America Votes 2006

‘During national crises, the United States government often reacts overzealously. It takes actions that curtail the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the people. These laws, executive orders and government measures have been in reaction to public fears and public demands for a swift response. Yet the flames of fear have also been fanned for political advantage. Federal agencies have acted to intimidate, harass, alienate, deport, and silence organizations and individuals. Historically, dissenting voices included advocates as diverse as labor and peace activists, immigrant-rights groups, political opponents, and civil-rights leaders.

‘Every single commercial fishery in the world will be wiped before 2050 and the oceans may never recover if over-fishing continues at its current rate, a four-year scientific investigation has found.

"By the time my nine-year-old son is my age, there would be no wild seafood left," said Emmett Duffy, a scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences in the United States.

‘On November 14 a group of lawyers and other experts will come before the German federal prosecutor and ask him to open a criminal investigation targeting Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and other key Bush Administration figures for war crimes. The recent passage of the Military Commissions Act provides a central argument for the legal action, under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction: It demonstrates the intent of the Bush Administration to immunize itself legally from prosecution in the United States, even for the most serious crimes.

Law and Justice Address by
The Right Hon Malcolm Fraser AC CH  

2006 Justice Awards

Parliament House, Sydney
Tuesday 31 October

‘Bechtel, the giant engineering company, is leaving Iraq. Its mission - to rebuild power, water and sewage plants - wasn't accomplished: Baghdad received less than six hours a day of electricity last month, and much of Iraq's population lives with untreated sewage and without clean water. But Bechtel, having received $2.3 billion of taxpayers' money and having lost the lives of 52 employees, has come to the end of its last government contract.

As Bechtel goes, so goes the whole reconstruction effort. Whatever our leaders may say about their determination to stay the course complete the mission, when it comes to rebuilding Iraq they've already cut and run. The $21 billion allocated for reconstruction over the last three years has been spent, much of it on security rather than its intended purpose, and there's no more money in the pipeline.

 
from the Centre for American Progress …..

Trials and Tribulations

'On Sunday, the nine-month trial of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants is expected to conclude, with the court delivering its verdict.

Should Hussein be convicted, it will be an historic and welcome development for the Iraqis who suffered under his rule.

‘Earlier this year, news broke that Halliburton subsidiary, KBR – the firm infamous for building prison facilities at Guantanamo Bay and for scandals stemming from work in the Iraq war zone – received a $385 million contract from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to build detention centers, according to the New York Times, "for an unexpected influx of immigrants" or "new programs that require additional detention space."

‘During an interview with conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh, US President George Bush expressed deep concerns about the possibility of the United States leaving the Middle East, raising fears that extremists could topple governments to "control oil resources."

"Give me a second here, Rush, because I want to share something with you," Bush said. "I am deeply concerned about a country, the United States, leaving the Middle East."

‘The United States upset the regional balance in the Middle East when it invaded Iraq. Restoring it requires bold initiatives, but "cutting and running" must precede them all. Only a complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops — within six months and with no preconditions — can break the paralysis that now enfeebles our diplomacy. And the greatest obstacles to cutting and running are the psychological inhibitions of our leaders and the public.

Our leaders do not act because their reputations are at stake. The public does not force them to act because it is blinded by the president's conjured set of illusions: that we are reducing terrorism by fighting in Iraq; creating democracy there; preventing the spread of nuclear weapons; making Israel more secure; not allowing our fallen soldiers to have died in vain; and others.’

‘William Lind has written eloquently and with great knowledge of Fourth Generation War (4GW). 4GW is the preferred tactic of our opposing forces both in Iraq and Afghanistan, just as it was in Vietnam. The United States Military bases its strategy on a theory known as, Victory Through Superior Firepower; simply said, this is bringing concentrated and overwhelming firepower to the point of attack. Our Military Industrial Complex (MIC) mandates this battlefield philosophy. High-tech weapons and weapons systems require trillions of dollars to develop and produce. These trillions of taxpayer dollars line the pockets of those who lobby the government for war. Many of our career politicians rotate between leadership of MIC companies and positions in the government. Career Colonels and Generals find high-paying positions in the MIC when they leave military service. This money-eating merry-go-round is not only bankrupting our country but also systematically leads to the deaths of our soldiers on the 4GW field of battle.

From the Independent …..

Is this the dirtiest election ever? Republicans fear landslide defeat
By David Usborne in New York

Republican candidates across the United States are taking the dubious art of negative advertising and character assassination to unprecedented levels of toxicity as polls indicate possible landslide gains for the Democrats on 7 November in crucial mid-term congressional elections.

‘Pope Paul VI promulgated Gaudium et Spes (December 7, 1965), in which was written: "Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator." 

‘For much of the past 25 years, a small group of Catholic intellectuals has worked to inject its radical religious ideas into the nation's politics.

The leader of this theo-conservative movement is Father Richard John Neuhaus.

In the pages of his monthly magazine First Things, Neuhaus and his ideological allies set the theo-con agenda on a range of policies.

Michael Novak of the American Enterprise Institute argues that the American founders were orthodox religious believers who thought of the United States as a Christian nation - and that American-style capitalism perfectly conforms to Catholic social teaching.

Last Friday, Prime Minister John Howard officiated at the launch of Peter Cosgrove’s biography, ‘My Story’.

As we all know, Peter Cosgrove is the former Chief of the Australian Defence Force, who retired last year, after a military career spanning 40 years.

There can be no argument with the fact that Peter Cosgrove was an outstanding Australian soldier.

He was brave, professional & popular: a Duntroon graduate; recipient of the Military Cross in Vietnam in 1969. Cosgrove was appointed as Commander of the INTERFET peacekeeping force in East Timor in 1999, subsequently became Chief of the Australian Army & was ultimately promoted to the role of Defence Force Chief in 2002.