"facile, unthinking anti-Americanism" that has gripped much of Europe.
Mr Murdoch says the Howard Government's close working relationship with the Bush administration has undoubtedly fuelled Australian animosity towards America.
"Wars end, administrations come and go," he said
------------------
Gus: Read these line above carefully... see how loaded they are... For example "facile, unthinking anti-Americanism" In Europe... I can tell you there is nothing "facile" nor "unthinking" about it... and since in his speech, Mr Murdoch had a go at the French, it should be noted here that after World War II, the Yanks were doing the dirty on their French friends by being "two faced" and not being "truthful"... Now, the Yanks are trying hard to split the French-German relationship as they perceived this as the keystone of Europe: it is but the Yankee Administrations would prefer see a weaker Europe than one that could challenge the US supremacy. The war in Iraq is a case in point, Saddam was trading oil in Euros, thus slowly diminishing the Dollar status as the kingpin monetary unit... The little US/UK/Aust adventure in Iraq has cost Europe more than 20 US billion dollars in hard cash (not fancy huge deficit, like the way the US plays the game to get their own way...) And let me say this, I love Americans... Many people in Europe love Americans but that does not mean they love what their administrations have done and are doing.

And then, our American Mr Murdoch has the gall to dismiss war with more dispassion that if it had been a fly in his soup. Yes Mr Murdoch, wars come and go, but some last a lifetime and more, and the end of wars never herald the end of trauma and suffering for those at the wrong end of the guns... One should NEVER EVER start a war. While you and your company made a few extra billion dollars, many people got killed by the illusions your enterprises were selling. The lies about the WMDs that your papers reported as fact — fact that had to be known as the biggest porkies ever told, with a bit of surface scratching... Many of us did expose the stench and the hoax BEFORE the war, but you did not want to know. You wanted war... and got it.

And Iraq war's end? in 25 years most likely... unless the US bites the bullet in a huge act of contrition and non-profitable generosity. Europe knows that, even the "doubled-face European" Tony Blair knows that. Even some of the electorate in the US knows that despite YOUR fancy Fox...

A couple of letters in the Sydney Morning Herald

An American Australian spruiks his views
Rupert Murdoch of the famously blythe understatement - "Iraq might be a bit of a problem, but it will be good when oil is $20 a barrel" - now wants to lecture us on whom to like and dislike in America.

You need to take your own advice, sir. We already know.

Jan Carroll Avalon

---------------------------------

Hanoi hoot

Has anyone else noticed the irony of George Bush and John Howard meeting in Hanoi to discuss, among other things, how to extract themselves from Iraq?

Allan Thomas Lochinvar

---------------------------------

Gus: first letter well written and targeted... But the second one seemed to miss the secret "mission accomplished"...

In the end what are the conditions under which the US waged war in Iraq? The correct answer to this question is worth a tank of free petrol for a year, supplied by your local pumpologist.

So Iraq might be a bit of a problem but at more than 600,000 dead to achieve 20 bux a barrel is a bit naff and slightly immoral... It could have been that said price today without the f#@&ing war instead of hovering about 60 bux! So that is an outrageous argument! Only a silly powerful privateer magnate full of silly cash can grandstandingly make, giving advice to those who didn't cut the cheese by selling grand illusions — those that go under the sobriquet of "news" on Fox... Or give "free" tips to decent people who don't really have the guts to support the killing of people to fill their tanks just to drive to the beach... Because, don't get yourself wrong, don't kid yourself, this is the true purpose of the exercise: kill people to sell more stuff.

So the second letter is funnily sad and totally off the beam, although it reflect the illusion of the front-line official power-play... The behind the scene is totally different. Because believe me these two animals are not serious about "exiting" Iraq... they are not going to discuss how to get themselves out of Iraq... They actually are plotting to confuse the plot with more vague unworkable "exit" strategies, in order to extend the stay of the US influence via troops and pumping stations beyond 2026 — thus polishing their high moral grounds in public while stealing as much oil as they can behind our back, all in our "national interest"... at the lowest price possible, without appearing too mercenary and without hurting the indecent profits of the multinationals company shipping and refining it so we can drive to the beach in a super-sized fully tax deductible SUV beyond 2027.

Simple my dear Rupert... Simple.

Yes Gus, bushit finally made it to Vietnam, 30 odd years after he avoided the first opportunity.

In fact, the word is that junior's dad, GHW, was so concerned at the news that he was off to Vietnam, that he immediately rang the Texas National Airguard to try & get another "fix" in.

