Known Knowns and All the Other Ones
We cannot know everything and our only option is to trust others who know stuff that we don’t.
International
war
That 1914 Feeling
President Trump personally ordered the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite military Quds force. He was killed by rockets fired from US drones over Baghdad Airport. This is unlawful by any standards, as well as an act of war. Iran has promised retaliation.The doomsday clock just moved closer to midnight.
OPCW Scandal.
There was no chemical attack in Douma.
Legitimate target, daft war
The war that Saudi Arabia and its allies has been waging against the Houthi side in the civil war in Yemen took a […]
Trump sacks Bolton – oil price nosedives!
This has been rumoured for some time now. It’s good news – peace now has a chance, as Trump has woken up to the fact that a shooting war would not be good for his re-election. Also Bolton’s hard-line strategy was failing everywhere.
Missile test shows US bad faith on INF Treaty
US’s recent test of an intermediate range missile shows that the reasons given for its withdrawal from the INF treaty were spurious. It also shows up the gullibility of our MFAT, who voted against a Russian proposal for dialogue late last year in the UN on the grounds that it was a “sidestep.”
The sociopathology of sanctions
Autonomous sanctions imposed on Iran and Venezuela by the US are expressly designed to drive whole populations into poverty to bring about regime change. They are sociopathic. Based on its values, The National Party wants to make such sanctions New Zealand’s policy. Extraodinary!
Nuclear chickens coming home?
The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty between the United State and Russia signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987 formally ended on August 2nd. On Sunday the new US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper dined privately with Winston Peters. Before and during his trip to the Pacific, Mark Esper called for placement of intermediate-range US missiles in Asia.
Government under FiveEyes
Australian Federal Police chief Neil Gaughan told media after raiding the ABC that “if police did not investigate the leaking of classified information, Australia would no longer be entrusted by FiveEyes partners with intelligence that saves lives.” FiveEyes didn’t save Muslim lives in Christchurch.
Auf Wiedersehen Iraq
The Germans and the Dutch have suspended training Iraqi soldiers citing increased tensions in the area. What do they know that Ron Mark doesn’t? Cabinet is due to make a decision shortly on our long-planned decision to withdraw, and he seems to want us to stay. Labour’s policy at the election was to withdraw, it should prevail.
The Brady Papers
Anne-Marie Brady submitted to yesterday’s Select Committee Inquiry into foreign interference in our elections, making copious reference to her “Magic Weapons” paper of 2017. She didn’t mention another paper which casts a much different light on her independence and purpose
Watch out Iran
National Security Advisor John Bolton has announced that the US is sending an aircraft carrier and a bomber task force to the Middle East.
This Is Who We Really Are
As we prepare for ANZAC Day, the Kapiti RSA has been viciously attacked for wanting to show solidarity with NZ’s Muslim community. Maggie writes about what that means and suggests who we really are.
More political interference on Huawei
Here’s another one for the select committee reviewing foreign interference. Visitor from Britain Charlie Parton of the Royal United Services Institute was on Morning Report this morning telling us to avoid Huawei because they are Chinese and different from us. At least he does us a favour by making it clear the matter is political not technical.
Magicked-Up Weapons
I’m glad Anne-Marie Brady will get the chance to present her “Magic Weapons” paper to the select committee examining the last election. At long last it might get given some proper critical examination, of its content as well as it provenance. In my opinion it reads like a long list of the blindingly obvious, mixed with a large dose of conspiracy theory. It certainly doesn’t show much sign of the sort of critical thinking one might expect from an academic.
Jihadi Justice
Should we let the ‘Bumbling Jihadi’ Mark Taylor back into NZ? What message do we send the world if we don’t?
Trump restarts Nuclear Arms race
Donald Trump has announced that the US will be withdrawing from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and Russia has also given notice. Stand by as the nuclear arms race restarts.
Trump’s brilliant strategy to dismantle US dollar hegemony
Polymath economist Professor Michael Hudson’s latest article is a geopolitical panoramic masterpiece, sparked by outrage at a series of concurrent events on January 31 which he predicts means that 2019 will be the “year of global fracture.” Definitely worth a read.
Spooked!
The GCSB ban on Spark’s use of Huawei technology means this government has gone from “honest broker” to poodle in a very short time. Pressure has been applied by the US and others, apparently fearing we are the “soft underbelly” of the Five Eyes spy network. Maybe its time we got out of that too – it was designed for war.
Political interference
China certainly has interfered in New Zealand politics, most notably by the offer of a free trade deal which delivered huge benefits to our economy. Party and government officials all stressed to us that they were grateful for New Zealand’s support for their accession to the World Trade Organisation, the rule-based trade body. The US and Australia in contrast want to build a military base on Manus Island north of Papua.
My civics – the New Zealand civil war
While looking at a missing post on Briefing Papers, I ran across some material on deficiencies in our current education regime looking at our civil war in the 19th century. So I wrote this post about why I personally think that it matters.
Saudi Arabia and the United States
Saudi Arabia is preparing to admit that the U.S. resident and investigative reporter did indeed die in their embassy in Turkey.
Second Kremlin Killer Unmasked, Putin Untroubled
We know the real names of the Russian spies who bungled the Salisbury novichok poisoning. Will it make a difference to the Kremlin’s plans?
Quite a day or two then!
A quick smorgasbord of reported news from Syria, to China and Sweden, to antisemitism and (hidden behind the links) an interview with (hopefully) the first woman who will serve as President of the USA.
Updated
“That day” in September.
Towers bore me.
Zionism and Anti-Semitism Both Suck
Jeremy Corbyn has a problem. His supporters are struggling to seperate anti-Zionism from anti-racism and the Tories can’t believe their luck. UK Labour desperately need to turn around the narrative that they’re tolerant of bigotry. And in just two days, a definition is going to define Corbyn.
Propaganda Wars.
No-one reading this blog would willfully offer support to an ideology that’s killing people, right?
World peace may be needed to deal with climate change
Imagine what we could do about climate change if there were no wars.
Trump meets Putin
Some things that President Trump won’t do as when meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.
Petrol is going up, and up
Not all the current government’s fault, but the arrival of the fuel tax this weekend heralds a number of very sharp rises in what we have to pay in order to run a car.
And then there was….
The aftermath of Douma chemical attacks and Skripal poisonings…
The Iraq War
Over the next week or two I will be doing blog posts about student politics and my time at university. Here is the first one…
The War on Carbon
Or a conscientious objection to any War on Climate Change, or War on Global Warming.
This is a China Play
What was the game plan behind the Trump-Kim Jong Un meeting in Singapore yesterday?
Trump was right … and then …
Donald Trump has had a few months of being lucky with some luck Foreign Affairs wins and good economic news. But his wreckage-trail of his consequences is becoming longer and clearer.
No Iran Israeli War.
In spite of all the sharp intakes of breathe going on across media outlets, there will be no war between Iran and Israel. Here’s why.