Is the British rule that massive aid to poor countries can mostly come after a disastrous Western invasion and occupation? Britain is to double to …£3.8bn the amount of aid money spent on war-torn countries such as Afghanistan, raising fears among charities that national security priorities will determine development spending. As David Cameron warned that…
Back on ABC TV News24 talking Afghanistan, drugs policy and 9/11
I appeared again last night on ABC TV News 24 The Drum with former politician Kerry Chikarovski and ABC journalist Chris Uhlmann (previous appearances here). The show is available here. We discussed Australia’s role in Afghanistan and whether the country should maintain troops there. It appears that the US alliance and “national security” reasons are…
US TV viewers get small taste of Zionist madness
America’s 60 Minutes ventured into East Jerusalem last weekend and offered insulated foreigners what the West is funding; racist discrimination in the name of Judaism:
Aussie Zionist lobby comically tries to help clueless union
While growing numbers of global unions are showing solidarity with Palestinians calling for BDS, a few groups prefer to ignore the elephant in the room; the occupation. How to manage it? It doesn’t exist. History will record who stood tall against oppression and who equivocated: An Australian version of the British organisation, Trade Unions For…
Whatever you do, don’t look “Muslim” Obama
The sad but predictable tale of Barack Obama giving in to Islamophobia, again (via Ali Abunimah): US President Barack Obama has ruled out a visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, sacred to Sikhs, because Obama does not want to wear the head-covering that is required as a sign of respect in case it makes…
The slow curse of disaster capitalism covers the world
I recently wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald about the ever-increasing arrival of the Shock Doctrine in Australia and Asia-Pacific. Privatisation running riot. George Monbiot writes about the same problems facing Britain: We’ve been staring at the wrong list. In an effort to guess what will hit us tomorrow, we’ve been trying to understand the…
Just another day of racism in Israel
One: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his cabinet needed more time to decide when and how to dismantle certain illegal West Bank outposts, due to the “political implications” involved. The government “needs time to consider its priorities” with regard to these outposts, Netanyahu said ahead of a High Court of Justice deliberation on…
If the Taliban can be engaged, why not the other “terrorists”?
So Richard Barrett, the coordinator of the United Nations Al Qaeda-Taliban monitoring team, thinks it’s time to “talk to the Taliban.” Guess the next major piece in the New York Times will be that Israel should talk to Hamas, Hizbollah and Iran.
So many innocent drone victims
Remind me who the terrorists are again? New information on the Central Intelligence Agency’s campaign of drone strikes in northwest Pakistan directly contradicts the image the Barack Obama administration and the CIA have sought to establish in the news media of a program based on highly accurate targeting that is effective in disrupting al-Qaeda’s terrorist…