Robert Fisk, in the Palestine Chronicle, discusses the similarities and differences between the war against Iraq and the 1990s battle in Bosnia: “Bosnia was in Europe, so eventually, we wanted to switch the war off. Iraq is a different matter – we’re in Iraq for oil. If the national product of Iraq was asparagus, we…
Showing all posts tagged Afghanistan
Get out of Afghanistan
As a regular contributor to ABC Unleashed, I was asked to offer a suggestion for this weekend’s 2020 Summit on Australia’s future: Australian troops are causing more harm than good in Afghanistan. Engaged in an unwinnable war against a so-called enemy that enjoys widespread public support and growing anger at NATO’s indiscriminate bombing of civilians,…
Our “noble” Afghan adventure
Early this year, a 10-year-old Afghan named Esrarullah got his first chance in months to see his father, who had been held since last May at Bagram Air Base outside Kabul. It was not in person, but in a video conference call, and the boy was so overcome, he clutched the phone to his ear…
The view from the Murdoch perch
Scott Burchill, Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the School of International & Political Studies at Deakin University, comments on a Murdoch mouthpiece: Quote of the week goes to Liberal Party lunchalot and honorary Republican Party ambassador, Greg Sheridan. According to the Foreign Editor of The Australian, “Rudd will be a tremendous disappointment to the…
Ignoring our own people
Jan Egeland, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, on the world’s greatest problems in 2008: One is still eastern Congo, catastrophically neglected. It was the biggest loss of lives on our watch these last fifteen years: five million people died. Darfur has spread as a conflict and as a catastrophe…
A back rub will win this war
Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling…
Our kind of arms dealer
One side of a sordid story: One of the world’s most notorious arms dealers, suspected of supplying weapons to the Taliban and Al Qaeda and of pouring huge arms shipments into Africa’s civil wars with his own private air fleet, was arrested by Thai authorities in a hotel here Thursday. His capture was prompted by…
Take cover
After winning an Oscar for his documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, Alex Gibney has a new target in his sights: The filmmaker who won an Academy Award Sunday night for best documentary is next turning his attention to the Jack Abramoff scandal, including GOP presidential candidate John McCain’s role in investigating the affair. Alex…