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 […]

Do you remember how, in 2003, the ALP opposed sending troops to Iraq? I do, and I’m staggered at the number of people who assert with a straight face that Labor ’supported the war’ (thereby allowing them to claim quite mendaciously that the ALP is just being wise with the benefit of hindsight).
I likewise recall […]

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Over the years the wingnuts have made a lot of mileage out of the ‘Bushitler’ gag … you know the one where they say all solemn like ‘Of course the Left thinks President Bush is as bad as Hitler’, whereupon (depending on the context) they either high five each other and fall to whoopin’ and […]

I watched Condoleeza Rice on Lateline last night, spruiking for John Howard. And she gave the perfect example of how conflict only ever escalates, with her answers to Leigh Sales’ questions about the trend toward more terrorism since Teh War began:
“I think what this shows is that we are actually pursuing them for the first […]

Howard’s frenzied efforts to cling to power have gone from laughable through repellent to something close to outright derangement. Surely a growing number of people within his own party must be concerned at the long-term damage he is doing to our country in his mad single-minded lust to stay prime-minister-for-life.
Now he’s turned his attention to […]

There is no war in Iraq. There hasn’t been one for four years. It’s time to face up to reality: what you see in Iraq today is pretty much what you’ll see in 12 months or five years time. By falling for the ‘war’ narrative, people are simply allowing this new reality to become entrenched […]

I’ve just been listening to Peter Costello, Deputy leader of the Liberal Party, being questioned by Barry Cassidy on the Insiders program on why we went to Iraq. UPDATE: The original post from yesterday had my hastily scribbled-down version of what was said. Now that the transcript’s up, here are the actual quotes of interest […]

We all know that our prime minister is utterly bereft of principles, apart from the principle of remaining prime minister. So it’s always been a bit of a puzzle why he insists on keeping Australian forces in Iraq. If anything it’s a political negative domestically and I can’t think of any other political area where […]

How is one supposed to react to the intolerable insensitivity of those who continue to support the occupation of Iraq? My own response is a viscerally physical one; I want to drag them across to Baghdad and make them smell the death, live in the privation, feel the despair, wipe the blood and flesh off […]