A former high-ranking United States defence official says Australian troops could be in Afghanistan for the next 30 years.

Australia's strategy in the country has been thrust back into the spotlight this week with the deaths of two Australian Army engineers in Uruzgan province.

Defence Minister John Faulkner says Australian troops are likely to be in Afghanistan for the next three to five years as part of the US-led effort against a resurgent Taliban.

But former US strategic analyst Daniel Ellsberg has warned that the war is not even half-way through.

Mr Ellsberg exposed how four successive US adminstrations lied to the public about the Vietnam War when he leaked the top-secret 'Pentagon Papers' to the New York Times in 1971.

"For Australian troops I think that three to five years is not just a conservative estimate, it's totally foolish," he told Radio National this morning.

"The war will no more be over in three to five years than it is right now.

"If Australians are committed to supporting this strategy they can figure on 10, 20 and 30 years."

Mr Ellsberg says the recent deployment of 30,000 US troops is unlikely to be the last such deployment.

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Meanwhile at the Kabul kingdom kastle Kaffé:

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President Hamid Karzai has lost faith in the US strategy in Afghanistan and is increasingly looking to Pakistan to end the insurgency, according to those close to Afghanistan's former head of intelligence services.

Amrullah Saleh, who resigned last weekend, believes the president lost confidence some time ago in the ability of Nato forces to defeat the Taliban.

As head of the National Directorate of Security, Saleh was highly regarded in western circles. He has said little about why he quit, other than that the Taliban attack on last week's peace jirga or assembly in Kabul was for him the "tipping point"; the interior minister, Hanif Atmar, also quit, and their resignations were accepted by Karzai.

Privately Saleh has told aides he believes Karzai's approach is dangerously out of step with the strategy of his western backers. "There came a time when [Karzai] lost his confidence in the capability of the coalition or even his own government [to protect] this country," a key aide told the Guardian.

Saleh believes Karzai has long thought this, but his views were crystallised in the aftermath of last year's election when millions of votes were found to be fraudulent; Karzai blamed the US, UK and United Nations for the fraud.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/09/afghanistan-taliban-us-hamid-karzai

The news that Taliban fighters have hanged a seven-year-old boy in Helmand province, after accusing him of passing information to foreign soldiers, is the most graphic in a catalogue of horrors emanating from Afghanistan this month.

Local Afghan civilians and Nato troops are both suffering as politicians and military leaders in London, Washington and Kabul ponder where to go from here.

The hanging took place on Tuesday in the Sangin district of Helmand, according to a statement from the provincial governor's office. The boy, who has not yet been named, was apparently abducted by Taliban fighters from the village of Heratyan and then hanged in another village, Salarwi.

The boy's murder - which the Taliban has denied - was followed yesterday by the killing of 39 people in a suicide bomb attack on a wedding party in the neighbouring province of Kandahar.

No group has yet taken responsibility for the attack, but Kandahar is a Taliban stronghold and is set to be the scene of a major Nato-led operation this summer. The "massive" bomb blast also injured more than 70 people, including the groom.

Far north in Sar-e-Pul province, there are fears - but, again, no proof - that the Taliban, who are opposed to female education, have launched a new offensive to scare girls from attending school. Twenty schoolgirls have been taken to hospital after falling ill - and it is suspected that they were poisoned. Several group poisonings have been reported in girls' schools this year.

For the military, June has also proved to be a deadly month. A total of 29 Nato troops have been killed since June 1, ten of them on Monday making it the deadliest day for the allied forces in seven months.

The Media.  That is a word that inspires contempt in me.

Originally intended to be of non-political, non-biased and "facts justified" it has developed into a political weapon for only one group - the rich and the powerful.

As Australia becomes more and more educated and profession/trade trained - as opposed to the Menzies/Howard years - the main stream media continues to abuse the privileges that this nation has allowed them.

I have often railed against the Murdoch media claiming the title of The Australian.  Perhaps our administrators could enlighten me as to who gave them that right?  As a returned serviceman I resent that claim.

The American method of developing profit-making enterprises is to firstly ensure that the style of their propaganda is either covered by legislation or acceptable to the government of the day.  The very supply of money to the greedy – an unprincipled act that seems to rule the US completely since 9/11.

