Showing all posts in June 2019

What is this man saying? That the threat of terrorism has lowered in recent years? The number of fatalaties from terrorist attacks is going down? Writing in The Spectator, Paul Robinson urges calm and suggests that our leaders are fear-mongering themselves into massive debt. Robinson perfectly articulates the irrational logic currently employed by Western leaders…

The Guardian runs a very nifty newsblog with the aim of bringing blogging, interesting links and world events into mainstream consciousness. They’ve very kindly linked to this blog today. Official memo to self: The Guardian is truly the best newspaper in the world. Repeat often. True memo: The Guardian is wonderful in highlighting issues from…

The US Presidential Commission investigating intelligence failures before the Iraq war has released its report and its conclusions are devastating. This is arguably the most damning assessment yet of American intelligence gathering (in)abilities and should cause proponents of action against Iran, Syria or North Korea to take a step back from the precipice. Much more…

Who has been spending too much time executing people instead of pulling weights?

During last year’s US offensive in the Iraqi town of Fallujah, did American forces use internationally banned weapons, such as napalm and other chemical agents? These reports have been circulating for some time, though rarely in the Western media: “During the U.S. offensive, Fallujah residents reported that they saw “melted” bodies in the city, which…

Tim Dunlop is a blogging friend and runs Road to Surfdom. A few days ago he took me to task for placing quotation marks around the word “terrorism”, when referring to Palestinian actions. My response follows: Let me try and explain, briefly. Suicide bombing is terrorism, sure thing. But so are Israeli jet fighters dropping…

“PM’s vision: Australia as honest broker” booms today’s front page of The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH). At the official opening last night of Australia’s newest establishment think-tank, the Lowy Institute – funded by the country’s second richest man, Frank Lowy – John Howard explained his “vision” (the paper’s use of this word suggests that the…