Dear US, France and Germany,
Please find attached a detailed plan to isolate and bomb Iran. We have every intention of following a similar path to our successful Iraq mission, so please don’t hesitate in assisting this important goal. Any hesitations will not be appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Murdoch’s “Editor-at-large”, Paul Kelly, forgets his journalistic role as sceptic towards state power:
Blair’s policy is tough on terrorism and tough on its causes. He is a values man. He rejects the realist view that the West should just sit back and contain terrorism. That won’t work in an age of WMDs. “Our ultimate security lies in the spread of our values,” he says.
He is a crusading internationalist keen to wind back the limits of state sovereignty in the cause of justified interventions. Watch him in action today.
Support for Blair has plummeted in the UK, but the Australian paints him as a crusading moralist. So let’s forget about the Iraq quagmire, Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary rendition, torture, curbs on free speech and sabre-rattling towards Iran.
Blair is a war criminal and should be treated as such. International justice will eventually catch-up with the likes of Blair, Bush and Howard. Only then will Western exceptionalism be dealt a necessary body blow.
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, March 26:
Contrary to appearances, the elections this week are important, because they will expose the true face of Israeli society and its hidden ambitions. More than 100 elected candidates will be sent to the Knesset on the basis of one ticket – the racism ticket. If we used to think that every two Israelis have three opinions, now it will be evident that nearly every Israeli has one opinion – racism. Elections 2006 will make this much clearer than ever before. An absolute majority of the MKs in the 17th Knesset will hold a position based on a lie: that Israel does not have a partner for peace. An absolute majority of MKs in the next Knesset do not believe in peace, nor do they even want it – just like their voters – and worse than that, don’t regard Palestinians as equal human beings. Racism has never had so many open supporters. It’s the real hit of this election campaign.
Just who is behind the majority of killings in Iraq? The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, claims “terrorists” are not the real problem. Shiite militias, supported and funded, at least partially by the US, are out of control:
“More Iraqis are dying from the militia violence than from the terrorists,” Khalilzad said. “The militias need to be under control.”
The real power behind the militias remains unclear, though Robert Fisk suggests US involvement. After all, Iraq is under occupation, and still largely funded by the US administration. The US tax-payer would be very unhappy to learn that some of their money is contributing to the ongoing violence.
Not unlike Australia’s involvement in Iraq, the Howard government was talking tough against Saddam on the one hand, while turning a blind eye to dodgy trade deals with the Iraqi dictator on the other.
Nick Miroff, Tom Dispatch, March 25:
Has Latin America ever had such a unifying figure?
At political rallies, his visage is held aloft as a beacon to regional independence and self-determination. He’s helped forge new trade partnerships to spur economic growth and alleviate poverty. And his leadership has fanned a gale-force electoral trend that’s sweeping the hemisphere to topple one pro-Washington government after the next.
Who is this grand inductor of Latin American leftism? Venezuelan fireball Hugo Chavez? Blue-collar Brazilian Lula Ignacio da Silva? Bolivia’s coca-farmer-cum-president, Evo Morales?
Epa! It’s George W. Bush, the accidental revolutionary.
Israel more closely resembles apartheid South Africa by the day:
The regime of restriction on movement imposed by Israel on the Palestinians has crumbled the West Bank into dozens of closed or partially closed enclaves isolated from each other despite their geographical proximity. Permanent and mobile checkpoints, along with physical barriers of various kinds, fenced-off main roads, limitations on Palestinian traffic on east-west and north-south arteries, have cut off direct transportational links between areas of the West Bank.
Of course, “security” can justify even the most heinous acts, while Israeli leaders just blame the victims for being occupied.
The US legacy in Iraq? Failure:
The head of the U.S.-led program to rebuild Iraq said Thursday that the Iraqi government can no longer count on U.S. funds and must rely on its own revenues and other foreign aid, particularly from Persian Gulf nations.
“The Iraqi government needs to build up its capability to do its own capital budget investment,” Daniel Speckhard, director of the U.S. Iraq Reconstruction Management Office, said.
