I’m happy to have signed this public letter to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to stop the rush to another war (ie. with China). The letter was written by Australians for War Powers Reform: With multiple military and defence commentators offering increasingly bleak assessments of the possibility of armed conflict, now is the time to…
The blandness of the mainstream media, including public broadcasters, is all about the narrow level of “debate” allowed on issues of the day. Australian intellectual and academic Scott Burchill has written the following short essay on the problem and possible solutions: In what is misleadingly called the ”˜age of culture wars’ there are three aspects…
My weekly Guardian column: The Australian government recently… successfully blocked the release… of sensitive documents that would have revealed the complicity of Indonesian forces in massive abuses during their… occupation of East Timor. Canberra directed the National Archives to refuse the request of University of NSW associate professor Clinton Fernandes to see internal Australian files on Indonesian military…
Much of the media has dismissed former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s diaries as being obsessed with irrelevance, diets and exercise. In fact, the diaries are fascinating and focus on a range of international events (see my Guardian column this week on the Zionist lobby sections). I saw Carr last night at Sydney University and…
The job of US State Department favourites (journalists, commentators and politicians who routinely rehash US government talking points over war, peace and the Middle East) must be exhausting. Defending the indefensible while still being on the information drip-feed. Welcome to the US embassy, the free champagne, caviar and PR tips are in the boardroom. I…
Forget the crocodile tears of Western leaders. This is about unseating a leader who opposes Western designs in the Middle East (albeit Assad is an incredibly brutal dictator). Here’s Australian intellectual Scott Burchill: How genuine is the West’s concerns about the use of chemical weapons in Syria five days ago? Not very, I suspect. … …
Let’s not be under any illusion that conservatives who talk about a love of “freedom” (including… Rupert Murdoch, for that matter) mean nothing of the sort, but only views that push a pro-US, pro-Israel and pro-war agenda. The Zionist lobby, a long-time fan of bullying opponents, is on-board.… Here’s Murdoch’s Australian on the weekend: A Coalition government…
Does anybody serious believe American officials when they talk about supporting human rights? Hillary Clinton recently said this… at a UN Secretary Council debate on the Arab Spring: … we reject any equivalence between premeditated murders by a government’s military machine and the actions of civilians under siege driven to self-defense. Such a statement requires a…
I’m proud to sign this letter: This is an open letter to Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Attorney-General Nicola Roxon. It calls on the Australian government to take steps to ensure Julian Assange’s human rights are protected. It will be delivered on 19 December 2011, but we encourage members of the public to sign the…
A fascinating piece of history written by Australian academic Scott Burchill: In August 2004 I was asked by The Age to review [Australian journalist] John Martinkus’ new book ‘Travels in American Iraq‘ (Black Inc, 2004). It was a very good account of life after the invasion and Martinkus was clearly more sympathetic to the occupied…