Arjay, hopefully as long as we keep on selling our resources to the world we should be ok . true, re the us , we are in a difficult position as far as war goes as we are relatively defenceless on our own. howard's reluctant signing of the asian non agression treaty is a good idea in the circumstances.
i wonder if john stone was happy with that . somehow i don't so .
if our big business, big growth government continues to want the migrants -lets hear their solutions to the prickly social problems that now have arisen.
we must learn from the flaws in the english migrant experience - why has it failed ? was because of horrible war in afghanistan and iraq; racial intolerance and ignorance,or is it purely religion at fault, or maybe a warped idea of what "democracy" entitles us to do ?

Arjay, I have no desire to live under a totalitarian form of Islam, or inded of any other religion or ideology. I’m not suggesting that we should adopt those values, nor that we should open our borders to anyone, regardless of their desire to adapt to Australian ways. What I am saying is that there is no conflict between “Australian ways” and good Muslim people like my Kurdish friends.

We shouldn’t just be trying to separate “potential terrorists” from others: we should also be looking at what Western countries are doing that might actually be encouraging otherwise sane young men to become terrorists. How could I look Rozh in the face and say to him “Sorry mate, you are not like us, you are a potential terrorist and people like you should not be allowed into this country”? That seems to me to be far more likely to create disaffection than reduce it.

There may well be more nutter Muslims than nutter Christians, but that is no argument for excluding sensible Muslims. After all, more men than women become mass murderers, but that doesn’t mean we should ban all men as potential mass murderers.

Regarding coat tails and the USA, I do think there is a viable alternative. If we were to work more closely together with New Zealand, Canada and the UK – countries with which we have deep cultural and institutional ties – we could be part of the world’s second military power. We wouldn’t need to cling to coat tails, because we would be significant regional partners. We should be strengthening ties between these key Commonwealth countries, not frittering them away

Thank you Ian for putting my thoughts into words - you have saved me much valuable time and your post was far more succinct than I could produce at this early hour and with limited time.

I think the main benefit to come from John Stone's article is that he has outed himself with his narrow and anachronistic views. And, as a result, is a reminder to those of us struggling for a more peaceful world that constant vigilance is needed.

kartiya - you can't summarise the UK's culture as a complete failure because of a small group of psychopaths. The majority of Brits get along very well, as in most democracies. we need to look at the cause of the current problems and not blame the majority for the actions of the few.

IAN
if you don't wish to be living under a totalitarian Islamic regime, you should examine very closely the link between the shooting of the lakemba police station, the Muslim males involved, and particularly one Saleh Jamal
See these 2 articles, read them closely, and decide if it represents a threat or not in the political realm.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/30/1085641770179.html?from=storylhs

http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/archive_details_list.php?article_id=581

So, here we have 'brutality and crime', 'Muslim males attacking the very foundation of our freedom (extortion, drugs 24/7, murder) intimidating even the police, and radical Islam all tied in together.

There was an worrisome news report this morning about young lebanese girls being taken back to lebanon for forced marraiges.

I've already written to the Minister of Immig and the Commissioner of NSW police, asking that they compare notes about these known 'crime families' and 'people newly arrived from Lebanon', and see if there is any correlation, and if non citizens are found among them associated with these families to deport them forthwith.

If you want to know how Lebanese Muslim Males regard Australian females (like Xena and Trinity) read the stories on the gang rapes of Bankstown etc. Amazing that just when we thought the ringleader was jailed for 55 yrs, VIOLA... some slippery lawyer gets them OFF! because an appeal for re-trial left the poor victim so traumatized she cannot bring her self to testify.

Rapes occur from every ethnic segment. I only know of this example where they were raped BECAUSE of their ethnicity and being Skippies(Australian)

IAN.. we have a predominant culture here, and like it or not, its ours. We need to work at not being complacent, we lack vigilance to our dire peril.

Pls do some searches on rape stats in Denmark, most illuminating.

Fully support your idea about 'commonwealth' solidarity.

And you think your not racist! In Pakistan a women is raped every two hours, in the US and women is raped every six minutes. The US has the highest sexual assault states in the OECD and has the highest % of people identifying themselves as Christians and the lowest Muslim in the OECD. Lets guess what your answer to that is mmm maybe it’s all the black people.

Poor John Stone. He didn't make it in the REAL World, so now he is all Hell-bent on promoting his pathetic ideology, too..wait for it..get even on multiculturalism, to supposedly justify his deep-seated, repressive obsession with a pathological mania which has been gnawing within, since he was a child.Heaven forbid. Another sociopath in-our-midst.
Have we ever wondered why so many of us take umbrage at the word Multiculturalism ?
There are so many facets to the word, the word takes some defining ?
The US, Canada, Britain and New Zealand have a polygot population - which speaks for itself as the success story of the Century. History, time and again replays it's self, pointing out to all and sundry we belong to a Global League of Nations. We are a Brotherhood of wholesome humanity. We just gonna-have-to-live with our neighbour.
Looking for scapegoats in the closet to string-up and lynch presumably died in the deep South decades ago, now we have someone in our midst who conviently overlooks the Holocaust, Genocide in Kosovo, Ruanda, Somalia, Uganda..the list gets longer. Have we learnt anything from History.
Any day, in the Super markets we see Australians from just about every part of the Globe, who have freely chosen to be part of our community, to rear their children here, to rejoice at sharing their ethenticity with us. To build a free, better Society. They didn't come here to undermine our way-of-life. Australia Day exemplifies that spirit. We should all embrace the pathos 25th January implies.
The latest outrage in the Tube of London is seemingly indicative Britons have not really warmed to their visitors. Segragating them in Ghettos. Ostracising them from mainstream life, to me is inviting apartheid. Thankfully, we have not reached that stage. The propaganda of hate, racial villification, and neo-nazism in Brixton should have convinced the Sociologists in the UK that some where they missed the point.
To all the Greeks, Italians, Irish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Turks, Fijians, etc my Family and I extend warm WELCOME to my home, in this wonderful Land of OZ.