It has been a bad week for those who still believe that Afghanistan constitutes the altruistic and winnable battlefront of the 'war on terror'.  

The agony and the ecstasy of politics is being played out in exquisite detail in NSW as we move towards the end game of Morris Iemma's bold plan to privatise the state's electricity assets. 

Political aficionados are in heaven. Macquarie Street is dominated by one question: "Will Barry back it?" 

In the weeks before Christmas last year, a brigade of battle-bruised soldiers left Colorado's Fort Carson for its third round of war in Iraq. 

Sgt. Colin Barton was getting Botox shots in his forehead to kill the relentless pain from a brain injury. Army doctors said he should not wear a helmet - a safety requirement for the flight to Iraq. The Army sent him anyway. 

It’s hard to know why Philip Ruddock decided to speak out in recent days about his time as Attorney General in the Howard Government.

Based on Ruddock’s own comments, it doesn’t appear he paid a lot attention to what was happening in three key agencies for which he had ultimate ministerial responsibility - the Australian Federal Police, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.  

Might it be that a raging seven-year obsession with Osama Bin Laden and his tiny Al-Qaeda organisation has blinded strategists to the old verities?  

Wars are rarely “clashes of civilisation”, but rather clashes of interest. They are usually the result of careless policy, of misread signals and of mission creep closing options for peace.  

Most Americans know Monsanto because of what it sells to put on our lawns - the ubiquitous weed killer Roundup. What they may not know is that the company now profoundly influences - and one day may virtually control - what we put on our tables. 

For most of its history Monsanto was a chemical giant, producing some of the most toxic substances ever created, residues from which have left us with some of the most polluted sites on earth.  

President Hamid Karzai today denounced an air-strike by US-led forces that his office said killed at least 70 civilians. 

Civilian deaths and injuries are an extremely sensitive subject in Afghanistan, where the government has repeatedly pleaded with Western troops to exercise greater care to avoid hurting and killing noncombatants. Karzai broke down in tears during one such appeal. 

A recent study from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has zero credibility. It pegged likely taxpayer losses in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailouts at $25 billion. For those with a sense of history, it is worth remembering that the S&L bailout had a $160 billion price tag.  

This current round of NATO expansion is a political reward to governments in Georgia & Ukraine that came to power as a result of US-supported revolutions, the so-called Orange Revolution & Rose Revolution.  

There is nothing in the preamble to the Constitution which defines the purpose of the United States of America as remaking the world in our image, which I view as a fool's errand.  

As gas climbs to $5 a gallon, the pain is evident everywhere. Buses are packed. GM is closing factories. The airlines are laying off pilots and flight attendants. Independent truckers are going bankrupt. Real wages slide down and inflation shinnies skyward.

from Crikey ….. 

Iguanagate II: the return of Della Bosca 

Alex Mitchell writes: 

America is a country badly in need of therapy.  

We don't know who we are anymore; everything is topsy-turvy. It's like we're suffering a national identity crisis and need a turn on the couch.