Antony Loewenstein

“The Bulletin’s chief criticism of Keating is that he is bitter, foul-mouthed, bent on revenge and can’t stop talking about the past, which is precisely how Kerry Packer comes across given his flagship magazine – “…loses up to $10 million a year and suffering from a falling circulation (especially when you consider the rorting and giveaways)” – thinks the antics of a reclusive private citizen 10 years out of office is worthy of a cover and 10 pages inside. Crikey could produce 5000 words on The Goanna, Packer’s foul-mouth, his ruthlessness and his refusal to engage with society, but we wouldn’t be telling you anything that wasn’t already out there.”

Crikey’s Stephen Mayne on the Bulletin’s hatchet job of former Prime Minister Paul Keating.

Who are the “terrorism experts” that constantly grace our screens? What are their backgrounds, qualifications and experience in the field? According to Lebanon’s Daily Star columnist Rami G. Khouri, the West, and especially America, is being treated to “bravado, entertainment, ‘kicking ass,’ feel-good sentimentality, flag-waving patriotism, and “aw-shucks” amazement at the consistent capacity of foreigners, especially in the Arab and Islamic world, to behave according to the atavistic violence that defines them and their politics, history, religion and culture.” (This also sounds like some contributors to this blog, mouthing clueless anti-Islam and blindly pro-Western propaganda.)

The key point: “Their guesswork is ideologically defined by the prevalent White House script of the day.” And we can include Downing Street or Canberra, too. Are we receiving the information we want to hear or intelligence that offers uncomfortable positions on Western foreign policy decisions?

Cambodia Morning discusses the number of condoms sold in the Asian nation and attempts to reduce that country’s high rate of sexually-transmitted diseases.

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, a close confidante of George W. Bush, recently advocated the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in an attempt to stop his country from becoming “a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.”

“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,” Robertson said the Christian Broadcast Network’s “The 700 Club.”

“We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator,” he argued. “It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”

This must be what Federal Treasurer Peter Costello meant when he talked last night on Lateline about American values.

TONY JONES: Given that the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq is probably the leading cause of anti-Americanism in the Arab world, does that make us, as an ally of the Americans, a greater target for terrorists?

PETER COSTELLO: I don’t think it’s the principle cause at all. I think if you want to look for perceived areas of anti-Americanism in the Arab world, it was around a lot before Iraq. It’s been around for a very long time, Tony…There was substantial hostility to the US in the Arab world long before Iraq. Whether it’s over perceived injustices to Islam, whether it’s over the Palestinian issue, whether it’s over support for Israel. Most of these things, and I don’t believe justify hostility at all, but it’s been there long before Iraq. Let me tell you this, Tony – you are profoundly wrong if you thought hostility to the United States started in 2003. It was around a long before that.”

Costello’s almost comical understanding of Muslim grievances wouldn’t be so irrelevant if he wasn’t Australia’s next potential Prime Minister. Has the Treasurer not heard about Western meddling in the Middle East for the last 50 years or the imposition of deadly sanctions on Iraq, killing hundreds of thousands?

Even yesterday’s Sydney Morning Herald exposed Costello’s dishonesty:

“It is not anti-American to criticise the actions of the current US leadership or its policies. It is not anti-American to criticise the war in Iraq. Many, many Americans are doing precisely that right now. It is in fact the fullest expression of the freedom which both countries boast of as their heritage. The surest way to guarantee a rise in anti-Americanism is to try to stifle legitimate and justified criticism by smearing it as disloyal.”

The fact that so-called “debate” in Australia is reduced to discussion about the evils of questioning the American alliance and the Bush doctrine – after all, apart from the ideologues, who really believes the Iraq war is a success? – illustrates what a parochial nation we have become.

The Sydney Morning Herald website has a new blog, Inkslinger, written by Fairfax journalist Matthew C Thompson. He writes: “Inkslinger will set the record straight on sex, terrorism, literature, bloodsports, art, individuality, and the importance of risk.”