What's the bet that the great global warrior won't be seen strolling into the Hanoui Hooters in a flightsuit? 

One of the charming threesome in the 'toon has the other two at his beck and call. Those two charleys are contemplating the need for frequent changes of underwear. 

The UK arm of the troika is breaking off, to consider its nuclear options. From A chance to break with our record of war and inequality:

A powerful way to re-establish credibility would be to announce the scrapping of Trident, saving £76bn over 30 years. As the second-biggest arms exporter, Britain should be moving to withdraw from the arms trade and launch a massive skills-conversion programme. <p> At home, many of our communities and families are blighted by crime, poverty and stress. Violent crime recorded by police has more than tripled since 1997, more families are without a home, and we have made too little headway on child and pensioner poverty. <p>This Queen's speech could be used to recognise that the grotesque inequality of our society is the source of a deep-seated social malaise, resulting in crime, antisocial behaviour, stress, failure, unhappiness, isolation, ill health and widening differences in life expectancy.

The Queen's Speech left a blank under the heading Trident. From 'Heavyweight' Brown gets nod ... : 

The renewal of the Trident missile system, on which the Queen was silent, may also split Labour.

Mr Brown gets to choose what to do with that 76 billion poons.  

Mr Bush (Jnr) is being told what his advisors do not know. Like, how much mayhem can the jihadists and insurgents incite as the CoW tries to do anything other than camp inside their secure zones. How much ordnance do they have left? Enough for 1000 or 10,000 IEDs? Enough SAMs to give the US military air transports the devil of a time in decamping? JWH loves a military funeral, but who will he blame if the bodies are in bits scattered over wide areas of Iraq, unretrievable because the last chopper just left the roof of the "embassy" in the Green Zone. The arguments being put for more troops are perfectly sound. Exit, or even just re-arranging the mission, will require a wall of the best and toughest at the rear. At which points in the whole schemozzle will Howard volunteer the services of the ADF?

Could Brendan Nelson be planning a surprise visit to Iraq, to encourage the boys and girls of the ADF to get out there and whip some towelhead ass, so JHW can proclaim victory and withdraw?

Did I read somewhere that "Aussie Tony" Blair had been offered a job with News, once he quit politics? I may be wrong...

Anyway methinks that the US, Democrat or Republican, has been deliberately cornered by this administration to tough it out in Iraq for another 20 to 25 years... unAussie Johneee included.

Yes Gus, you certainly did ...... right here

Murdoch Set To Back Blair For A Place In His Boardroom

From Our ABC

PM attacks Obama's Iraq strategy

Prime Minister John Howard has lashed out at United States presidential hopeful Barack Obama over his plan to pull out US troops from Iraq early next year.

Senator Obama today officially declared his intention to run for the presidency of the United States.

Mr Howard told the Nine Network, Senator Obama's plan is wrong.

"That would just encourage those who want to completely destabilise and destroy Iraq to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," he said.

Senator Obama has put a March 2008 deadline on troop withdrawals.

Federal Labor leader Kevin Rudd says Labor would withdraw troops in a responsible fashion, but is not being specific about his plan for Australian soldiers.

"[It] depends where we are on the rotation cycle and they are normally of a six-month duration, and it depends also on the detail of those consultations with the Americans," he said.

Mr Howard says Mr Rudd is slipping and sliding on the issue.

"You either go or you stay, you either rat on the ally or you stay with the ally," he said.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Robert McClelland says Mr Howard's comments are inappropriate.

"That effectively demeans the alliance between Australia and the United States," he said. "It effectively suggests that it's an alliance between two political parties and not the people of both countries."

-----------------------

Gus: Ratus rodentus will keep the troops in the war until he's told to get out... May be, if he got out now, like Whitlam did in the Vietnam War, this could affect the FTA so carefully crafted it may include a secret clause that stipulates Aussie troops wherever whenever the Prez desires, otherwise say tada to export of lamb and beef to the US... Remember 1972/3... Whitlam brought the diggers home before the final US debacle (a victory for common sense) and the US cancelled their Aussie beef quota forthwith — forcing our farmers, with then plenty of stock, to sell beef and lamb on the domestic market for peanuts. One could buy a whole lamb, cut in all the bits from chops to leg and shoulder for two bucks... As if they were made in China...

Yes Gus ...

