Two years ago we were assaulted with the spectacle of Bono and Bob Geldof promising to help 聯make poverty history聰. The two pop stars, both well past their use-by date, played leading roles in organising the 2005 anti-poverty Live 8 concerts and as a result scored a much-reported invite to address the July 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland. That summit adopted a debt-relief and aid plan for Africa hailed by Bono as a 聯little piece of history聰. Geldof declared the summit a 聯qualified triumph聰 for the world聮s poor. The issue of global warming also featured at the Gleneagles meeting, with the G8 resolving to 聯act with resolve and urgency聰 to tackle climate change.
Rohan Pearce
In the wake of the Democratic Party taking control of the US House of Representatives and Senate in the November 2006 elections, hopes were high among the more liberal layers of the anti-war movement that it spelled an end to President George Bush鈥檚 Iraq war. No-one seriously doubted that behind the Democrats鈥 electoral resurrection was anger about the war, by that stage over three-and-a-half years long.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions has declared it will go ahead with an April 3-4 鈥渟tay away鈥 by workers despite the wave of repression suffered by opponents of President Robert Mugabe鈥檚 regime and authorities鈥 threats to crush the ZCTU strike. Already ZCTU members have been arrested, their offices raided and material relating to the stay away confiscated.
February 23 marked the deadline for submissions to the federal parliament鈥檚 Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCT) on the new Australia-Indonesia 鈥渟ecurity鈥 pact. If there is any uncertainty about the hypocrisy that underlies Australia鈥檚 neo-colonial foreign policy, then this treaty 鈥 a 鈥渕ending the fences鈥 exercise after the federal government granted asylum to 43 pro-independence West Papuan refugees in 2006, and, before that, Canberra鈥檚 reluctant 1999 intervention in East Timor 鈥 should end it.
It seems like an overly cliched script with a plot so tired that even Hollywood聮s dross-marketing machine might think twice about touching it: a Mid-East nation led by an aggressive regime with a record of violating human rights whenever it feels like (which turns out to be often) threatens countries in the region with its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. But, in a twist unlikely to make it into the next blockbuster, according to a January 7 article in London聮s Sunday Times, it聮s the Israeli military that聮s planning to use nuclear weapons, not the 聯mad Arabs聰 that are the more conventional WMD-toting movie villains.
In what seems to be becoming a signature atrocity of US President George Bush鈥檚 鈥渨ar on terror鈥, US air strikes hit a Somali wedding ceremony, according to a January 10 BBC Online report. Up to 31 people were killed. The BBC quoted the account of an elder in Banka-Jiira, a grazing area, who told the news service鈥檚 Somali branch: 鈥淭here have been air strikes carried out by American planes in these areas since Sunday. Here in the Banka-Jiira area, which is the largest grazing area in the Juba Valley region, we have been hard hit. There have been several air strikes over nearby Booji grazing area too. The most unfortunate incident was an attack on a big wedding ceremony 鈥
鈥淚鈥檓 just, I鈥檓 a little concerned with all this hysteria over this greenhouse gases and the environment, that the Liberal Party is not selling your message the way you sold it now to Leon, and that it鈥檚 not getting through to the average man in the street鈥 鈥 this is what 鈥淓mile鈥, an 鈥渦nashamed supporter鈥 of Prime Minister John Howard, had to say to the PM on November 2, during Leon Byner鈥檚 talkback show on Adelaide鈥檚 Radio 5AA.
"War, what is it good for?", asked Edwin Starr in his 1970 hit single "War". The answer he gave was "absolutely nothin'!", a sentiment no doubt shared by most people.
"I hear there's rumours on the internets [sic] that we're going to have a draft. We're not going to have a draft, period. The all-volunteer army works... We're not going to have a draft so long as I'm the president", George Bush
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US, President George Bush's speechwriters have never been shy about employing grand, bombastic turns of phrase. The commentators of the corporate media treat his empty and dishonest phraseology as profoundly important. Despite the White House's deceptions in the lead-up to the Iraq war and the continuing lie that Iraq is being 鈥渓iberated鈥, Bush's November 6 announcement of Washington's 鈥渘ew policy鈥 鈥 鈥渁 forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East鈥 鈥 was not greeted with the derision it deserved.
US warplanes dropped cluster bombs on the Iraqi town of Hilla. The deadly anti-personnel weapons are also believed to have been used in assaults on Najaf, Nasiriya and Basra by US-led invasion forces. Cluster munitions
US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) has issued a report on the controversial use of cluster bombs in the war on Afghanistan. The report, Fatally Flawed: Cluster Bombs and Their Use by the United States in Afghanistan, reveals that the
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