Monday 23rd of December 2024
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Written Under A full Moon.

Why are Britain and Australia both planning their own missile shields when they have the nuclear Hadrian's Wall being built by the Americans? I believe the apparent diplomatic message being sent to the Bush Administration, that the senior members of the Coalition Of The Willing are providing themselves with opportunities to disengage if necessary belies the enactment of another scene in the profit-making script.

Would you be surprised if the whole missile sales plan was cooked up by a defence corporation's psych department? After watching the way that Raytheon and Halliburton have gorged themselves on Adelaide the leak of a revealing memo wouldn't surprise me in the least. Australian Defence Minister Hill, now Australian Ambassador to the United Nations, was either lying or brainwashed when he told us Son Of Star Wars was all we'd ever need. Now new Defence Minister Nelson say that the system was the reason we needed extra missile launchers. This all screams used car salesmanship.

Raytheon have the rockets that can do the job. The best thing about their missiles I can see is that they're already integrally compatable with the Aegis system, and so will be launchable at the press of Cheney's finger. I wouldn't be suprised if Hill and Nelson pick up some extremely lucrative board positions as thankyous, in the same manner that Ambassador Thawley did for hushing up the AWB debacle in the US. Stick to the script boy, and you'll do fine.

Tony Blair's announcement today to continue with their Trident missile system has been a goodsend for Cheney's Poms. The KBR controlled Devenport dockyard has just created a worshop for refitting the Tridents. How psychic was that? I'm sure the shareholders of the newly floated KBR will love the dividend, too!

Blair stuck to the script. Cheney did well Everyone wins. Get the message Mr Howard? I'm sure you got it nine years ago when the US VP came to Australia in his capacity as Halliburton CEO.

Perhaps someone in the Liberal party had better knock on wood after Mr Downers assertation on Lateline tonight that attacks on his government were "as rubber bullets to a sherman tank." Don't you mean M1A! Abrams? Anyway I doubt anyone from Raytheon or Halliburton wrote that one.

 

Bless the children

What are the two greatest Christian nations - US and UK - up to for Xmas?

From US Predicts Bumper Year in Arms Sales:
... He said Saudi Arabia, for instance, was talking to the United States about shore-hugging littoral combat ships that could cost billions of dollars in coming years.
The ships were of particular interest to the Saudi Navy's Eastern Fleet "that would first confront Iranian aggression if there is any." The Eastern Fleet also was largely responsible for protecting Saudi oil infrastructure in the Gulf, Kohler said. ...
From Forking out for Trident:
... It is believed that this is the first time the case for "nuclear strategic ambiguity" has been put so clearly. The fear must be that if Britain's strategic bluff is called, the weapon would be used - particularly by a prime minister who has a sense of divine mission. Not so much a deterrent, Trident and son of Trident are becoming offensive weapons of war.
Splashing out such huge sums on big-buck prestige projects like Trident, the aircraft carriers and the Typhoon Eurofighter aircraft, makes a nuclear counter strike more, rather than less, likely. Correspondingly, all three armed services have been starved of the funds and resources needed for their present commitments and operations.
A panel of former defence chiefs and analysts has concluded that the army will not be able to maintain operations in Iraq and Afghanistan at their present level without improved equipment and more funds. And there is every chance now that the war in Afghanistan is about to expand dramatically as the Taliban recruits thousands across northern Pakistan for a major offensive across southern Afghanistan. ...

From Afghanistan Opium Production At Record High In 2006:
... Opium cultivation was outlawed during Taliban rule in the late 1990s and was nearly eliminated by 2001. After the overthrow of the Taliban government by U.S. forces in the fall of that year, the Bush administration said that keeping a lid on production was among its highest priorities. But corruption and alliances formed by Washington and the Afghan government with anti-Taliban tribal chieftains, some of whom are believed to be deeply involved in the trade, undercut the effort. ...

From As Rice's Iran strategy fizzles, Cheney waits:
... According to an article by the neo-conservative Lawrence F Kaplan in The New Republic on October 2, aides to Cheney have been convinced from the beginning that Rice's Iran strategy would not be an obstacle to their own plans because they knew it would fail.
The aides to Cheney insisted that the administration was not yet prepared politically for a shift to the military track, according to Kaplan. But once Rice's diplomatic effort becomes a highly visible failure, Cheney and his allies in the administration are poised to begin the process of ratcheting up pressure on Bush to begin the political planning for an eventual military attack on Iran. ...

Uncle Dick Cheney is Father Christmas to the kiddies of the world.

From Paul Cummins: Cheap Children:
... What is desperately needed in education are teachers and principals committed to engaging the students and schools in wild debate and discussion on research and action programs dealing with the critical issues of our times. Currently, we bore our children and youths to death and then wonder why they drop out in droves. I believe if we confronted issues of life-and-death importance, our students would become engaged in their own education. How else are we to save our planet and ourselves if the young do not gain a conscious, passionate desire to act and to lead? ...

From Row erupts over Israeli textbooks:
... Currently, schoolbooks show Israel's territorial conquests in the 1967 war - the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights - as part of Israel. ...

From Iran to host meeting on Holocaust:
... He said the idea of a Holocaust conference had first been proposed by President Ahmadinejad, and the first question to be posed was - did the Holocaust actually happen or not?
If it did happen, he added, then the next question to be discussed at the conference was how many Jews were killed - and why were the Palestinians suffering today because of what happened in Europe 50 years ago? ...

Ah! So that's why history is so important?