The rodent's silly remarks also demonstrate a couple of additional facts

1. johnnee won't be around in 18 months (one way or another) to have to pick-up the pieces with a non-bushit government &

2. johnnee & bushit must now be the only 2 individuals on the planet who haven't grasped the fact that the US has already lost control of the middle east & bankrupted itself in the process

And whilst our little political warrior bravely lectures Obama, he & his evil war criminal mates have nothing to say these days about Usama who, according to the conservative "the sky is falling" gangsters, was the greatest threat to humanity.

And does anyone really think that Obama cares what the rodent says? I reckon Pauline Hanson would command greater attention than has-been Howard.

Sure John

I would suggest that our (yuck) rodent does not want to pencil in that day of March 2008 in regard to bringing in the troops back home because he believes the war will and should go on for a lot longer... "as long as it takes" is the motto here but the more the Yanks stay there, more troops or not, the more people in Iraq are resenting the fact they're there, so the "as long as it takes" motto can be estimated at about 20 years or more — if it takes that long to extract all the oil when high-speed pumping is in full swing.

Yes that silly war should have been "mission accomplished" a long time ago but it suits the Yanks to keep a heavy foothold in that part of the Middle East, military and "commercial", thus the insurgency (Shia, Sunnis, Al Quaeda — which was not in Iraq under Saddam — and any unfunny faction that has a beef with anyone else), gives the US that excuse which they turn around by spruiking that if they weren't there the country would be in chaos — a chaos which they created in the first place to suit them staying there.

One must not forget that the war was staged on fat porkies from the Pentagon cultivated from the CIA already porkied intelligence — all in order to suit the US Administration belligerence. And our porkyist in Chief still wants us, the Australian public, to swallow that the UK, Australian and the USA firmly "believed" in Saddam's WMDs. Bollocks! The thin walls of deceit are slowly but surely crumbling around, exposing the truth that intelligence and dossiers were more than sexed up — these dossiers were bought like a bunch of whores by Johnnee, Bushit and Blairote from a few houses of disrepute.

From Our ABC

Howard not sorry for Obama remarks

Prime Minister John Howard has spent Question Time defending his statement that Al Qaeda would be praying for US Democratic Party hopeful Barack Obama to win the presidential election.

Mr Howard has criticised Senator Obama, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, for calling for US troops to be out of Iraq by next March.

Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has accused Mr Howard of acting against Australia's interest.

"That great party, the Democratic Party of the United States, this Prime Minister has said effectively is the preferred party of terrorists," he said.

Mr Howard has refused to apologise.

"If America is defeated in Iraq, the consequences for the West will be catastrophic," he said.

-------------------------

Yes Mr Howard... So how long is this war going to go on? Another year? Wouldn't that be too long anyway? Ah... "Till the job is done..."

Mr Howard, should it occur to you the job will never be done, there or anywhere, because the grind of the "war on terror" may last a thousand years — longer than the never-ceasing wars during the Pax Romana... — since the true goal of this adventure is to plunder as much oil as possible to sustain and grow an Empire? Too bad if the burning of these fossil fuels is going to scorch the earth, eventually... But why should we care since we'll be dead before it happens...?

So... if your mate Georgie bushy is ready not to allow any pumping of Iraqi oil and ready to give that country proper money for reconstruction and improve the way of life of its people, without ANY strings attached, then I would believe your words and intent... Yes, I know. You want to make sure the money is used "wisely" by the corrupt officials of YOUR (Bushit's) choosing. Okay...

But to say "If America is defeated in Iraq, the consequences for the West will be catastrophic," is beyond the pale and untrue... I would say that even if the US were ever victorious in Iraq, there would be, somewhere ,some lunatics with the means and will to do things with concequences that will be catastrophic for the west.

The US can and should leave Iraq now, undefeated, because the US has already achieve its objective: defeating Saddam — a victory which was the (illegal) purpose of the exercise... but nonetheless achieved. Staying there is abusing Iraqi people's nerves. Hoping to achieve anything else is delusion on a grand scale AND breeding more terrorists... On our little planet, there are terrorists, there were terrorists and there always will be terrorists... Trying to defeat them in the way you and that Bushocrap go on about is creating more terrorists than it can ever remove... Your attitude actually helps them get a greater resolve in weaponry and fundamentalist imbecility of dying for cause — only matched by yours and Bushito's, except both of you send other people to die for your illusionary "cause" — a cause based on porkies and deceit.

Bring the troops home, gloriously, now, before someone in an Aussie uniform really gets hurt...