHOUT…
May 9th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Argus, I had a longer answer about the whoe shebang, but the confuser ate it.
Suffice to say this: people take heroin because they want to. They are mostly adults and exclusively volunteers. There have been enough wedding parties aerially mistaken for Al Qaeda’s No 2 Man (TM) already. I can’t get enthused about blowing villages full of peasants to hell because they have the temerity to grow a plant that we westerners pay them shittins of cash for.
And re Al Qaeda’s No 2 Man (TM), Obs, f..k’s sake mate. If that report is accurate, I’m sure Al Q won’t promote anyone into the role or anything. Iraq War won! Troops home by Queen’s Birthday! Cozza da ‘Mericans! What are our heroes!
May 9th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Hells bells Sean, are you for real? I try to avoid attacking any other blogger as it’s against the rules and also risks the wrath of God/Ken. But are you seriously so devoid of any morals as to defend this nation’s participation in protecting the largest drug operation in the world?
You say that “people take heroin because they want to. They are mostly adults and exclusively volunteers … ”
Crap. What about the legions of children around the world who die because they are unwittingly sucked into the lethal heroin cycle? Disadvantaged people, impoverished people, starving prostitutes . . . babies born with a heroin addiction? No military force with any moral backbone or shred of decency should protect and encourage this global disgrace, and for Australia to participate in this horror is beyond disgusting.
Your remarks are unsustainable and unforgivable. I was trying to point out that Kevin Rudd seems to have lost the plot on this Afghan thing and I’m hoping that a decent man such as he would not lower this country to the sewer level that America has sunk to, as per Mars’ comments at #12 above - “Marines Ignore Poppy Crops to Pacify Afghan Locals,” which you obviously didn’t read.
And I didn’t advocate “blowing villages full of peasants to hell because they have the temerity to grow a plant that we westerners pay them shittins of cash for.” You didn’t read my comments there either. I said they should bomb the ’shittins’ out of the poppy fields Sean, not innocent villagers for f’s sake! I compared the ease with which large parts of an entire nation, Vietnam, were destroyed, to the simple task of selectively bombing this heroin SHIT, as it’s rightly called on the streets, out of existence.
And your statement that I might be suggesting that the USA should ‘carpet-nuke’ the whole country of Afghanistan is just puerile nonsense. Other bloggers, who bothered to read my original comments at #1 above, will agree. And if you still maintain that we should just simply sit back and do nothing about this monstrous lethal trade, as well as protecting and securing and promoting it, then you’re as morally bankrupt as those idiot soldiers of Bravo Company’s 1st & 2nd platoons.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Firstly, what do you expect the locals to live on? To do for work? What kind of alternative crops will bring in similar income? The spraying of crops in Colombia has caused much misery.
Secondly, why not try another practical option:
‘European Parliament Backs Poppy for Medicine Initiative in Afghanistan’, The Senlis Council, 25 October 2007.
“The European Parliament on Thursday [October 25] recommended that Afghanistan’s poppy crop should be used to produce much-needed essential medicines such as morphine instead of being destroyed. The recommendation was tabled by Marco Cappato MEP [Member of the European Parliament] and the ALDE group (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) and adopted by an overwhelming majority of 368 for and 49 against. […] The Senlis Council’s ‘Poppy for Medicine’ proposal would see village-cultivated poppy transformed into morphine tablets in the rural communities of Afghanistan by bringing the important added value of the transformation of poppy into medicine at the local level. This would address the current world shortage of these pain-relieving medicines.”
(The Afghanistan Conflict Monitor is an initiative of the Human Security Report Project at the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University.)
—
I’m open to alternative views Argus.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Nasking asks me, “Firstly, what do you expect the locals to live on? To do for work? What kind of alternative crops will bring in similar income? The spraying of crops in Colombia has caused much misery.”
So now we’re all crying over the misery of some stinking opium poppy farmers who might lose their incomes. Gimme a break!
I don’t give a shit what they’ll live on after they’ve been B52′d. They shouldn’t exist upon the production of mass deaths in the first place. It’s f’king ILLEGAL, Nasking. In every country of the world, heroin is illegal, and for good reason.
And yes, I’m all for alternative views, like the current growth of the opium poppy industry in Tasmania which produces palliative pain relief via morphine to terminally ill cancer sufferers, but these Afghani farmers are willingly and knowlingly selling their SHIT to the world’s heroin dealers and their pitiful customers.
Hell, am I the only bloody person here who can discern that Australia’s stance on this disgraceful matter stinks worse than a dead heroin injector in the gutter?
