From the ABC

Stand firm in fight for democracy, Blair says
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told a joint sitting of Federal Parliament that there is no alternative to fighting against Muslim extremism to defend the values shared by his nation and Australians.

In an address to a rare joint sitting of Parliament, Mr Blair called for the creation of a global alliance in the struggle for democracy and justice, and said this alliance "does not end with, but it does begin with, America".

Mr Blair has noted that Australian and British troops are fighting alongside each other in Afghanistan and Iraq, in what he calls a titanic struggle to free them of a legacy of oppression, stagnation and servitude.

The British leader insists there must be no retreat from pushing for democracy.

He says the United States plays a key role.

"I do not always agree with the United States. Sometimes they can be difficult friends to have," he said.

"The strain of frankly anti-American feeling in parts of European and world politics is madness when set against the long-term interests of the world we believe in.

"The danger with America today, is not that they are too much involved, the danger is that they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage. We need them involved; we want them engaged."

Mr Blair said now was was not the time to withdraw from Iraq.

"This is not the time to walk away," he said.
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Gus does not agree.

I hope Mr Blair understands the difference between counter-terrorism measures and a willy nilly "War on Terror" ... The war on terror that the US embarked upon has no chance of achieving its goals and can only inflame the problems, on the short and longer term. Not only the Americans declared war on terror they also embarked on an illegal war on a sovereign country whether we liked its ruler or not. There are worse dictatorship in the world than Saddam and nothing is done about it (don't even think of going to war to show you care there too). The Americans and its coalition of the willing LIED about the WMDs to their own people, in order to go to war against Iraq and this fact was KNOWN by many people (some were "shut up" and some could not get a media voice) before one shot was fired.

War is no picnic. People die and everyday that passes sees no solution to a growing problem that appears to demand more weaponry and fire power. Fighting boots and all, killing old men, women children even as sporadic collateral damage in this uneasy war can only create revenge, resentment and madness for many years to come The promise of a democratic lolly will only be the apparent calm tip of an iceberg of discontent. The profile of the average suicide bomber prove revenge and justice can become calculated in their own distorted mind...

Terror might slow down if we seek justice without annihilation (or secret control) of self determination. But of course we frame self determination and it becomes only an excuse in our our desire of dominating double standards as we use force.

Until the truth is told, until the secret services "intelligence failures" are fully exposed for what they were, that is to say "governmental orders" to manipulate information on WMDs, until you realise that this US adminsitration is lying to you, Mr. Blair, you can't expect us to believe your "We do it because we care" rhetoric. It sadly appears too much like "we lie because our friends ask us to" routine.

Democracy cannot be imposed by decree. Democracy can not be sold like soap. The French Revolutions, the US civil war and independence war show that democracy is often bought with the blood of people... The people within... and when they are ready for it.

External forces will only tip the balance with an improper and delayed outcome. War only creates uneasy peace if peace is ever reached, especially with so much difference of beliefs as demonstrated by the case of a Muslim conversion to Christianity. (And do not believe that is is a "unique" set of circumstances).

Let's hope that your and friends' little mess sorts itself out for the best but, if it does, if would not be with thanks to you and you mates for starting it... Thank your lucky stars, by all mean, but not your duplicitous actions.

Enough is already too much

Every single death that has happened in the war in Iraq is blood on your hands.
Every single death that has happened in the war in Iraq is blood on George Bush's hands.
Every single death that has happened in the war in Iraq is blood on John Howard's hands.

There are other ways than war and violence to achieve the outcome you seek and this is why you and your friends can never be forgiven.

From the NY Times
Shiite Fighters Clash With G.I.'s and Iraqi Forces
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
The day was punctuated by rising sectarian tensions and at least 40 mutilated bodies found in the streets, 30 of them beheaded.

Sad that Bush's war, Blair's war, our war, is coming to this...

From the ABC
Leaders back Blair on terrorism
By Louise Yaxley in Canberra

The Prime Minister and Opposition Leader have both heaped praise on British leader Tony Blair for the stand he has taken against terrorism.

Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament he is delighted to welcome Mr Blair.

"You come as a friend, you come as an esteemed international statesman," he said.

Labor's Kim Beazley says Australia stands shoulder to shoulder with Britain in the war against fundamentalist terror.

From the Washington post

Iraqi Doctor Says He Killed Patients
Insurgents Paid; Police, Soldiers Targeted
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 27, 2006; Page A12

BAGHDAD, March 26 -- A doctor has admitted killing at least 35 Iraqi police officers and army soldiers by giving them lethal injections, reopening their wounds or engaging in other deadly acts while they were being treated at a hospital in the northern city of Kirkuk, according to Kurdish security sources and Kurdish television.

