’Could I just start by saying how much I welcome the in-principle agreement that has come out of the six-power discussions concerning North Korea.  It's a very significant development, it is an in-principle agreement and our welcome must be cautious.  But it's a huge step forward from where we were and if the in-principle agreement is translated into a reassuring, detailed outcome then we can look back on it as having been a significant step back from what was a very dangerous situation not only for our own region but for the entire world. 

Now North Korea has broken agreements in the past and we must therefore be cautious, but after a lot of discussion this is a very positive development. I congratulate all of those involved for the patient diplomacy and I look forward to the in-principle agreement now being translated into a detailed arrangement for the future.’

Of course, in keeping with his cricket values, our wittle woodrow wilson award winner found time to sledge the evil North Koreans, but not enough time to remind us that it was actually the Bush administration that broke the Agreed Framework agreement with North Korea in January 2001, thereby denying it the light-water power reactors & heavy fuel oil critical to its economy & forcing it to resume its previously suspended nuclear programs.

Another great spin attack by our prime spamster …..

Oh Yeah, That!

Mark Fiore

‘The invasion of Iraq was the “greatest strategic disaster in United States history,

From the BBC

Iraq orders 'corruption' arrests

Iraq issues warrants against 27 top officials from the US-backed government accused of $1bn embezzlement

Most of the money came from substardard equipment (to fight the war on insurgents).... paid at premium prices

A mug's game
Today (26/10/05) the SMH had a semi-crook study of “who wants to be a millionaire

Bill Moyers: Finding Justice In Charity

<>[...] The hardest thing about philanthropy, I believe, is the effort to reconcile its profound inner tensions. It's a curious thing: Americans worship wealth; just about everybody wants to be rich. But as Michael Lerner, a leading philanthropic adviser, reminds us, people who inherit great wealth often suffer an agony as difficult as what afflicts those who struggle with the more common conditions of life. The angst can be particularly exquisite in our culture, he says, because those who suffer from wealth can find almost no sympathy outside the direct circle of family or peers. Let's face it, this is a deeply contested activity that can even put you in a relationship of psychic toxicity with those you want to help. I am not at all surprised that John D. Rockefeller thought it was harder to give money away than to earn it. But when you get it right - when you have squared your expectations and your reach and know as only you can know that what you have done matters - it can be sweet. [...]

... 

[...] My own father used to reminisce about growing up on the Red River, between Oklahoma and Texas. He was 14 when his own father died during the flu epidemic in 1918. Neighbors washed my grandfather's body, neighbors dug his grave and neighbors laid him in the earth. Through the years, my father was one of several men in our church who took turns sitting beside the corpse of a departed friend or fellow congregant. He often drew the midnight shift and would go directly from his vigil to his job. Shortly before his own death, as we sat talking on the front porch, I asked him: "Why did you sit up all night when you had to drive your truck all the next day?" He seemed surprised by the question, as if it had never occurred to him, and then, without hesitation, he answered: "Because it was the thing we did." [...]

‘Britain's involvement in the Iraq war has "partly radicalised & fuelled" the rise of home-grown terrorism, London's former ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, says. 

Iraq War 'Fuelled Terrorism': Ex-British Ambassador