The burden of paying for reconstruction poses an extraordinary challenge for a country that needs tens of billions of dollars for repairing its infrastructure at the same time it’s struggling to pay its bills.
Furthermore, there are untold billions that have simply disappeared.
Banksy, The Guardian, March 24:
…Australia is probably still the only country in the world to have elevated a graffiti writer to the status of national public hero. Arthur Stace was an alcoholic from the slums of Sydney who found God while listening to a Baptist preacher in a hostel in the 1940s and took to writing the word “eternity” on the ground in chalk. He rendered it in meticulous copperplate script more than half a million times across Sydney over the next three decades, becoming an urban legend before his death in 1967 at the age of 83. He has since been honoured by a plaque, a range of council-approved merchandise and was the centrepiece of celebrations when the word “eternity” in his trademark hand was lit up in 100ft-high letters on Sydney harbour bridge to mark the new millennium.
Then came the Commonwealth games and a redoubling of the city’s efforts to rid itself of the evil graffiti menace.
Robert J Callahan is a former press attache at the American embassy in Baghdad. His report on the difficulties faced by diplomats and journalists in the war-ravaged country makes for (unintentionally) revealing reading. He almost seems proud of his fellow officer’s ignorance:
Among American diplomats, fewer than a dozen had sufficient Arabic to use in an extended conversation and, like the reporters, none spoke Iraq’s other languages. That meant that either our contacts spoke English or we relied on interpreters. In the case of the most senior Americans – the ambassador and a few other civilians, generals with three or four stars – the interpreters were superb. But the rest of us, diplomats and journalists, had to rely on bilingual Iraqis who often weren’t professional interpreters.
Callahan’s report reads like a boy’s own adventure. The brave US are just trying their best to bring order to Iraq, he says, though, of course, he admits they can’t actually speak to real Iraqis due to the appalling security situation. An imperial mindset is alive and well in the US diplomatic corp.
Maybe our journalists need a good dose of patriotic fervour to inspire their viewers:
If Mark Suppelsa, Robin Robinson and the rest of the folks who covered Tuesday’s primary on [Chicago's] WFLD-Channel 32 looked a bit more colorful than usual last night, that was no accident.
Believe it or not, the news anchors and reporters at the Fox-owned station were ordered by their boss to wear flashy clothes — preferably “red white and blue.”
In an internal memo obtained by this column, Andrew Finlayson, the recently installed vice president of news at Channel 32, told on-air staffers to think of their election night coverage as a “party” and to dress accordingly.
“Dull clothes are out,” Finlayson declared. “Red white and blue is in . . . I know it sounds obvious . . . but sometimes people forget and show up in just shades of gray. We want to be comfortable, professional and ready to rock.”
Fox “News” loves war – and in this, they are not alone – so if their reporters can convince viewers that only they represent true, honest jouralism, why not just wrap themselves in the US flag? Or even better still, replay the infamous shot of a US soldier draping a US flag over Saddam’s statue at the moment of Iraqi “liberation?” America, Fuck Yeah!
The Australian government should be congratulated for giving temporary protection visas to a group of West Papuan refugees escaping Indonesian repression. It is a welcome start, though much more can be done.
Damien Kingsbury is Director of International and Community Development at Deakin University and an Indonesia expert. The following article is his comment on the latest diplomatic and political row between Indonesia and Australia and is published here exclusively:
Indonesia, Australia and West Papua
Damien Kingsbury
Australia’s decision to grant 42 of 43 Papuan asylum seekers temporary protection has put Australia’s relationship with Indonesia under renewed strain. It has also highlighted contradictions in Australia’s policy toward Indonesia.
The already parlous political environment in Papua has worsened in recent months. The escape to Australia by 36 adult Papuans and seven children, claiming human rights abuses, was both an indication of this increasing problem, and intended to highlight it. The riot at the giant Freeport gold and copper mine last Thursday, in which three police and a military intelligence officer were killed, was another.
There have also been a series of demonstrations and riots in and around the provincial capital of Jayapura against the elections on 10 and 11 March for the legislatures of the now divided province. Jakarta had promised to address Papua’s many political and economic problems with the granting of ‘special autonomy’ in 2001. However, this ‘special autonomy’ has largely been observed in the breach, with the division of the province being the final betrayal.
