a new day dawns (looks just like the last one)

once again Robert Fisk gets it right, if only more journalists were imbued with his foresight and courage.

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1688889.htm


meanwhile, the death toll inexorably rises:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/death-toll-rises-to-200/2006/07/18/1153166347823.html


further to the right, the desire to expand this war is growing stronger, I predicted that the GW war machine would let a few missiles fly at Esfehan in October 2006 as a good way to boost the GOP chances in the november mid term elections. It is traditional for the incumbent to let loose a volley at whoever is the chosen enemy of the day (or whoever scores highest on the the weekly hitler-meter) espcially if they are flaggin a bit in the polls. Trawling through the mutterings of the american right, diplomacy is a filthy word, where as war is the most beautiful thing that has ever been invented, a one stop cure all for the worlds ills. Fox is non stop in its call for the erradication of iran and syria (war is great for ratings, brilliant visuals and you get to use all those "experts" you employ to comentate as tho it were a game of football) and a thousand right wing pundits are baying of for the blood of innocents.

I recall watching the BBC from my hotel room in Tehran in december, when on came the familar site of one of the biggest dumbass's ever to lead anything, anywhere, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (my fascination with the slow motion train wreck that is US politics worries me), he rejected any attempts at diplomacy, using the shoot first and question the corpses later approach of GW mark 1.01, to call for the immediate bombing of targets in Iran. I saw this as one of the first shots in the escalation in the war of the decline in the GOP poll numbers. Naturally enough the Iranians responded with some dumb ass rhetoric of thier own, seven moths down the track, I can still see the Iranian words being used as though they were spoken in a vacuumm, whereas the American vitriol is forgotten. If the leader of the senate (a position at least, if not more, powerful than that of the Iranian President) can call for the destruction of another country, why cant the other country reply. I know that two wrongs dont make a right, but all countries do have the right to defend themselves (see current bush doctrine on Israel, disregard when applied to Iraq or any country other than Israel).

Sean Hannity “We’ve got to decide: Are we going to be at war with Iran eventually or not?”
The chicken hawk with the raised fingers is obviously just dying to put his NRA membership to good use in meeting foreign people and argue with his life on the line, or maybe he will just cheer from the sidelines as usual and let others do his dying for him.
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for all the reasons why we have no peace and no hope of peace in the middle east, espcially regarding the ocupation of Palestien, the comments pages on my local daily give the usual tit for tat round of ideas, both sides are right as both sides are wrong:

http://blogs.theage.com.au/yoursay/archives/2006/07/the_lebanon.html

my answer is that peace can only be achieved when a two state solution is equitably negotiated between equal partners, and I know what a stupid statement that is.

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Brilliant show on four corners last night:

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/

I take an intense interest in the culture wars pervading america mainly because I know that the same questions will be raised in Australia. Here we have a hard right conservative religous agenda working in the shadows to overthrow our way of life. When HillSong Ministries or Opus Die can hijack the agenda of my beautiful, tolerant country, then I do want civil war.

It really is bad enough that our esteemed Minister for Science can call for Inteligent Design to taught in science class's, or for our Minister for Health, the right scumbag asnd self confessed liar, Tony Abbot to foist outragous hardline catholic lies and disinformation in the guise of reproductive legisaltion, now we are treated to the ugly face behind the agenda's. We can all be extremely thankful that the nations state liberal branches are so utterly inept, looking more like the post Thatcher Conservatives of the UK, rather than a potent political force.

Always be wary of any leader running on law and order issues in a peaceful country, it means they have no ideas apart from throwing you in jail to solve any problems.