I just cannot come to terms with the fact that the foreign owned “Australian” is as diametrically opposed to that title as any fascist organization could be. 

Call it Zionist but NEVER call it Australian.  If an Australian organization wanted to break into the US media, and called itself the Heart of America would that be permitted?  Why then do we allow an obviously anti-Australian media mogul to blatantly interfere with the politics of their host nation and claim The Heart of the Nation?

The abuse of power exhibited without restraint by Murdoch's subversive “opinions”, all over Australia, is as unspeakable and as dangerous as a WW II fifth column that as a child I remember.

How much misinformation is foisted on people in a “democracy” by governments depending on the power of the press to keep them there – or to remove them if they do not follow the “Town Cryer”? Who elects whom?

The more things change the more they stay the same.  The only thing consistent is change itself.  There is an adage for everything isn’t there?

Nevertheless, who gave the Murdochracy the right to claim the “Heart of the nation”?  And more importantly – can we legally challenge that obvious misnomer? Some day, these morons will be hated as they should be.

God Bless Australia and may our people learn some truth before the next War of the Classes in the federal election.  NE OUBLIE.

IF the people of every "democracy" is as subject to political bias in its media as Australia, one could consider that to be a world-wide conspiracy?

Let us not forget that the all powerful media in "democracies" have poo-pooed the idea of any Cartels or Monopolies even existing nor the political aspirations of the multi-national (and apparently coalescing) demand for the ever diminishing resources of our planet - while at the same time avoiding, as Abbott and his mob do, the price this will inevitably cost us all.

We currently have the obscene power of persuasion in the media being used to turf out our elected government.  This $100 million dollars from the foreign Mining exploiters, which will go to the Murdoch plus Corporations for the oh so painfully obvious crap in the Character Assassination of another of our progressive Prime Ministers, is a lesson for us to learn and learn now.

If the young voters wish to have an influence in the future of our nation, then they should realize that most of them (as have the Liberals in Parliament) been given the opportunity for better education by the Labor Parties of previous governments, especially Whitlam.

As an observation – the method of the powers that be in the US is that when they are stuck with a President for the people, like Lincoln, Kennedy etc,  then the best way to overcome that problem is to assassinate them.

Hopefully, forums like this will allow at least some of our people to realize that democracy is merely a marketing ploy and while it is controlled by the US/Zionist/British alliance, and is able to sufficiently influence the voting public to maintain that superiority, then our elected leaders may be lucky just join the “passing parade” and live “what might have been”, like Gough Whitlam, and to finish in a nursing home, while the famous tax dodger Kerry Packer was given a taxpayer’s funded State funeral by the Howard "New Order". 

Gough Whitlam, the icon of Australian independence and the architect of the “Lucky Country” was vilified (along with his family and their history) by the fascist Packer media because he dared to improve the education of the less than affluent of our population.

The days of thinking (without reasoning) that what is in the media MUST be true has so often proven to be absolute nonsense and our people are faced with the conundrum of what is true?

As a basic guide, I recommend toying with the idea that, when the Corporations’ media tells you your government is “Communist” then you should know that is not on the payroll of the Corporations.

God Bless Australia and Gough Whitlam and all of those who deserve to have a better Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

The United States and Canada have welcomed Israel's move to set up an independent public commission into last month's deadly raids on a flotilla of aid ships that killed nine people.

Israel has repeatedly rejected calls for an international panel to investigate the raids on May 31 and has appointed retired Supreme Court judge Yaakov Tirkel to head the inquiry.

But the Israeli government has agreed to include two foreign observers in its own independent public commission - Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble and a former Canadian judge advocate general.

The Israeli government is expected to vote on the inquiry today, although Israel is yet to announce any terms of reference.

The US has welcomed the move, but says the public commission must carry out its work promptly.

Canada says it supports an impartial, credible and transparent investigation into what happened on board the ships.

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No inquiry will be impartial, transparent and credible unless ALL the footage taken by people on board the ships is released. full stop. end of story. nothing to add. say no more. wink wink... see toon at top... 

From Al Jazeera

Over one hour of unedited, uncensored video from Israel’s raid on the Mavi Marmara Gaza Flotilla is now in the public domain, thanks to the efforts of Brazilian filmmaker Iara Lee.

