Abbott is approaching military involvement as a religious crusade. He has said that anyone fighting for the rebels is against God and religion. He didn’t nominate which God and which religion.

The Attorney General, George Brandis, appears to be on the same hymn sheet, describing the “mission” as humanitarian with military elements. They describe the rebels as evil.

The original Crusaders saw their missions as an act of love, righting the wrongs of Islamic occupation of the Holy Lands.

Abbott imbued with the history and heraldry of mother England and steeped in the tradition and atmosphere, if not the scholarship, of Oxford appears inspired by Shakespeare’s Henry V, during his invasion of France,

“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead!”

English is interchangeable with Australian as we are all subjects of the Crown.

Shakespeare’s jingoistic rallying cry ends with:

“The games afoot, Follow your spirit, and upon this charge, Cry ‘God for Henry, England and Saint George’!”

Words much beloved by school masters and boys of the Empire, which paraphrase Abbott’s televised exhortations.

Tellingly, in 2003, the Royal National Theatre reproduced Henry V as the invasion Iraq.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/article-display/tony-abbotts-reckless-crusade,6951

Tony Abbott has fundamentally broken faith with the Australian people by saying ISIS is targeting Australia because of “who we are and how we live”, writes Adrian Vandermey.

IN A door stop interview in Arnhem Land two weeks ago ‒ reminiscent of George W Bush’s ‘freedom’ address to Congress in 2001 ‒ Prime Minister Tony Abbott stated:

“These people…. do not hate us for what we do, they hate us for who we are and how we live.”

Unfortunately, in attempting to capitalise on these new events in an attempt to bolster his opinion polling by using Howard-style tactics, PM Abbott is ignoring some harsh realities about why domestic Australia is now seen as a target for Middle East struggle.

A Government spokesperson last week repeated the PM’s statement word-for-word:

"ISIL will claim that our involvement in this international effort is the reason they are targeting us, but these people do not attack us for what we do, but for who we are and how we live."

Despite this narrative’s denial of the truth, the harsh reality is Australia has caused the threat to itself by striding clumsily with guns blazing and meddling in Middle Eastern affairs — something that began with military action in Afghanistan in 2001.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/abbotts-bogus-war-narrative-and-his-problem-with-history,6954

http://chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/1-latest-news/2428-an-enduring-casus-belli-the-liberal-club-hears-the-truth.html

For all those people who watched the award ceremony for the historic win of the Rabbitohs over the Bulldogs tonight, you would have noticed the popularity of a couple of people:

The Turd-in-Chief was spontaneously booed like no prime minister ever would, was or will ever be by the large majority of the spectators as soon as he was introduced... In contrast, when a little 80 year old woman, Joyce Churchill, with a funny green and red hat was introduced, the crowd went wild and cheered as loud as people could.

Now why is that? You work it out.

But one thing is clear, as soon as the first "collateral" damage is reported from the first bomb that Tony the Turd is dropping in his "mission" (which is A WAR, despite his deception with his silly turn of phrase), he will have become a more extremist killer than the Isis extremists he wishes to fight.

If Tony wanted to get some glory tonight, tonight was not the night. It belonged to the Rabbitohs...

This new rush to war not an intervention designed to meet humanitarian goals and objectives, writes Dr Adam Hughes Henry, but simply another bloody bombing campaign to protect strategic Western interests.

THERE IS A PUBLIC PRESENTATION that a war against the Islamic State (IS) is justified outright on clear humanitarian grounds. That is, universally accepted standards of human rights have been transgressed and these unique perpetrators need to be brought to account.

There is evidence that IS actions on the battlefield contravene international human rights law. There are numerous allegations of ethnic cleansing, atrocities and threats of possible genocidal intent against their enemies.

Yet the actions of IS, in terms of our contemporary world, are very far from unique and as grotesque as their crimes are, cannot possibly be considered the worst of the worst. There are examples of barbaric behaviour which continue to be exhibited by U.S.-UK allies all over the world.

There does not seem to be any clamour to arrest and try any of the IS leadership in a court of law. There is, however, a clamour to bomb them.

Bombing from the sky is not a very useful humanitarian response — it is clearly a one dimensional military tactic contingent on targets. If there is a clear danger of ethnic cleansing and potential genocide in Iraq or elsewhere then the United Nations Security council is duty bound to act.

Current actions do not appear to have any such UN sanctioned legitimacy. Furthermore, there are no foreign troops on the ground to specifically defend these threatened ethnic populations, set up safe zones or sanctuaries and there is also absolutely no talk from nations like Australia of taking in any of the threatened groups as refugees as a matter of priority.

read more: http://www.independentaustralia.net/article-display/the-humanitarian-war-furphy,6981

Iraq’s Sunnis won’t fight ISIS for the U.S., says NIQASH, a non-profit media organization operating out of Berlin. Without Sunni support, Obama’s war in Iraq cannot succeed. Here’s why.

Negotiations Fail

According to NIQASH, a source at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad said there have been secret negotiations between various Sunni Muslim armed factions, via Arab and Iraqi Kurdish intermediaries, for the past three months. At the request of U.S. diplomats and military personnel, Shia officials from the Iraqi government have also met with these groups in Erbil, Kurdistan and Amman, Jordan.

