Agree with you David G, the USA seems to poke its nose into all countries on earth, they always being right and every one else wrong, but they normally end up making a mess of everything they touch, wish we knew who really shot down the Malaysian flight, as one article stated Obama and Co have made no mention of it since eighth August, perhaps Putin may be let off the hook, but we will never know the truth if the good old friends of the USA did it, will we?

Unfortunately a rather realistic assessment of the ultimately dangerous situation the world is facing, notably when seen from Europe.

>> A rapprochement with Russia should be the order of the day, but instead we get old school Cold War belligerence that we all thought was well past its use by date. <<

There are also respectable (in addition to many not-so-respectable) American voices that assess the situation similarly,. For instance, re Ukraine:

“Imagine the American outrage if China built an impressive military alliance and tried to include Canada and Mexico.” (http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/141769/john-j-mearsheimer/why-the-ukraine-crisis-is-the-wests-fault).

How come this excellent article got so little commentary? It seems that Australia is largely inhabited by American apologists or American spies.

Will the real Australians please come back.

All is forgiven!