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…
Showing all posts in June 2019
Writing on the wall
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…
Embassy view
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…
Flag-waving journalism
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…
Indonesia and Australia
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…
Anti-everyone
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…
The bomb arrives
David Hirst, The Daily Star, March 21: There is widespread international agreement that Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons is an alarming prospect. But very little attention is paid to the most obvious reason why: There already is a Middle Eastern nuclear power, Israel, insistent on preserving its monopoly. So the crisis has been foreseeable for…
The public speaks on the conflict
Encouraging survey results are released in Australia: Fewer than one-in-two Australians are strongly pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, a new opinion poll shows. Both Prime Minister John Howard and federal Labor leader Kim Beazley are staunch supporters of Israel, but a national survey of 500 people has revealed a range of views on the Jewish state and…
In support of Fisk
My following letter appears in this week’s Australian Jewish News: As an organiser of Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk’s visit to Macquarie University on March 10, it is highly unfortunate that the editorial (AJN 17/3) grossly misrepresented his speech. It was claimed that he “stopped just millimetres short of suggesting that Israel was the cause…
The truth is out
I’ve read similar sentiments before, but is this what passes for “war on terror” ideology these days? One doesn’t want to be accused of inhuman callousness; but I am willing to confess, and believe I speak for a lot of THWTHs [To-Hell-With-Them-Hawks] (and a lot of other Americans, too) that the spectacle of Middle Eastern…