It’s early days, but looks like Thompson will fit in quite well at the militarised Fairfax bunker: “I believe there is a worldwide struggle going on between jihadists and the US plus its allies…Asymmetric warfare it might be, but warfare it is. I’m not neutral. I’m against the jihadists…I hate those people. Three cheers to the Philippine Special Forces and their US advisors who are right now launching raids and strikes trying to capture or kill a pack of jihadists, including some of the Bali bombers.”

Upon the departure of Margo Kingston from the SMH, editor-in-chief Mark Scott today Crikey yesterday that readers of the smh.com.au website could expect “new blogs which will provide opportunities for readers to express their views and communicate with each other, in addition to our strong breaking news coverage.” Meaningless, bland rubbish, in other words.

Inkslinger may fit in quite well, though I’ll be happy to be proven wrong.

“[Cindy] Sheehan has every right to her emotion, as far as I’m concerned, since a war that can’t survive a mourning mother shouldn’t be going on at all.”

Guest blogger Walter Kirn at andrewsullivan.com, August 18

The Take is a unique film. Made by Canadian couple Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein, it describes the cost of World Bank policies on Argentina in the 1990s and the brave attempt by auto-part workers today to reclaim their bankrupt factory and prove that the old economic model no longer applied. It’s a wonderful documentary currently screening around the country and proves the power of the collective. While union membership is declining in the West, Latin America is experiencing a revolution of its own and challenging American hegemony. Wonder why America and its apologists are so nervous?

I was at the Sydney preview of the film some months ago. Lewis was present and spoke passionately about taking the movie around the world and inspiring a new generation of Western activists to believe that the current economic system wasn’t the only way forward. He told of the film screening in Iraq and Beirut Indymedia performing miracles by completing rough subtitles a few hours before the print was flown to the occupied country.

Latin America is generally ignored in our media unless the Bush administration threatens one of its overly independent nations.

Take this story about Argentinean medical staff. The government threats, use of the word “terrorist” to describe workers fighting for better pay and conditions and rapid privatisation all show that Australia could one day experience a massive backlash against the status quo.

They have been warned.

The financial cost of America’s “war on terror” is usually hidden from public view.

Linda Bilmes, an assistant secretary at the Department of Commerce from 1999 to 2001 and lecturer of budgeting and public finance at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, wrote recently in the New York Times that, “if the American military presence in the [Middle East] region lasts another five years, the total outlay for the war could stretch to more than $1.3 trillion, or $11,300 for every household in the United States.”

The San Francisco Chronicle has finally started publishing Sean Penn’s reflections on Iran. He attended the country during the June elections. His short film is also worth a look and this great Reservoir Dogs style photo.

Penn’s journey makes for fascinating reading.

“He’s a great friend of mine. He’s a great friend of America. I am grateful for his courage and his resolve. I value his advice and good judgement.”

President George W. Bush offered his praise to Prime Minister John Howard last night as he collected The Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars. Howard is a scholar? How about a blood-drenched leader keen to hang onto the boot-straps of a fundamentalist American administration? The Fairfax press were much kinder in their analysis.

What the hell was British lawyer Geoffrey Robertson doing at the event? This human rights advocate, a constant critic of the “Coalition”, shouldn’t be attending. But then, perhaps the elite can forgive the minor transgression of launching war on a false premise for just one wine-soaked evening?

Phil Gomes put it best on the weekend:

“…It’s a highly partisan outfit well and truly connected to the Republican power centres of Washington, just another self-congratulatory circle jerk designed to reward loyal foot soldiers. Friends giving awards to friends. I’m sure Howard will wear it proudly on his Wallaby trackies while out on his Forrest Gump like power walks.”

Iraqi blogger Sabbah writes about a forum that provides free access to its pornographic content to members of the United States military who are stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, in exchange for their pictures of war.