We talk glibly about our [Australia's] future in Asia, but we are stuck in a US and UK media cul de sac.

The Washington consensus and our legacy media frames and conditions our thinking and actions. It promotes fear of Asia, the yellow peril.

An updated post from August 23, 2021

John Menadue

Anyone with any knowledge of Iran's history and culture will know that it will not be bribed or bullied into doing what the West wants.

It has no reason to trust Western promises, and having endured the suffering of the Iran-Iraq War, is unlikely to buckle under any pressure, military or economic, that the West would be prepared to impose.

Forget the fog of war. Even in war, and sometimes especially in war, some things are exceedingly clear. Regarding the so-called ‘Hamas-Israel War’, for instance, it is obvious that in reality it is not a war at all but a genocide, namely the Gaza Genocide, carried out by Israel against the Palestinians whose unbroken resistance will be the stuff of legends, and of history too.

Moscow, beware: Germany just discovered the joys of illegal war
Kant is spinning in his grave, while Friedrich Merz is devising maxims from hell

Screenwriters in Hollywood who “say they are Jewish” have been planting pro-war narratives about Iran in mainstream entertainment for more than a decade, Wikileaks has claimed.

Israel launched airstrikes on Iran earlier this month, claiming Tehran was close to creating a nuclear weapon. Over the weekend, the US also directly joined the conflict by bombing Iranian nuclear facilities.

In a post on X on Sunday, Wikileaks stated that Hollywood writers “who say they are Jewish” have been “planting the mental seeds for war with Iran for years,” citing productions such as Top Gun: Maverick, Homeland, 24, and The Fifth Estate.

Iran has agreed to stop its attacks on Israel after launching nineteen missiles at America’s largest military base in Qatar. President Trump quickly claimed credit for brokering a ceasefire, calling it “The Twelve Day War,” but Iranian officials say the decision was their own, made only after proving they could strike both Israel and US forces. Qatar’s air defenses intercepted most of the missiles, with no casualties reported. As US, Israeli, and Qatari negotiations continue behind the scenes, questions remain about whether this fragile truce will hold, or if Tehran will strike again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtyMxPUD3tM

A Trump official tells The Grayzone that Israel’s Mossad is using CIA Director John Ratcliffe and US CENTCOM’s Gen. Michael Kurilla to influence Trump with cooked intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program. Inside the White House, dissenters have been isolated, setting the stage for a regime change war that could cost American lives.

Listen to/watch Max Blumenthal read this article here.

An official in the administration of President Donald Trump has told The Grayzone that CIA Director John Ratcliffe and US CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Kurilla have become vehicles for Israel’s Mossad and military as they seek to manipulate the US into attacking Iran. The Trump official referred to Ratcliffe as “Mossad’s stenographer.”

Twenty-one months into its genocide of the Palestinian people, Israel has extended its attacks to Iran, with the USA collaborating. Back in Oz, governments look away. Emma Thomas with the latest from the NSW antisemitism inquiry.

US joins Israel bombing Iran, genocide proceeds, Australia debates antisemitism
by Emma Thomas

‘[John Hepworth] turned death into an art form …Theatrical by inclination, he was determined to die in his own bed with his hat on… Hepworth was splendid while dying. Dressed in a magnificent nightshirt, and wearing a Victorian smoking cap, he entertained the friends who had come to say goodbye.’

The Age, November 1994

https://honourbrightbooks.com.au/index.php/john-hepworth-1921-1995/

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING WRITING BY JOHN HEPWORTH IS SATIRICAL. 

How to self destruct without really dying

Vice President J.D. Vance has pushed back against comparisons between US airstrikes on Iran and previous American wars in the Middle East, claiming that this time Washington’s actions are truly limited and rooted in national security objectives – not a drive for regime change.

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Vance emphasized that “we’re not at war with Iran – we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,”describing the overnight strike as “a very precise, very surgical” operation that allegedly dismantled Tehran’s nuclear capabilities.

The expansion of the war from Palestine to Iran, which began on 13 June, signals an Israeli obsession persisting for four decades. As the Trump administration was negotiating in bad faith with Iran over its nuclear programme, the Israeli regime took advantage of an interval to bomb Tehran, assassinating leading scientists, a senior general and other officials, some of them engaged in the talks.

Nuclear Options
TARIQ ALI

The mainstream French media ignored the reality of Nazism's existence in Ukraine for years and refused to acknowledge the widespread presence of Nazi ideology within the Ukrainian armed forces, even when Ukrainians wore swastikas or other Nazi symbols during military training in France. And then, suddenly, one of the major French media outlets noted "hundreds of similar cases." Why?

Why did France suddenly notice Nazism in Ukraine?

BY Pierre DUVAL

Le Monde usually strictly adheres to the line of the ruling party in France, and its attitude toward the Ukrainian army has always been very clear: Russia is bad, Ukraine is good, the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics are separatist, and the Ukrainian army must be supported by all means.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has continued her round of morning media interviews, stopping by ABC's News Breakfast, where she's reiterated the government's support of the US' strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

It's a shift in language from the government, after a spokesperson stopped short of offering an endorsement of the strikes on Sunday.

She says it's where the conflict goes now matters.

Israel flew over to Iran with fighter jets and has since gone totally ballistic — literally and figuratively. So what does the European Union’s insane clown posse have to say about it? Get yourself some popcorn. The Eurojokers are doing their best stand-up comedy again without even realizing it.

The EU’s favorite war: the one Israel starts
Brussels has rallied behind Israel, asking Iran to please stop bleeding on the carpet

BY Rachel Marsden

As the world reacts to the entry of the US into Israel’s attack on Iran, Greg Barns says the actions betray the rules based order.

Here’s what’s missing from the Australian mainstream discourse on the Israeli and now United States bombing of Iran. That it is a clear breach of international law. A betrayal of the so-called rules-based order - a term and sentiment that Australian politicians and columnists like the Nine newspapers’ Peter Hartcher and The Australian’s Greg Sheridan, along with Washington toadies like Defence Minister Richard Marles love to throw around.

Greg Barns

Bombing Iran a clear breach of international law

In ancient ethical maxim, traditionally ascribed to Chilon of Sparta — one of the illustrious Seven Sages of Greece — and transmitted through the revered writings of Diogenes Laërtius, counsels that no reproach be cast upon the departed, enjoining a solemn silence where calumny might otherwise find voice. This august injunction was enshrined for posterity in the hallowed Latin adage: De mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est — “Of the deceased, naught but good is to be pronounced.” 

Prof. Schlevogt’s Compass No. 17: Field hospital without surgeon general — Pope Francis’ cracks laid bare
No sledgehammer against sinners on the fringe, yes—but what of the scalpel? Did the synodal pope cede the helm of his field hospital church?