Like his mentor Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein is effectively banned from entering the Palestinian territories by Israeli authorities. This constitutes a very exclusive club: Jews welcome in Ramallah but not in Tel Aviv.
Category: Defence
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Marcus Strom: AUKUS is a mad, bad and dangerous war policy
Anthony Albanese likes to think of himself as a Bob Hawke unifying type. But if he keeps dragging us along this war path, he will be remembered as our Tony Blair. (more…)
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Ukraine and the Minsk Accords
The Ukrainian war could be headed for a dangerous stalement, and at least some of the blame lies with Moscow and its supporters. (more…)
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Crimea and conundrums
Over recent weeks Pearls and Irritations has published two pieces on Crimea. One by David Higginbottom reports his views of the situation in Crimea following a visit there, arguing that there is widespread acceptance of Russian rule. The second, by Jon Richardson, argues that Higginbottom is wrong, that any pro-Russian majority is a result of the influx of ethnic Russians following the deportation of the Tatars in 1944, and that the future of Crimea should be determined principally by its original inhabitants (the reference to terra nullius in the title). (more…)
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Penny Wong’s delusion on nuclear weapons in the South Pacific
Australia’s Pacific neighbours deserve much better from our foreign minister. Australia is becoming a de facto nuclear armed state. (more…)
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Nine things Australians are not being told about the US military takeover
The astonishingly expensive tie-up between Australia and the US military deal is NOT about defence of the country, nor is it about bringing stability to Asia. The opposite is true, and Asians know it. Australians stand to lose a great deal, not just in terms of money, but in the great relationships that they have built with the rest of Asia over many decades, and in the world’s understanding of the Australian character. (more…)
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The US grip on Australia keeps tightening. Can we break free and avoid war?
AUSMIN 2023 has further surrendered sovereignty and tightened the US military grip on Australia. The integration of the ADF with the US military, insertion of US intelligence staff in our defence intelligence organisation and the increased military presence of the US including command facilities in Australia has locked us into any war plans of the United States and made us a launching pad for their wars. The US grip on Australia must be broken to give us independence and a peaceful future. (more…)
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Vale sovereignty “Combined Intelligence Centre – Australia”
In his recent comprehensive P&I article ( “Abandoned sovereignty: Australia’s intelligence function colonised by US”) Mike Scrafton has raised serious concerns about Defence Minister Marles’ announcement at the recent AUSMIN talks of the creation of “Combined Intelligence Centre – Australia” within our Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) by 2024. (more…)
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AUSMIN death knell for diplomacy
The AUSMIN talks confirmed Australia’s status as a client state of the United States. Its shift has taken years but this is a significant change from the previous status of a friend, or ally, because it hands a significant slice of Australian sovereignty to a foreign power. The degree of military integration foreshadowed by Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and enthusiastically endorsed by Australia’s Defence Minister Richard Marles suggests that future decisions around conflicts in the region will be made by America and rubber stamped by Australia. (more…)
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US post-9/11 wars caused 4.5 million deaths, displaced 38-60 million people, study shows
Wars the US waged in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan following September 11, 2001 caused at least 4.5 million deaths and displaced 38 to 60 million people, with 7.6 million children starving today, according to studies by Brown University. (more…)
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If everybody’s going to join NATO, then why have the United Nations?
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) held its annual summit on 11–12 July in Vilnius, Lithuania. The communiqué released after the first day’s proceedings claimed that ‘NATO is a defensive alliance’, a statement that encapsulates why many struggle to grasp its true essence. (more…)
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Why does the Australian Government fear dissent on AUKUS and Palestine?
