Well while immigration dominates OLO comments this day I attempted (manfully) to unearth holes in Kellie's latest diatribe of good sense and peaceful intent. Using "Kellie" and not "Ms Tranter" as I like to remain on first name terms with people I respect and constantly disagree with.

Failure :( An attempt weaken Kellie's leadin by white-anting Thoreau's record of profound achievement went down like a flaming budgie. Thoreau's life and beliefs, including transcendentalism, which I (sort of) follow, where exemplary. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau

Even Thoreau's early death could not be blamed on grog or the pox, but TB.

Kellie presents a convincing set of legal arguments for the US and vassals not to be in Afghanistan. But legality (that touchstone of codified politics) is Kellie's speciality and national interests are mine.

In that regard the US is in poor Afghanistan (sexual imagery be forgotten) in spite of that poor forgotten relation of US national interests, international (UN) law.

US national interests include:

- projecting US power into central Asia while US military power is still dominant.

- excluding from the Afghan area Russian power down from the northern "stans" and Chinese power from the east.

- keeping India happy by nailing down Pakistan directly in Pak and in Pak's backyard (Afghanistan) partly due to Pak's tendency to launch terrorist ops into India and insurgents into contested Kashmir.

- pressuring and monitoring Pakistan's democracratic-military-ISI balance which impacts on the containability of Pak's energetic nuclear weapon (Islamic Bomb) genie

- reminding Iran next door that the US/Western military ARE next door and powerful (similar effect on Pak (as above))

- gives US military a sizable Mission (raison d'être) with a sizable budget totalling all up One Trillion US Dollars per year for the whole US defence sector.

(by Peter Coates cont'd)

(part 2 of attempt to refute humanitarian good sense)

Further on US national interest components

- money and foreign policy muscle provides the US military with profound influence over US domestic political and economic behaviour, pork-barrelling, defence factories in Congressional districts, defence corporate campaign funding for both Parties and revolving door jobs for Pentagon officials (excluding DefSec Gates who I like).

- the US military can obliquely point to the value of nearby oil, gas and pipeline projects in the area - although, on closer examination, the net utility of these hydrocarbon factors is minute compared to the human, material and political cost to the US of the war

- However US Presidents cannot resist the power of the military-industrial complex so they need to combat it sideways through such measures as covertly authorised Wiki"leaks" - like this one.

= Obama cannot take on the US conservatives of both Parties who support the Afghan War so his current Leak is hoping to weaken their pro-Occupation (Boots on Ground) arguments by showing with leaked facts why surges and Boots on the Ground are ineffectual and self-defeating.

- Meanwhile putting on Aus hat and casting US reasons to be in Afghanistan aside: Australia must support the US as the US' most loyal ally in Afghanistan because we need the US defence umbrella. We have built a dependent defence and foreign policy tradition to the extent that we have no-where else to go. No room for manoeuvre.

Extra-ordinary options for Australia need to be contemplated - between eventual appeasement or neutrality vis a vis China or nuclear armed neutrality on the 1960s Swedish model a la http://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2010/07/australia-should-stick-with-us-until-we.html or something in between – over the next 20 years.

And in this last regard I don't think Kellie is going to agree on Aus-indigenous nuclear weapons...

So the broader national interest realism vs humanitarian liberalism debate continues.

And I'm happy to be part of it :)

Peter Coates

We know that Iraq was a lie.There were no weapons of mass destruction.Vietnam was as lie and so will be the invasion of Iran be a lie.

Prior Sept 11 Afganistan produced no heroine.Now the USA is there,it produces 92% of the world's heroine.How cannot the most powerful military machine on the planet not subdue a few Afghan cave dwellers?
The answer is ,for a few global corporates money in selling arms,drugs and getting oil from Turkmenistan through Afganistan ,Pakistan to the Caspian Sea over rides all human misery.

The USA/Israel are the clear aggressors.Since Ronald Reagon promoted a policy of pre-emptive aggression,the USA have been the clear destablisers of relations on this planet.They have attacked and invaded Nth Korea,Vietnam,Iraq,Afghanistan,Pakistan and interferred with the politics of many countries around the planet.

So Peter Coates,do you want to debate some real issues.What is the price of your nuclear umbrella?

Yes, a new hero. Think back to Ed Murrow, later the whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and Woodward and Bernstein unmasking Watergate.
And the lying scum they have to deal with.

I agree with Ms Tranter's assessment of Julian Assange and his work.

I found it highly ironic that when Wikileaks released their latest information, they were accused of putting lives at risk!

