Grotesque.
People from Douma have been to The Hague and spoken of their experiences on the night of a supposed chemical attack by Syrian forces.
International
war
Anzac Day 2018
A post to commemorate Anzac day.
North Korea
When enemies are all around…
Photoshop Wars?
The Independent’s Robert Fisk reports from Douma, where he interviewed one of the clinic doctors who said that the images that outraged Trump, May and Macron were real, but the cause was oxygen starvation from dust, not poisonous gas. Could it be that misleading images started a bombing war? What might this say about Western values?
Compassion?
May claimed she couldn’t wait until Monday before unleashing compassion on Syria on Friday night. Which brought a line from this to mind….
The Government’s response to the Syrian crisis
Jacinda Ardern has accepted the US, UK and French response to the Syrian crisis. Should she have instead condemned it?
The Humanity.
Apparently “this lot” really do care about people.
What’s the Game?
What the hell are Macron, May and Trump playing at?
Crazees and clowns
Can we have some sanity please?
Is this a new cold war?
It’s really easy to get cranky right now and believe the world is retreating into to a sad Cold War binary in which Russia and its allies are always in high tension with the United States and its allies. A new Cold War.
North Korea redux
Does being incoherent work sometimes? With the President of North Korea visiting China for the first time, meeting with the South Korean President for the first time, and preparing to meet with the Japanese President and with the President of the United States, was Trump’s approach actually right for the circumstances?
Still in Denial.
General Tim Keating’s resignation.
Evidence-based foreign policy
In the second stage of a false flag attack, facts go out the window and the sole issue becomes “are you for us or against us.” Our media and National Party politicians are well into this stage in the Skripal affair. But as questions mount and skeptics proliferate from all sides, Jacinda Ardern and Winston Peters may well be wiser than media advisers by not following blindly the western herd. 26 countries is not the whole world. Update: Porton Down unable to establish Novichok of Russian origin.
Democracy, Faux Democracy and Terror.
Facebook, Putin, poisoning and Ghouta have all given fairly extensive media coverage of late. Nothing much on Afrin. Afrin has just fallen to terrorists backed by Turkey.
Update: the photo used for this post is of the The Queer Insurrection and Liberation Army (TQILA), who are part of the International Revolutionary People’s Guerrilla Forces fighting in Syria.
Russian to Judgment
The possible poisoning of Sergei Skripal and the consequent hysteria have all the signs of another false flag operation, as we saw before the second American invasion of Iraq. The chain of circumstantial evidence has more holes in it than a swiss cheese, and while attempted murder (if that is what it is) is a criminal act Winston Peters and Jeremy Corbyn are sane voices calling for evidence before any attribution still less action.
Nicky Hager: Defence admits raid was located in same area as described in Hit and Run
“I believe that the impulse to hide the NZDF’s mistakes led the Chief of Defence Force knowingly to mislead the media and the public.”
Waihopai and North Korea
It’s worth asking ourselves what Goriz Gharaman was doing protesting at Waihopai. It’s the right place to protest.
The Dogs of War
At a Union/NDP conference in March 2002 in Ottawa I saw wall-to-wall US TV attacking Iraq in my room. My caucus report that […]
Solidarity
History not forgotten.
States United.
On how states in conflict, have seemingly and nevertheless, managed to share in the likely or possible creation of one common goal.
Climate Change and the New Zealand Defence Forces
It’s always bugged me that our military forces are under-used in New Zealand. It’s time we invited them to protect us from climate change.
Up in Smoke.
US reverses Federal marijuana stance.
Man of the year and global leader of the year
Why Donald Trump should be considered to be man of the year and why the left should be thinking about why he is succeeding.
Right loses its shit after former criminal lawyer discovered to have acted for bad people
Elements on the internet have claimed that Green MP Golriz Ghahraman must be a genocide supporter because she once acted as a defence lawyer in a war crimes tribunal.
The Yellow Peril?
What’s with the academic panic epidemic about China? Two in our media in the same week, referencing each other with vague warnings about the Chinese bogey. It’s not quite Lionel Terry in Haining Street again; more likely in my view a case of singing to someones else’s geopolitical tune. No prizes for guessing whose.
War.
99 years on from the end of World War I
The Nobel Peace Prize
Last week, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). This is a […]
Passchendaele and Pyongyang
The massive artillery barrage at Passchendaele was supposed to cut the German wire and make advance easy. All it did was churn up the mud though which so many doomed New Zealanders slogged and died. A monument to military incompetence and political disaster. These days they prefer bombs, which are equally deadly and equally futile. Its time we said no more.
Middle East Changes
If there is a change of Government what should Labour do about requests for military assistance in the Middle East?
Political Statues
America is experiencing difficulties because of the celebration by the right of statutes of their racist heroes. Why does New Zealand not have this problem?
Legal action on “Hit and Run” deaths
Lawyers for the villagers in the area allegedly hit in Operation Burnham are taking the Government to court over its refusal to hold an independent inquiry. English responds with some particularly vile spin.
What are our SAS up to? An easy to digest guide!
A short video looking at the major issues in the Hager/Stephenson book ‘Hit and Run’
Fire and Fury over North Korea
Donald Trump may not know it but Koreans certainly remember the last time the United States unleashed fire and fury over North Korea. In the 1950s, B-29s used bombs and napalm to flatten every North Korean city. Gen Curtis Lemay boasted that the USAF killed off 20% of the population. That’s why this time they have nuclear weapons.
“Ongoing cover-up” on Operation Burnham
David Fisher in The Herald exposes yet another NZDF “error” on Operation Burnham. Intelligence analyst Dr Paul Buchanan: “I’m absolutely certain that what we’re seeing is part of the ongoing cover-up.”
The Good the Bad and the Ugly
Ad asks is the world more secure than a year ago? Is the danger of serious economic crisis higher or lower? Are the institutional arrangements and norms that resolve conflicts and enhance the prospects for international cooperation more or less robust than they were in July 2016.
Brownlee lying to the UN over Operation Burnham
The UN called for an investigation into Operation Burnham. Very inconvenient for the Nats who would rather sweep any dead civilians under the carpet and forget them. So naturally Gerry Brownlee responds with a lie.