Hi James,

You're partly right, the US has to work with some ver4y unsavoury regi9mes, in order to combat even more unsavoury regimes. And so much can go wrong when you work with totally untrustworthy despots, to use your word, most accurate if I may say so.

So what's your remedy ? We all keep out of it, and let ISIS run rampant over nation after nation ? Because, with their ideology of world domination (or is that just US propaganda ?), sooner or later, it will be us. Don't think you can somehow make a deal, because if you are on the Left (it's so hard to tell these days) you will amongst the first up against a wall, with some psychotic punk holding up your head. Still, you might be on Youtube :)

Assuming you are on the Left, we, you and I, have to confront the reality of an extremely reactionary ideology being fought for across perhaps a few million square kilometres now, from the Atlantic to Afghanistan, soon to be extended into India. This ideology is the most anti-progressive force in the world today, deliberately anti-human (in order to mark the difference between humanity and the divine will of Allah), an ideology that no genuine Leftist in his right mind would ever associate with.

We have to make very hard choices: soon enough, we will have to choose between ISIS and the US and its coalition. The time to carp and bitch about how evil the US is will come again later. There's a far more serious issue to be dealt with first.

Joe

Would James O'Neill, David G and Ojnab please be so kind as to tell us how the West should handle the current problem in Iraq. Please tell us what ISIS will be doing next year if the West in collaboration with a few Muslim countries doesn't confront them.

I'm getting sick of people comparing the USA to some evil dark force intent on taking over the world and enslaving everyone. The US is far from perfect, but if you were forced to choose between living in the USA or Australia or living in Iraq, Iran, Syria, or Russia, there's no question where you would go you pack of hypocrites... and if there is then why don't you get on your bikes and go there if its so great.

How about showing some support for a change.

Joe, you ask "what's your remedy"? In order to produce a solution one must first correctly identify the problem. IS is not THE problem, it is the result of a more fundamental problem. Its origins and characteristics were well explained in the three articles I cited in an earlier post. None of the are "left" commentators for what such labels are worth.

The fundamental problem is that for at least the past 70 years the US has been the main source of instability and war throughout the world. See William Blum's September anti-Empire Report post for an update. Facts you never see discussed in the Oz media. The reality is amply documented.

It is accompanied by an immense propaganda barrage that seeks to persuade us that however muddled or disastrous those US interventions have been they have always been done with the best of intentions.

If one cannot get past that propaganda and see it for what it is, then dialogue is as useless as talking to the proverbial brick wall. You will recognise the main culprits on this website with comparative ease.

It follows in my view (neither left, right nor any other unhelpful labelling) that in order to prevent the problems from arising in the first place one must cease the activities that give rise to the problems. As you are no doubt aware, one definition of insanity is to repeat the same process and expect a different result.

I have no confidence that the US will change in my lifetime, although radical changes are nearer than many think. I do however, care enough about Australia to be dismayed by what Bruce Haigh correctly identified as Abbott's rush to the cliff.

continued

continued:

If we do not formulate a more intelligent foreign policy (a huge ask I know) that genuinely reflects Australia's interests, then we are doomed to involvement in and endless series of other people's wars. In the Middle East we hear the same arguments that were used to justify the Vietnam War. That was lie then, designed to hide an imperialist agenda. It is equally a lie today, whether it is in the Middle east, Ukraine, or elsewhere.

There are those who believe that aligning ourselves with endless American lawlessness ( and I use the word advisedly - see Phillipe Sands for example) we are making an ongoing series of down payments on some form of US guaranteed insurance policy. That is dangerously naive as well as self-evidently against our real interests.

The unipolar world of 1945-2000 is changing rapidly, much more so than the msm either recognises or acknowledges. How much coverage for example, has been given to this month's SCO conference?

We have a choice in Australia, notwithstanding Abbott's bumble headed approach fully supported by the deplorable Shorten. Do we continue with the old world or do we seek a range of policies that reflect our real interests, ones that recognise our geographical location and the overwhelming importance of our traded relationships.

Ask yourself a simple question. Of the world's 190 or so countries, how many have raised their security level to "high" as a result of the latest rounds in the Middle East? I think that thou will find it is a very small number. What do they have in common those that have raised their security levels? They have all joined in the latest burst of war-mongering in the Middle East. That should tell you something.

Hi James,

Just working my way through your article:
WHY AUSTRALIA’S PRESENCE IN AFGHANISTAN IS UNTENABLE
on http://www.journalof911studies.com/volume/2010/AustraliasUntenable.pdf

I think it's a little paranoid, with a blanket disavowal that al Qa'ida was involved in 9/11, and a shortage of alternative strategies, but I'll keep at it :)

I think you are bit hard on Abbott, I suspect he's a lot more hard-headed about any relationship with the US than you suggest, I don't go much on the 'puppet' stuff. I'd leave that to Arjay on the right and others on the left.

Joe

Thank you James for an excellent answer to Joe, perhaps Joe doesn't know that Credo says : Stop the rush to another disastrous war in the Middle East and asking for the ordinary people to sign the petition. Abbott unfortunately opens his big smirky mouth and rushes into anything the US may want, Julia Gillard was no better.
ConservationHippie you wonder why we question the USA in war games, one example being the dropping of cluster bombs in Laos, these bombs have crippled many Laos people with legs, arms, blindness or death
being the result of stepping on these bombs, they possibly will be there for one hundred years or more, the USA should be in that country cleaning up its dirty deeds, of course as David G pointed out there are many other cruel acts by the US.
The US is circling China with its war games in Australia ,India ,Japan, has China indicated to us that we are on the hit list, why don't we have Chinese troops in the areas mentioned for war games with the US
Ordinary people do not want wars, it is warmongering Governments that are the problem, unfortunately those in power never ever join the front ranks of the killing fields, perhaps if we returned to the days of old where they led the battle there would be no wars, somebody else can get killed but not me, likewise Joe and CH you fit that role as well.