Amazing, isn't it, how loss of life becomes a concern only when somebody challenges the conduct of a war.

Hi Arjay

Your first 3 paras, highlighting the historical duplicity of US foreign/defence policy certainly provides room for FUTURE discussion of nuclear weapons for Australia as a useful discourse.

Your arguments do not refute or touch on the cost of Australian nuclear weapons within the timeframe for initial deployment which I envisage to be 2025-2030.

Cost has many aspects, including opportunity cost, which must take into account the A$100 Billion to be spent by Australia on conventional weapons in the next 5-6 years
- noting South Afria produced nuclear weapons for $800 million all up.

Regards

Pete
http://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2010/08/iranian-googling-and-amateur-sigint.html

You could smell another Dr Haneef, coming from a certain trajectory.
Is Assange's challenge too much for them ignore, as to "national security"- will they get at whistleblowers, also?
Are there the laws to get him in a bind, if they choose to do so and what recourse does Assange have on or to law, himself?
NOW do people see the reason behind Conroy's idiot porn net filter thingie?

This explosive expose from Kellie Tranter, is both Pyrrhic and evocative. In a moral sense, it is well overdue. The ADF, like the Pentagon will do some soul searching in seeking out the " moles " and going into turbo-overdrive, in damage control..Not before time.

Whistle blowers come in all forms and sizes. Govts, Corporations, Business, and the Military, regard them as the pariah-scum of the Earth. They en kindle more damage then tsunamis in their midst, and often the ramifications topple Govts, stakeholders, movers and shakers. The inevitable fall out, attracts more scorn than eulogies. The shock-waves lasts for interminable periods. Significantly, it goes against the flow and status quo. Most regard it has heresy, treachery and wanton breach of trust, and are offended by the perceived " truth ", and it's ambivalence.

The aftermath: a closure of ranks; more secrecy; vilification; less exposure to ridicule. In perspective, it's their livelihood. Every means at their disposal will be facilitated to defend it e.g Pope Benedict XIV pederast priest. More lies and damn lies.

The Wikileaks, is an incredible volatile, if not more damaging than the Pentagon Papers ( 1945-67 ) of Daniel Ellsberg. 39 Years ago - to be exact, and published by the Washington Post. It created an Almighty furore. It led to President Johnson's abrupt demise. Impeachment for President Nixon, and tarnished the image of the Pentagon. It sent convulsions right through the White House, Congress, and the American Nation. To it's credit, it ended the Vietnam War. Saved countless lives. Restored sanity to a topsy-turvy World run by giant Business conglomerates, that profited ( and still do ) from the ' arms race '. In Oz, it brought home our troops.

The Pentagon Papers mk II or Iraq/Afghanistan Wikileaks, comprising some 95,000+ top secret pamphlets, is the greatest revelation in Military History. Will go down in the Guinness Book of Records, World Encyclopedia, Wikipedia etc as the millennium milestone of the Century. Inexorably, there will be ructions galore.Security, as we know it, will never be the same again.

Realistically, but for the Internet - which

cont..

Kelly,
Wert thou unaware twas not so much Julian Assange the modern hero were,
but Bradley Manning, the noblest American of them all?
Alack, for Bradley the course of true love never did run smooth.
Parting with his boyfriend was such sweet sorrow that Bradley sought to salve the winter of his discontent.
He set a plague on both Obama’s houses for their failure to countenance asking and telling .
Thinking that the better part of valour was indiscretion he strove to catch the tide in the affairs of men
when sadness is gay and traitors are cast as heroes.
The spear that he shook at his government shall surely strike at the necks of their allies.

has revolutionized the way we operate, live,work, socialise, the travesty might not have been so readily exposed.It should come as no surprise, especially the Intel community, and Govt's calling for censorship / filtering / blocking of Google etc to prevent citizens from free access, as a ridicules mindless overkill.

Ironically, the National security agencies around the World will from now on, be on high alert. Not nearly as much as in the US, which boasts 138+ Federal Agencies, and twice as many State / Military offshoots, which overlap each other.

Since the 9/11 debacle, there has been an increase of billions in Fed spending to ameliorate the Bin Laden bogey, despite the Arizona / Texas/ California/ New Mexico / Canadian borders which allow free rein to tens of thousands of illegal immigrants on social security and food stamps ?

During WWII, the Brits at Bleechy Park had cracked the Wehrmacht " enigma " code, known only to an exclusive few, as "ultra". Most of the Allied success's from Montgomery, Paton, Eisenhower etc are attributed to the efficacy of the code breakers. Churchill, very reluctantly agreed to share the data with the US Allies. History records, his qualms were vindicated when the Allies on more than 3 occasions imperiled it's existence. !