Kurdish television broadcast on Sunday what it said was the doctor's taped confession, in which he told police that he sympathized with the radical Sunni Arab insurgent group Ansar al-Sunna. He said that the group paid him to kill the men and that he did it because "I hate the Americans and what they've done to Iraq."

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Gus bleeds
Sad sad sad... Atrocities performed with hate, revenge and despair, against the American way... Are you here Mr Blair? are you listening? These death are yours, as well as Johnnee's and El Bonsaio's...

Oh, we can't blame you for that? Sure we can... How long do you think that green zone in Baghdad is going to stay? Twenty-five years or more? You don;t really think that that fortress' walls will go by next year, do you? So how do you think this charade will go on for? 50 years? Less? You are deluded to the max, sir... Unless you move out NOW...

From the NY Times

Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Says

By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: March 27, 2006
LONDON — In the weeks before the United States-led invasion of Iraq, as the United States and Britain pressed for a second United Nations resolution condemning Iraq, President Bush's public ultimatum to Saddam Hussein was blunt: Disarm or face war.

But behind closed doors, the president was certain that war was inevitable. During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times.

Read more at the NY Times

From the BBC

Blast rocks US-Iraq military base
A bomb has exploded at a military base housing US and Iraqi forces in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, Interior Ministry sources say.
Police sources say that 15 people are believed to have been killed, and an unknown number injured.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the blast may have been caused by a suicide bomber targeting Iraqi army recruits. More coming soon...

From the Gyardian

Blair: anti-Americanism is madness

Matthew Tempest and agencies
Monday March 27, 2006

Tony Blair today described anti-Americanism across Europe as "madness", although admitted the US could be a "difficult friend to have".
In a speech in the Australian parliament overshadowed by his remarks about making a "mistake" in announcing his retirement early, the prime minister paid tribute to the Australians for joining in the "global struggle" against terror, likening it to their joining the war against the Nazis.

And Mr Blair reminded his audience that he spent three years of his childhood, aged two to five, living in Adelaide, and that the country was the inspiration for his "Britain is a young country" speech early in his premiership....
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Gus, like many people is not anti American...
Mr Blair, please do not mix Anti-Bushit with anti-Americanism... Those who do not like the Yank Administration choices at the moment, do not hate the US per say... It's something that the Bush administration and the next one has to come to term with, although it never will. There are many good people in the US, but for us, the US to reject is the greasy one... If you know what I mean with whatisname and his salmons...

Presently, it's madness to align ourselves with the madman in the White House: more war more deaths more torture...

Protecting of our way of life? Trashing our integrity for it? Living a lie? Not on your nellie...

The Editor,
Sydney Morning Herald.                                                    March 27, 2006.
 

Oh dear (‘Blair says meeting
Hicks would be inappropriate’, Herald, March 27)! 

If such is the case, then how
‘appropriate’ is it that an Australian citizen can be held in detention for more
than four years, subjected to torture & denied his legal & human
rights, whilst being abandoned by his government? 

And how ‘appropriate’ is it that
our Parliament is to be used as a venue to ‘honour’ this moral coward: a war
criminal who inveigled his country into an illegal war of aggression, based on
a lie? 

Terry Hicks would have gained
nothing from meeting such a venal creature.

From the ABC

Dingo cartoon fails to faze Howard
Prime Minister John Howard says he is not offended by a cartoon published in Indonesia depicting him and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer as dingoes mounting each other.

The cartoon was printed in response to Australia's decision to grant 42 West Papuans temporary protection visas.

Indonesia has withdrawn its ambassador from Canberra in protest at the visa decision.

The Federal Government is warning Australians to avoid the embassy in Jakarta because of demonstrations.

Mr Howard says the decision to grant the visas has put a strain on the relationship between the two countries, but says he is not too concerned about the cartoon.

"In relation to the cartoons, well I've been in this game a long time, if I got offended about cartoons golly, heavens above, give us a break," he said.

Mr Downer says the cartoon is tasteless.

He says people can choose to publish tasteless and grotesque cartoons in a free society.

"I would have thought those countries in our society fell way below standards of public taste," he said.

"I think a lot of Australians would regard those kinds of publications as very offensive, but they're free to be offensive in a magazine in Indonesia if they wish to be."

Gus says thanks....
Now let's push the envelope here? No why give in to tasteless crude cartoon? Just stick to clever tasteless cartoons...

Go for it Gus.

Don't you just love the way our politicians continuously make condesending announcements, "approving" behaviour in other countries: by implication suggesting that they (our politicians) have a say in such matters, whilst implying that such behaviour isn't allowed in erstralia?

The Editor,
The Australian.                                                              March
31, 2006.
 

Definitely not a pretty sight (‘Cole orders Downer to reveal
all’, Australian, March 31).