The Australian media appears to have given up the task of asking Prime Minister John Howard hard questions about the Iraq War. This is regrettable, given that Howard has never provided a credible explanation for why our soldiers went into Iraq, what they are doing there, or how and when they will ever come home. A proper analysis of these questions reveals some hard facts about Australian society, the business of politics, and Australia’s place in the world today.

Why The USA Invaded Iraq Read more »

It has often been said that as Australians we have a predilection for remembering and even celebrating our failures. The ABC does a lot of remembering at these times. This year there have been a couple of segments covering an event that may eventually take over from ANZAC in our consciousness, an event that occurred 90 years ago on the third ANZAC Day. Read more »

Interest in nuclear weapons has faded a lot since the Cold War. These days, the possibility of nuclear confrontation between major powers isn’t treated terribly seriously, because the costs of such an exchange would be too horrible to contemplate. And, anyway, both the Russians and the US have been reducing their nuclear arsenals, right? Instead, concerns lay much more around nuclear terrorism, on the assumption that terrorists can’t be deterred by the threat of destruction. Read more »

The Cowboys and Indians language of evildoers and other Manichean simplicities beloved of George W. Bush once upon a time might have been compared to the moral verities of comic book super heroes. Except that the most interesting of the classic comics were always the ones where ethical decisions were taken in a gray zone, or where “good” and “evil” weren’t so clearcut and easily distinguishable. Read more »

… is already taking shape. 298 days to go.

The Pakistani election is a significant milestone, with a changed approach being signalled to the US envoys who visited there this week and to Bush himself: Read more »