The following occurred to me as an obvious re-write of a childhood favourite flowing on from our Foreign Minister’s helpful explanation of the fine distinction between "withdrawal" and "reducing troop numbers".  Any accompanying dance action should be performed in fish-net stockings.
go to full story…

When Kevin Rudd was assailed by John Howard the other week in parliament over his Iraq position and the danger of a premature withdrawal, he asked a very simple question, one which defenders of the war have not been able to answer and seem to assidiously avoid – “what is your strategy for winning this war?” We might also add an addendum to this, “and how will you know when it is won?” A number of significant moments and signposts have been passed since 2003 – each primed as the next big watershed moment which would see the deteriorating situation in Iraq turn the corner. The invasion, the elections, the siege of Fallujah, the training of military personnel – the checklist keeps growing while the goalposts keep receding.
go to full story…

Some startling figures about popular attitudes in America to the Iraq war.
go to full story…

Over the last weeks, we’ve heard a lot in Australia about Nick Cohen, the ‘decent’ Leftist who denounces the rest of us for, like, saying that the US-led invasion war would be a human catastrophe of unprecedented proportion (gosh, do we have egg all over our faces about that or what!).
go to full story…

Slate reports on another of those my-God-the-man’s-an-utter-buffoon George W. Bush moments. According to a new book by Andrew Cockburn, in 2004 (that’s
more than a year after the Iraq invasion), Bush junior visited Bush senior and asked his Dad: ‘What’s a neo-con?’ The entire world had been consumed by debates about the Project for a New American Century and the rationale behind the Iraq war but the President of the United States had, it seems, remained blithely indifferent to the whole business.
go to full story…

In the business section of today’s Age, and presumably SMH, Ross Gittins summarises what industrial relations expert David Peetz has found after analysing the first results of the new IR system. Very interesting stuff.
go to full story…

A free public seminar series exploring the role of cultural action and the arts in movements for social change.

Thursday 1 March, 5.30-7.30pm
Graphic Design

Thursday 8 March, 5.30-7.30pm
Music

Thursday 15 March, 5.30-7.30pm
Film

Thursday 22 March, 5.30-7.30pm
Theatre

Thursday 29 March, 5.30-7.30pm
New Media

Further information from the RMIT Community Advocacy Unit – http://advocacy.tce.rmit.edu.au
go to full story…

Stop the War Coalition’s “Troops Out” 4th anniversary of the occupation of Iraq


This date marks the 4th anniversary of the US led illegal war and
ongoing occupation of Iraq and it is to be commemorated as a worldwide
day of action. The action is being supported in the US by Act Now to
Stop War & End Racism (ANSWER) (http://www.internationalanswer.org)

The demonstration will start at 12:30 on Saturday March 17 outside the State Library on Swanston St in Melbourne.

If you have any comments or can assist further in making this event a success please contact:

Marcus Greville on 0406 965-896 or
Mick Armstrong on 0413932435.

Vigil in support of David Hicks – please circulate widely


It’s been more than five years since the first hooded, shackled men
were brought to the U.S. prison at Guantánamo and although not a single
prisoner has been tried or convicted of any crime, more than 400 still
remain, including Australia’s David Hicks.

The Australian
government is under increasing pressure to act on David Hicks, and we
need to make sure that we maintain that pressure. That why we’re
holding a vigil outside the Department of Foreign Affairs, every
Friday, until David is brought home.

We need as many people
as possible to join us. Please spare two hours per week to attend the
vigil and to help us try to get David out of Guantánamo.


Previous supporters of such actions have included: Greens Senator Bob
Brown, Brian Walters from Liberty Victoria, Shadow Attorney-General
Kelvin Thomson, civil libertarian lawyer Rob Stary, textile union
official Michelle O’Neill, Democrats leader Lyn Allison, Greens MLC
Colleen Hartland, and many more. We hope to have many more speakers at
upcoming vigils, including Terry Hicks.

VIGIL FOR DAVID
Every Friday, 12 noon to 1pm
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Casselden Place (corner of Lonsdale & Spring Streets), Melbourne.

For more information, visit http://www.civilrightsdefence.org
or call 0422 802 984

Jeff Sparrow and Hall Greenland in conversation about Communism: A Love Story
go to full story…

"Something happened on 11 September 2001 that caused the West to lose its moral bearings in a way that led government machines, and those that work in them, to move a significant way down the path of contempt for individuals. The Nazis went much further down that path, but it is undeniably the same one."
go to full story…

Greg Sheridan worries that the David Hicks case might involve a monstrous injustice. Not, of course, an injustice to David Hicks. No, gentle reader, the real danger lies in the prospect that Hicks might escape too lightly, after only five years locked down in a Guantanamo cage, without trial or visits or human contact.

Oh, Sheridan concedes that the Americans might have bungled the process just a tad. Yet, as in Iraq, the fault lies not with the plan but its execution. Just as Donald Runmsfeld botched a perfectly good invasion, he also screwed up a Jim Dandy kidnapping.
go to full story…

Sol Salbe sent around the editorial from tomorrow’s Forward where we learn of ‘the recent discovery that the family of Anne Frank had unsuccessfully attempted to obtain an American visa before being captured by the Nazis’. In response, NY Democratic Rep. Steve Israel proposes that Anne Frank be awarded posthumous honourary American citizenship!
go to full story…

Mark Steele in today’s Independent:
go to full story…

Last Wednesday US president Bush said
go to full story…