Lee posted the video on the website Cultures of Resistance, the umbrella advocacy organisation housing her media production company, Caipirinha Foundation.

Lee, who has lived in the United States for many years, screened the video for journalists on Thursday at the United Nations, but has now posted the raw video online for viewing by anybody who is interested.

Lee was on the Mavi Marmara with a film crew shooting a documentary about the voyage.

She says after the raid, Israeli soldiers confiscated thousands of dollars of her video equipment and media, but that she smuggled out the images contained on a memory card hidden underneath her clothes.

Lee wrote an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle titled ‘What’s happening to us is happening in Gaza.’

Here is Lee's video, posted on You Tube, for you to judge for yourself:

http://vimeo.com/12429821

I can say with certainty that my respect for the Jewish people and their past, whether that was factually true or a method (like Christianity) of providing a "reason" for our being, in my opinion, was comforting in my youth. 

Things on the political level were so easy to accept when the "they and we" propaganda was prevalent in Australia and Europe.  Both sides had the story that they were "right" and the other people were "wrong" - politically?  Or was there a touch of religious bias?

Nevertheless, my tiresome story concerns the method of human communication and the ability to anticipate the terrors of war for the very sake of unnecessary cruelty.

I can relate the actions of the Zionists of occupied Palestine to those of all other master races of history which, because their doctrine is unsustainable, they will collapse.  And thanks to all of the Gods for that.

By what justified purpose does the illegal state of "Israel" continue to openly rewrite history and to give credence to the age old "might is right" attitude of all previous empires?  I don't believe that Barak Obama can restore any dignity in that US “nation” that the Bush/Cheney criminals have created.

Having said that - then the spearhead of the US destabilizing of the Middle East chaos - the illegal Zionists - is a contradiction of everything the US has claimed to defend. Their trust must be by common sense, the same as the monster that they have created.

The actions of the Jewish religion – and I highlight this opinion – is very much different to the Holocaust survivors or the massive influx of Jewish immigrants to Palestine in the latter years of WW II.

Does all of the world societies prosper by Jewish Lobbies or are they subdued?  Does a Goldman Sachs function, mostly immorally, benefit any nation that allow their contribution to “Democratic Economies”? Is this predominantly Jewish?

In my so far basic opinion, and I am still dissatisfied, is that the unholy US/Zionist alliance was organized by the US and to a lesser extent, the UK, and their offspring are “suffering the sins of the Fathers”?

God Bless Australia and protect us from the Zionists because, no one else will. NE OUBLIE.

Israel agreed today to ease its land blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, hoping to quell growing international criticism following a deadly sea raid.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released few details about the changes in its three-year-old blockade, and it was not clear whether any firm decisions had been made.

The only item singled out in its statement was a plan to allow in desperately needed construction materials for civilian projects, but only under international supervision.

Israel has barely allowed in materials like cement and steel, arguing that Hamas militants could use them to build weapons and fortifications. That policy has prevented Gaza from rebuilding after Israel's fierce war in the territory last year.

There was no mention in the statement of any change in other damaging aspects of the blockade, like bans on exports or allowing in raw materials used in industrial production.

Israel's naval blockade will also remain in force. The statement noted that Israel would "continue existing security procedures to prevent the inflow of weapons and war materiel." Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that if the naval closure is lifted, Hamas would turn Gaza into an "Iranian port."

Israel has been scrambling to find ways to ease the blockade since a May 31 raid on a blockade-busting flotilla turned deadly. The deaths of nine Turkish activists on board one of the ships drew international attention to the blockade and provoked much anger against Israel worldwide.

Israeli naval commandos said they were forced to open fire after they were attacked by a violent mob of activists on board the ship. The activists say they acted in self-defense.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-says-it-will-ease-gaza-land-blockade-2002907.html

Israeli navy vessels are shadowing a Libyan-chartered ship carrying aid for Gaza, in defiance of the blockade, amid confusion about its final destination.

The organisers of the shipment, the Gaddafi Foundation, insist the Moldovan-flagged Amalthea is ignoring a warning from Israel to change course

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off course!... see toon at top...