Manifest Destiny, now more commonly called American Exceptionalism is a traditional and widespread view in the US. American views of its relationship with the world vary from isolationism to leadership, but the underlying base is always that the US is something special. While some may be more subtle than others, how many Americans could accept Continue reading »
Defence and Security
The United States, having learnt nothing from the 20th Century, is, quite characteristically, spoiling for a fight with one of the great success stories of our time, China, on the basis of nothing more than a doltishly unfounded fear of this success and an ever so faintly emerging spectre of American fragility. A fragility across Continue reading »
‘New era for alliance’ headlined the right wing Japan Times after the Japan-US summit talks in Washington this week between President Biden and Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida.. But not everyone was so enthused. Moscow repeated its warnings going back to 1960 that it could not sign a formal end to World War Two if Continue reading »
On Easter Saturday, a friend and I drove down to Mullumbimby to hear Afghan war crimes whistleblower David McBride speaking at the Mullumbimby RSL. The previous Monday, I had watched the Four Corners program about David McBride, called Rules of Engagement. My friend hadn’t seen it, so we listened to it on the iPhone as Continue reading »
The whole world is experiencing an “escalation to extremes” because we imitate each other to a profound degree. We should choose our models more carefully. There are over 100 million people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes and over 36 million of these are seeking refuge in other countries. We are in the Continue reading »
A complaint concerning the Australian Signals Directorate to the Inspector General of Security and Intelligence. As a signatory to the 1949 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide Australia has an obligation to prevent genocide (Article I) and an obligation not to be complicit in genocide (Article III(e)). Following the International Court of Justice Continue reading »
In 1942, a Finnish sound engineer Thor Damen, secretly recorded 11 minutes of a conversation between Finland’s Commander-in-Chief, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim and Adolf Hitler, without the latter’s knowledge. Fighting as allies, both seemed awed and shocked by the Soviet capacity to fight, Hitler exclaiming, “They had the most armaments that people could imagine. Well, if Continue reading »
Richard Tanter stated in Pearls and Irritations on March 21 in regard to my piece on a former Defence Deputy Secretary, Paul Dibb on 14 February, that “Media self-censorship, and acceptance – if not cultivation – of a mystique of impenetrable opacity about Pine Gap has facilitated public acceptance of government silence, misdirection and mendacity Continue reading »
A not-so-happy anniversary: Usually, a first anniversary is an occasion for all-round rejoicing and back-slapping. So, it was to be expected that there’d be universal self-congratulation on the first anniversary of Anthony Albanese’s, Rishi Sunak’s and Joe Biden’s announcement on 13 March 2023 that Australia would purchase nuclear-powered attack-class submarines from the US as part Continue reading »
Brian Toohey’s article ‘Untruths, the CIA, and Whitlam’s dismissal’, (Pearls and Irritations, 14 February 2024), begins by dismissing as ‘astonishing’ a recent ASPI article by former Defence Deputy Secretary Paul Dibb on ‘Kissinger’s role in avoiding nuclear war, and the key part Australia played’ – ‘astonishing because it is riddled with major errors.’ The key Continue reading »