‘In today’s America there appear to be several articles of faith on which people will brook no debate: One is that the U.S. military, the most destructive organizational force in human history, is capable of crushing any and all resistance. This faith is, of course, false. U.S. forces in the Middle East are failing not due to a shortage of destructive might, but because of the limits imposed by the moral level of action.

‘An article in a leading Norwegian newspaper last weekend lambasted Israel and Judaism and said Israel has lost its right to exist in its present form.

Entitled "God's chosen people," the article by author Jostein Gaarder in Aftenposten is raising a storm in Norway. Gaarder, author of the book "Sophie's World," links the Israel Defense Forces' acts in Lebanon to Jewish history and foresees the coming dismantling of the state as it exists today, with the Jews becoming refugees.

‘George W. Bush knows how to get Generals to concur with his disastrous plans: he fires all that disagree and promotes the numbskulls who agree. When Bush wanted to invade Iraq, General Shinseki warned that it would require a few hundred thousand troops ... not to win the war, but rather to secure the peace. Bush and his people -- Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz chief among them -- disagreed. They fired Shinseki and, of course, we all know now that the General knew exactly what he was talking about and that the President and his people were fools.

‘Embattled wheat exporter AWB has been dealt another blow, with Iraqi citizens seeking massive damages from the company for its role in the oil-for-food kickbacks scandal.

A civil lawsuit, filed in a US court today on behalf of northern Iraqi people, seeks $255 million in damages from AWB in conjunction with action against European bank BNP Paribas.

from the courier mail …..

By Terry Sweetman

December 15

‘Downer no longer has anything to contribute.

‘Slush funds, oil sheiks, prostitutes, Swiss banks, kickbacks, blackmail, bagmen, arms deals, war plans, climbdowns, big lies and Dick Cheney - it's a scandal that has it all, corruption and cowardice at the highest levels, a festering canker at the very heart of world politics, where the War on Terror meets the slaughter in Iraq. Yet chances are you've never heard about it - even though it happened just a few days ago. The fog of war profiteering, it seems, is just as thick as the fog of war.

from The Nation …..

‘Jimmy Carter, by publishing his book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, walked straight into the buzz saw that is the Israel lobby. Among the vitriolic attacks on the former President was the claim by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, that Carter is "outrageous" and "bigoted" and that his book raises "the old canard and conspiracy theory of Jewish control of the media, Congress, and the U.S. government." Many Democratic Party leaders, anxious to keep the Israel lobby's money and support, have hotfooted it out the door, with incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing that Carter "does not speak for the Democratic Party on Israel."

‘I'm fascinated when ideas that are almost universally embraced as true are also wrong.

Consider the following example, from a New York Times story about Iraq's proposed oil law:

from The Guardian

Blair blames Iran for Middle East conflicts

Wednesday December 20, 2006 

‘The most thoroughly damning aspect of the Bush administration's approach to Iraq - that is, if you discount the fraudulent rationale for launching the invasion, the incompetent handling of the occupation, and the total lack of an exit strategy - has been the wholesale politicization and manipulation of facts and events, all in the name of generating and retaining public support for the war.

steven chaytor - nsw labor MP - charged with assault - innocent unless proven guilty - remains in parliament

from the lovely ABC

Costello backs tax ruling on AWB

‘Everybody living in the United Kingdom, including foreigners, will be required to have their biometric details recorded under the government's identity card scheme, it emerged yesterday.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, announced that all UK residents, whether or not they were British citizens, would be forced to have their irises scanned and their fingerprints taken for the national database.