The Pentagon has gone to extraordinary radical lengths to mitigate the wikileaks. It has claimed initially forgery, loss of lives, breach of National Security, undermining of Military confidentiality, etc It has disingenuously condemned the messenger / whistle blower !
It has attempted to block Julian Assange's web site permanently. It has discredited, defamed, maligned, subverted and misconstrued the entire shenanigans as Media hype, and a paparazzi beat up.

The reality,specially from a Democratic Institution, is a sad reflection of the way News is handled, and the intrinsic values of a free press, which have been ruthlessly compromised. It takes more Assange's and Kellie Tranter's, to expose this insidious cancer. Given half the chance, will blanket censor information, that is prejudicial to their egregious schadenfreude.

One of the salient hazards of keeping secrets in a vault, is the human

cont..

human aspect which predictably is the weak flaw, in the chain of command. The FBI, CIA, MI6, ASIO etc because of it's destructive milieu, have discarded the polygraph, as a crucial tool for all their Operatives. It was viewed as too invasive, unreliable, and incompatible with modern Intelligence systems - even though it is still used Universally by all, to track down, interrogate, supposedly errant terrorist, and suspicious persons of interest ? Courts across the Land, do not accept evidence based testimony from polygraph tests. However,there is increasing evidence, the tests do achieve it's perimeters. Moreover, it has vindicated many spurious suspicions.

With refinements, technology and Psychological expertise, the outcomes are less problematical, and have unerringly vindicated itself as a useful strategic methodology in Guantamo gulag. Despite claims to the contrary, when tests are conducted on subjects on their sexual proclivities, gender preferences, and bedroom antics, the tests become inconclusive ? It isn't hard to imagine a Senior Public servant with 10 or more years service, within the PM's holy sanctum, denying on oath he/she is a pederast ? Therein, lies the predicament in a nutshell.

The Wikileaks, alike the Pentagon Papers reveal the horrific falsehood, and damnable propaganda the Iraq/Afghanistan War has spawned. Civilian casualties, slush money, Mafia tactics, endemic corruption, etc implicating dozens. It is an exercise in greed, duplicity, subornment, fraudulence and utter betrayal, by highly paid people. Entrusted, and supposedly motivated by high-ceiling ideals. They abrogated their sworn duty to serve their Country. Worst, they have embroiled their Allies in their deceit.

At the end of the Day, it begs the question, Just whom do you trust ?
Pathetic. Bring home Our troops.

I agree with the title of the article. Julian Assange certainly is my modern day hero. He, and Noam Chomsky, along with relatively few persons in public life, make up my main source of 'truth' in a world so contaminated with lies.

Others have mentioned that the 'Australian of the year' is up for grabs! And some have suggested that Julian Assange should be a prominent candidate for that award. I agree with that also, and towards those ends have added my own nomination at http://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/
and gave my reasons why I think he should win this award. It could be fantastic if we Australians showed our support for a fellow Australian, in his fight for truth. I have outlined my arguments (however poorly) on my own small blog:
http://svaens.blogspot.com/2010/08/julian-assange-for-australian-of-year.html
Perhaps others would like to do the same.

The irony of those conducting wars that have cost enormous loss of civilian life - and who have studiously avoided publicising how many - accusing the wikileaks founder of having blood on his hands is palpable.
I suspect Mr Assange could end up finding out first hand how the US security and intelligence services deals with those it perceives to be enemies. He's a brave man to do what he's been doing and is probably well aware that it's the whistleblower that ends up (if very lucky) facing criminal charges, not the perpetrators of any criminal acts they exposed. As people who passed information to Wikileaks are discovering for themselves.
I thought after 9/11 that 'terrorism' should be treated as crime not war and international law should be strengthened, not weakened, in response. Instead terrorism has become the excuse for the most powerful nation in the world to ignore international law and engage in a protracted war against Iraq (that had no role in 9/11), international abductions (watch out Julian)and in torture and imprisonment without trial. As far as winning hearts and minds, the war against terror has been a failure, has weakened the will of the mainstream media to be critical (don't want to be considered a traitor by failing to show full support) with the loss of good information that is essential to reasoned debate within democracies and has, as all occupying forces do, hardened resistance amongst lots of people who otherwise would not have considered it to be about them.
Make no mistake, the perpetrators of that mass murder needed to be tracked down and brought to justice, but the doctrine of all theatre domination and unshakeable conviction within the Hawks of the US military that it could achieve quick and easy victory seems naive in retrospect.