Come on Nas, I always enjoy your comments. You’ve let me down tonight.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Why focus on poppies,heroin,and morphine! This sort of stuff is a moral ego-trip from a distance.It is wise council to think there should be alternative markets for opium,as it should be encouraged that more research on the poppy plant should continue.As it should be the ideas of mono -culture in Agriculture should be given the lesson of Permaculture.And addiction to heroin,I think has been well and truly overplayed,as much as morphine addiction.There were alternative treatments to this abuse,but modern society is hooked both on pain and pain relief.This is why the Taliban are great fighters,and need at least that respect as enemy.They survive in gruelling conditions.We have to be masculine enough to recognise the opium growers,are not out to please anyone,try it one day,not trying to please anyone!? It is also a healthy female disposition! That doesnt stop me from wanting the trade stopped or legitimised.The same applies to the Taliban,instead of seeing them as under educated wild Islamic types,what are they,and the other tribes!? I say free of bullshit thats what!? And thus even my life to them isnt worth much,until they notice I am OK in small doses.Free men,are dangerous,and free men can be challenged to be responsible..the West isnt that convincing and yet Australians did fight with as companions the Muh aja din or how you spell it. All these people have been taking it very personally,the impositions over decades now.I still support Australian troops,because what I have said implies that.But fighting people,must be a process also at the very point of victory,not wanting to do any of this stuff from the beginning.The Olympics are still on,where are the crack shots of the Talibani in shooting contests or other sports!? We could tell our military to suggest to the Taliban,that our efforts against them will be curtailed,if they want to try to represent Afghanistan. Then there is the bloody problem which is China,that has similar in some ways ,but not exactly,Muslims being a bit repressed and suppressed. Rudd is simply an ineffective monkey on our backs.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
etc etc
Good grief, obs, that IS exciting news! That simply HAS TO BE the biggest body-blow to AQIA since… well, they got the last few leaders. But that al-Zarqawi chap always was a sneaky bastard, wasn’t he?
So they’ve (possibly) captured the leader of a dangerous terrorist group which only became a real force AFTER the needless, unprovoked American invasion? Outstanding job.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:48 am
Argus outrageous slurs against other commenters that lack a shred of evidence will not be published on my threads. If you want to engage in that kind of mindless combativeness there are plenty of other blogs that will accommodate you.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
No problemo Argus. Like I said, i’m into listening/reading alternative views…such as this one:
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=ezyLJrAu1SIC&pg=PA475&lpg=PA475&dq=wayned+madsen%3Eheroin&source=web&ots=gfrOeKVyjB&sig=YT8NllFw-0SF2wq6aCSbMsBDN4o&hl=en
(Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire…)
It mentions the use of Heroin for not so cool purposes.
May 10th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
A list of dead rock stars. Some over-dosed on heroin…some might’ve been murdered. Did you know that Janis Joplin’s Dad worked for Texaco?
http://thedeadrockstarsclub.com/1970.html
I’m loathe to judge others on their drug use tho…unless they’re really fck’n it up for themselves, families, friends & others…I tend to see the Northern Lights clearer these days. Not so much FORGETTING of history…
But I sure DETEST those hypocrites & slime buckets who condemn others, use religion as a weapon, jail as a political & economic tool, the LAW as their hammer & conduit to goodies, the MEDIA & politicians as their SALESMEN/WOMEN…whilst living in the lap of TRAFFIC luxury.
May 10th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I’ve lost count of the number of occasions that amerika has smashed/destroyed a country’s society, infrastructure, intelligentia and severely compromised their ability to recover then claimed that if they left there would be chaos & bloodshed. As distinct from what happens while their boots & bombs are hitting the ground.
(I’m assuming that most people reading this site know thelitany of states attacked, strafed, bombed, invaded,destabilised,blockaded, sanctioned since WWII - 27 at last count.
May 11th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Besides the long history of US invasions (conveniently always in self-defence) of sovereign states, we not have them openly bombing citizens in other nations without UN sanction or the declaration of war.
Any time they find an excuse to lob a cruise missile over international border, they just go ahead and do it. No jury, no evidence is needed.
Can you imagine any other country on the planet continually getting away with such actions?
May 11th, 2008 at 1:49 am
“Can you imagine any other country on the planet continually getting away with such actions?”
Britain…
Talk Talk - Life’s what you make it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvMoRVrqx_I
dear friend…fear not
N’
don’t let the sun
May 11th, 2008 at 2:16 am
NEW GOLD DREAM
SIMPLE MINDS (NEW GOLD DREAM) CARDCAPTORS MOVIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WniJE1E1UQ
May 11th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Belfast Child…or nr enuff…Kerry Co.
Griffin will return here
brothers and sisters
where are you now
some say TROUBLES …OVER
one day
s i n g
d r u m s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFIMJxV2tjI
you’ve been a long awhile
won’t you come on
HOME
c’est la vite
one day…