At the same time Gen. John Allen, Obama’s appointed coordinator of U.S. efforts in Iraq, has been trying to contact the Sunni tribal leaders he worked with in Anbar during the previous war’s “Awakening.” “But it was surprising,” a NIQASH source reported, “Most of General Allen’s former allies refused to cooperate with us. And some of them are actually now living outside of Iraq because of the Iraqi government’s policies.”

With some irony, America’s failure to secure the 2006 Awakening caused those Sunnis sympathetic to America’s aims to flee Shia persecution. Those “good guys” are thus not available in 2014 to help out America in the current war.

ISIS and the Sunnis

When ISIS first took control of Sunni areas in western Iraq, anger towards the Shia government in Baghdad caused many to see them as liberators. The Iraqi army, along with paramilitary police from the Interior Ministry, had engaged in a multi-year campaign of beating, imprisoning, and arresting Sunnis, to the point where many felt that Baghdad was occupying, not governing. For the Sunnis and ISIS, the Baghdad government was a common enemy, and a marriage of necessity formed.

Events in Baghdad do little to assuage Sunni fears. A recent report suggests the new Iraqi Prime Minister, almost certainly against America’s wishes, will nominate a Shia Badr Militia leader as Interior Minister. Since the Shias took control of Iraq following the American invasion of 2003, the Interior Ministry, which controls the police and the prisons, has been a prime tool of repression and punishment.

read more: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-sunnis-wont-fight-isis/

Australia has reached a deal with Baghdad for the deployment of about 200 of its special forces to assist Iraqi troops in their fight against Islamic State (IS) militants.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters in Baghdad she had met top officials to hammer out a deal allowing Australian commandos who have been waiting in the United Arab Emirates to deploy to Iraq.

"I have finalised an agreement for a legal framework to enable our special forces to be deployed here," Ms Bishop said as she wrapped up a two-day visit.

"It will be a matter for our military to determine when our special forces will be deployed, so it will be an operational matter from now on."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-20/iraq/5825438

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Talk about double-speak, deceit and reversed shit-promises... Meanwhile the Turks will do nothing to protect the Kurds in Kobane and the Sunnis won't help either... The air is full of double-crosses everywhere... And La Bishop is like a perfume counter attendant selling her SAS scent bottles with the belief they will solve the bad smell under the desert sun... The illusion of doing something is more pernicious than not doing anything. I suppose the Baghdad government decided to give in to La Bishop so she would leave them alone...

It is not known how long the mission will last.

Prime Minster [sic] Tony Abbott has said it will take months rather than weeks, and former Army chief Peter Leahy talks of it as the "battle of the century".

In a recent address to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a defence and security think tank, Mr Leahy said he could see no end to the conflict, and found it very difficult to imagine what peace would look like.

Few experts believe airstrikes and training will be enough to defeat Islamic State forces.

Despite public pronouncements by US president Barack Obama that the coalition would not be going into Iraq with troops, even General Martin E Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that if the airstrikes do not work the US should be prepared to deploy ground troops.

But a constraint against this becoming a long and drawn out conflict is economic. 

The US is currently spending about $900 million a month on the fight against IS and it is estimated the current plans for the US operation could costs rise to more than $20 billion a year. 

Estimates for Australia are somewhere closer to $500 million a year, but the longer the conflict continues the more it will strain the budget and stretch Australia's military capacity.

According to Mr Brown, Australian special forces have an important role in the region and 200 soldiers is huge number to keep indefinitely in the Middle East.

"We'd struggle to keep that number of special forces in the Middle East and maintain domestic counter-terrorism forces, and maintain special forces for contingencies closer to home," he said.

Most analysts believe that if the situation on the ground in Iraq can at least be stabilised, longer-term commitment may well see Special Forces replaced by conventional troops.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-01/australian-commando-unit-waits-in-uae-for-word-to-go-into-iraq/5858272

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All this is crap dreaming, of course... War analysts are like turdy economists: they have no clue as to what's what. Though it is difficult to know, there is about 12 million Sunnis in Iraq of which a third could be men of "fighting" age (14 to 35). Though not all (men) would join Isil, one can estimate that at least half a million Sunni (men) have joined their IS "brothers in arms"... They might end up fighting each other but that's for the next ten years hence. 

The major problem for the West is to know who is a "good" Sunni and who is a "bad" Sunni (joined Isil)... And then there is the collateral damage of women, children and oldies... And one has to make some unsavoury alliance with other "terrorists like the PKK...

And of course, anyone in the regular army of Iraq can be a "turncoat" in waiting... Who knows... Australia should not be there nor sending SAS troops... It's lunacy. 

About 330 more Australian troops will begin heading to the Middle East tomorrow as part of a boosted contingent in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group.

Federal Cabinet has signed off on the deployment, which was first flagged six weeks ago.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the troops will be embarking on a two-year mission, with most put to work training Iraqi soldiers.

"The deployment will start tomorrow and we expect that the force will be deployed and operational by the middle of May," Mr Abbott said.

"It is, as I stress, a capacity training mission not a training mission, but Iraq is a dangerous place.

read more http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/330-australian-troops-to-head-to-iraq-tomorrow/6391528