Politicians across the world behave according to the standards that are placed upon them by the electorate, the media, the democratic framework and special interest groups. In Australia, there is an absence of quality and meaningful debate on public policy in general and foreign policy in particular. This means that politicians and their advisers can sometimes get away with poor policy decisions and actions that are not in the national interest. The culture of denying the community the right to shape public policy needs to change. OLO is to be congratulated for giving voice to writers and communities in relation to public policy and foreign policy.

That Australia is hand-in-hand with the U.S. will eventually come back to haunt us.

The U.S. is a nation driven by greed: greed for power and greed for treasure. Its leaders, in the main, are psychopaths and its people, in the main, are either brain-dead or hopelessly indoctrinated.

Because of American stupidity and imperialism, the world is being drawn into a nuclear arms race that no one can win. Human extinction is guaranteed.

Isn't it time for you to join the dots?

Having joined the dots as David G has done and come to the same conclusion, I still can't figure WHY India won't sign on to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Anyone know?

I have no idea why India won't sign the NPT, but Iran has signed it, and signed additional protocols into the bargain. The result is that not only are we ready to sell uranium to non-signatory India, but we wouldn't sell to signatory Iran under any circumstances (not that they need it or are asking for it).
And it looks and sounds like we are champing at the bit to follow the US and Israel into starting another unnecessary war, this time with Iran.
So much for our "independent" seat at the UN.

Dear EmperorJulian

It's quite simple: Pakistan - India's arch enemy - has the bomb and is seen by India as it's major threat.

Anything to appease the miners and get India to send more students to be fleeced by shonky education providers.

You will all note that this decision to sell Uranium to India was done soon after India sent its second in charge to CHOGM.It was supposed to Commonwealth Heads of Govt.The USA told us to sell and we did.They want to keep India and China at loggerheads so NATO can futher encircle China.It is all about the New World Order of one fascist Govt for us all.

To Mr Opinion

Yes, Pakistan is why India has nukes. But it doesn't explain the refusal to agree to no proliferation. Who would India want to proliferate nukes to?

Dear EmperorJulian

It would be a contradiction for India to adhere to a non-proliferation agreement while still maintaining nuclear weapons.

Australia supplying uranium to India will help India develop its economy and also further develop its nuclear weapons capacity.

I find most of this author's work often extremely offensive; and or, quite blatant rabble rousing; or, barely veiled, mischievous, vexatious, risible, mendacious verisimilitude?
The wars between white and blacked ended many decades ago, with all participants now lying mouldering in the ground.
[One fine day in the middle of the night,
two dead men got up to fight.
Back to back the faced each other,
drew their swords and shot each other.
Arguably the only way we might now resolve, long dead and now no longer relevant, racial based issues.]
John seems to sound more like a radicalising, pulpit pounding preacher, than any kind of completely impartial social commentator?
He was, as many might recall, the very partisan Julian Assange supporter?
Apparently it's not okay or moral for some newspapers or Journalists, to steal/hack sordid little secrets from private citizens, but perfectly okay, to buy/hack into and reveal/sell state secrets, that could conceivably result in hundreds condemned to die?
John is of course, or as usual, strangely silent on the recent attempt by Taliban terrorists, to murder completely innocent girls.
He however, I believe, attempts to quite viciously, condemn or denigrate Julia, whose very recent trip to India was nothing short of a completely resounding success, and a major foreign policy triumph!
Perhaps these combined commentaries or lack thereof, simply identify Pilgar, as just a particularly unpleasant, sh-t stirring misogynist?
Alan Jones move over!?
Rhrosty.

Don't worry, Rhosty, the extremely progressive Mr Pilger is probably writing a brilliant article in support of that wonderful little girl at this very moment, once he controls his indignation at the cowardly acts of the reactionaries in Pakistan, shooting girls in the fact, and burning down their schools. 'Real men'.

He may even put it up on OLO :) Alongside that of the semi-feminist Germain Greer, she (is that allowed? 'She?) who initiated remarks about our Prime Minister's physique.

Any news of those efforts, Graham ?

Perhaps we shouldn't hold our breaths.

While I don't agree with many of Pilger's solutions to inequality,he does speak the truth about Western Imperialism and their unfair demonisation of Muslims to steal their oil and bring in their fascist New World Order.

Sorry, spelling error - I meant to type " .... the cowardly acts of the reactionaries in Pakistan, shooting girls in the face, and burning down their schools."

Perhaps Mr Pilger will lead a campaign to behead all those who shoot young girls in the face, for wanting an education.

I would certainly be tempted to join in with him, if he did.

But I don't know where Germaine might stand on that 'cultural' issue.

What a pass some of us on the Left have come to.

Arjay,

With bombing attacks somewhere every day, from Mali and Nigeria to Indonesia and the Philippines, in Afghanistan and God know where else, it's completely legitimate for anybody to criticise the Islamists involved.

And not even the Macquarie Dictionary would agree with your definition of 'fascism'. But judging by the acts of Boko Haram and the other Islamists in West Africa, one would not have to look far for something that looks like fascism - after all, isn't the use of terror one of its hallmarks ?

The world is very many-sided, Arjay - there are many, many forces fighting for local or universal ascendancy, all in their different ways, from the US to China, to the Catholic Church to neo-tsarism in Russia, to Islamist, even to crackpot evangelical Christianity: they all have their axes to grind.

But on balance, I don't think the US is particularly 'fascist': there are far more fascist forces than the Yanks therse days. You might have to find another angle, Arjay.

Cheers,

Joe

Loudmouth the CIA MOSSAD and their mercenaries are in these African and Middle Eastern countries stirring up trouble so they have an excuse to invade.

Arjay, if you wish to assert, you must prove. What evidence do you have that the various al Qa'idas and Islamic fronts and screwball groups like Boko Haram are mere puppets in the hands of the CIA and Mossad ? If you have no evidence, yet still 'believe', then you should question either your sanity - are you being just paranoid ? - or your integrity - are you being merely opportunistic, ready to accuse one 'side' without evidence, and excuse the 'other side' even with ample evidence, including their own admissions ?

Perhaps there is a ranking of fascisms, from mild to extreme ? So where would the Islamist groups in Mali fit, who are blowing up historic monuments (as did the Taliban), cutting off the hands of thiefs and stoning women who have been raped, and who are after all, now damaged goods ? Are these things happening in the US ? Is Obama calling for young girls to be shot in the face, or beheaded, or have their schools burnt down ? Are punk rockers being gaoled for performing in churches in the US, and sent off to Gulags (who would have known ?) Are people sent out to labour camps for doing the wrong sort of art in the US, as in China ?

Find evidence, Arjay, then you can assert. Don't just pluck it out of the air, because it sort of 'makes sense'.

Good luck with that.