Desperate to present a united front at the forthcoming Labor conference in Brisbane, the Albanese government looks to prevent delegates voting on the merits of the AUKUS alliance and for recognition of Palestine as a state. On two crucial issues, dissent is feared. An opportunity for informed debate will be lost. Toeing a party line is the priority. On each issue, Australia’s identity as an independent, human rights respecting country is at stake, so why fear debate? (more…)
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The other war: Struggle and suffering in Sudan
It’s been devastating, even if no one’s paying attention. (more…)
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The United States has put Australia back in its place … again
After a rather extraordinary month of steadily escalating defence PR and conspiracy opportunities, Australia was sat on its backside over the weekend and reminded to know its subservient place. (more…)
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AUKUS, Australia and the drive to war
My fear is not that AUKUS SSNs, if they arrive, will be late, ineffective, and obsolete. My fear is that they will arrive and will be effective and even lethal. Because, if that is the case, they will play a part in the drive to a potentially devastating war with China that would be a disaster for the entire world. (more…)
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If not now, when? The ‘fiction’ of the two-state solution
If Palestinian leaders can’t sort out their differences and unite now, when Palestine is at the precipice of disaster, then when? (more…)
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Kits for killing: AUKUS goes to school
While Australians pride themselves, for the most part, in having stricter gun laws than most and not being warlike in disposition, their governing officials have increasingly thought otherwise. War drums are beating. The chatter about acquiring and building armaments is getting more frenzied. As a client state of the US imperium, firmly enmeshed in the security arrangements of the AUKUS agreement, Canberra is becoming increasingly interested in militarising the population and turning the country into a garrison state. (more…)
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Australia agrees to build US missiles; US dismisses Australian concerns about Assange
Two different news stories about US-Australian relations have broken at around the same time, and together they sum up the story of US-Australian relations as a whole. In one we learn that Australia has agreed to manufacture missiles for the United States, and in the other we learn that Washington has told Australia to go suck eggs about its concerns regarding the US persecution of Australian journalist Julian Assange. (more…)
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Contrasting trends in military recruitment between the U.S. and China
The US and China are at the forefront of new AI-imbued military technology development, and are the world’s undoubted leading military powers. But, while the US struggles to recruit highly educated personnel to its military; in China, out of over one hundred thousand recruits in 2022, 80% are tertiary educated, with more than half holding bachelor’s degrees. Will this trend affect the military balance between the US and China as weaponry and battlefield management gets more technology-intensive? (more…)
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Are we on a path to war with China? An interview with David Shoebridge
“One of the most extraordinary moments in politics in the last five years has been watching Anthony Albanese, notionally from the left of Labour, adopt, without any internal democracy within the Labor Party, without any public investigation of it, adopt wholeheartedly Scott Morrison’s AUKUS plans… It’s perhaps one of the most extraordinary betrayals of the public interest and Labor’s historic anti-nuclear platform that I can recall… it’s deeply dangerous, and it is leading us down a pathway to war. ” (more…)
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Campbell’s AUKUS appointment was probably justified
Criticism of Kathryn Campbell’s appointment a year ago to a $900,000 a year job to assist with implementation of the AUKUS agreement is mostly based on hindsight following the adverse comments about her performance in DHS and DSS by the Robodebt Royal Commission. To be fair to those who made that decision, it is important to disentangle the different issues involved and to consider what information was available to them at the time. (more…)
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The star-spangled kangaroo
A new US warship has been ushered into service in Sydney. The ship is called the USS Canberra to honour the military union of the United States and Australia, and, if that’s still too subtle for you, it has a literal star-spangled kangaroo affixed to its side. (more…)
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Seven deadly sins in the Defence industry
If previous defence acquisitions are any guide, the enormous cost of nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy will almost certainly escalate well beyond the estimated but un-itemised initial price of $A368 billion. The record of corruption of the two US submarine builders suggests that the project will also probably suffer from mismanagement. The final bill is likely to be astronomical. (more…)
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Leaders still long to entice Nato Eastward
From Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO cast its eyes east to the Ukraine. For the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, there was a desire to look even further east beyond the Ukraine. He, some NATO members and invited guests, remain undeterred in their desire to bring NATO into Asia. (more…)
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Global NATO – bringing extra danger to our neighbourhood
On the eve of the Vilnius summit Foreign Affairs published an article by long term, and recently reappointed, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg entitled ‘A Stronger NATO for a More Dangerous World: What the Alliance Must Do in Vilnius—and Beyond’. Foreign Affairs is the bible of the American foreign policy establishment, being the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and NATO is a major instrument of US power, so the article is significant. That does not mean it should be taken literally; it is a travesty that distorts and inverts reality in a way that would leave Orwell bemused. Nevertheless what Stoltenberg says here, the way he says it, and what he omits deserve careful scrutiny. (more…)
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The USS Canberra: A crass PR stunt
The commissioning of the new USS Canberra in Sydney amid accompanying fanfare and blanket Australian media coverage provided ample testimony to the extent that we are increasingly being taken for granted by the US civil and military leadership. (more…)
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AUKUS dissent won’t prevail at ALP conference
An attempt by a branch of the ACT Labor Party to protest the tripartite AUKUS security pact was blocked over the weekend in what members believe is a consequence of Anthony Albanese wanting to quell dissent on the issue, writes Phillip Coorey in the Australian Financial Review (more…)
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The empire knows it’s pouring Ukrainian blood into an unwinnable proxy war
In a new article titled “Ukraine’s Lack of Weaponry and Training Risks Stalemate in Fight With Russia,” The Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Michaels reports that western officials knew Ukrainian forces didn’t have the weapons and training necessary to succeed in their highly touted counteroffensive which was launched last month. (more…)
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The US Studies Centre: Washington’s mole in plain sight
Espionage, surveillance and monitoring in a society require guile, judiciousness, and care. Secrecy matters. Inserted agents assume roles for years as friends even as they are purloining your secrets. They are the charming thespians of treachery. (more…)
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Australian War Memorial – Leave those kids alone
Any activity trying to create an inherent ‘goodness’ about engaging in warfare is in no way an admirable activity. Creating game-play interactives of real-life devastation of civilians that invite children to ‘compete’ is reprehensible. Doing so with no realistic acknowledgement of the human cost is utterly, deeply contemptible. (more…)