The TNI has also doubled the number of its permanent troops in Papua since last September. Their casual violence towards indigenous Papuans and the requirement to fund up to three-quarters of their living costs from local sources – both legal and illegal – has worsened the local security environment. Last December, military (TNI) commander in Papua, Major-General Mahidin Simbolon – who was deeply involved in East Timor’s violence in 1999 – confirmed that local soldiers and police had been paid US$26.6 million between 1998 and 2004 by Freeport for ‘protection’.
Australia’s recognition of the claims of the Papuans as political refugees highlights its own internally contradictory policy towards Indonesia. The granting of asylum officially confirms their claims of continuing human rights abuses in the territory. Indonesia’s special forces, Kopassus, murdered Papuan leader Theys Eluay in 2001.
Last year, Australia formally renewed training between the army’s SAS and Kopassus, which had been ended after the TNI’s involvement in the destruction of East Timor in 1999.
Australia’s military links with Indonesia, and its proposed security treaty which will probably be signed in June, is the sort of papering over of such contradictions that led to the fallout between Australia and Indonesia over East Timor. It was, and remains, a policy, the longer term costs of which are much greater than its claimed short term benefits.
Meanwhile, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is trying to bring the TNI more firmly under civilian control, which the TNI is resisting. The TNI’s position in Papua, and the future status of the territory, is the test case in this contest for control.
Yudhoyono’s closeness to Australia will work against him and damage his cautious but clear reform agenda, including on an intended negotiated outcome to the Papua problem. He, or more likely his senior ministers, such as Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono, will therefore have to be seen to be critical of Australia and thus play into the hands of the pro-TNI hardliners.
Australia’s contradictory and confusing policy towards the TNI does not assist Yudhoyono in his efforts towards military reform, complicates Indonesia’s internal political processes, and leaves most Australians wondering why successive governments have insisted on supporting such a corrupt and brutal military.
A clearer policy for Australia would be, like the Indonesian government itself, to recognize that the TNI is still not under civilian authority. It should therefore refuse to deal with them until that is clearly and demonstrably the case. Accepting Papuan asylum seekers would then be consistent with this view and it would actually accord with the Indonesian president’s own policy towards the TNI.
But that is not Australia’s policy at this time. And given the almost fetish-like insistence by influential policy advisers in Canberra of cuddling up to the TNI regardless of its crimes, Australia’s relationship with Jakarta will continue to be bounced from pillar to post.
In the meantime, the people of Papua, and elsewhere in Indonesia, will wear at least some of the consequence of Australia’s confused bilateral policy.
A new poll finds Swedes reject anti-Semitism, but a sizeable minority appear to hold anti-Jewish feelings:
The study found that 59 per cent of Swedes generally rejected anti-Semitic attitudes, while 36 per cent were ambivalent and agreed with some anti-Semitic statements and rejected others or did not express an clear opinion. Five per cent displayed strong anti-Semitic attitudes.
Among those with higher education more rejected anti-Semitic notions as opposed to those with less education, 70 per cent versus 48 per cent. However, the beliefs in Jewish power over media, finance or US foreign policy were equally widespread among all the respondents, irrespective of education.
Buried in the news story, however, is a more disturbing figure:
In order to compare attitudes toward other religious minorities, some questions in the poll were about Muslims, the largest religious minority in Sweden. There are 18,000 Jews in Sweden and 350,000 Muslims. The poll showed that the intolerant attitudes towards Muslims were higher than those towards Jews.
2 per cent supported discriminatory measures toward Jews. Only 2,9 per cent of Swedes think that there are too many Jews in Sweden, while 24.1 per cent think there are too many Muslims. 6.7 per cent also feel that “Muslims ought not be allowed to vote in political elections”.
Sweden is a liberal, open, fairly tolerant country, but then, people used to say that about Denmark. That country is currently experiencing a rise of the far-right and anti-immigration parties. Jews are rarely seen as not fitting into the mainstream, while Muslims are often shunned and tarred with the “terrorism” brush.
