Friday 29th of March 2024

in a bunker on the potomac .....

from a bunker on the potomac .....

 

from our ABC …..

Mr Downer said that he's told the Bush administration there must be no defeat in Iraq, that the United States must ensure, on behalf of the Iraqi people, that there's victory, and also that there must be stability in the region. He says it may be that the Coalition has to make some policy changes here and there.

But on the question of whether or not Australia has retained full confidence in the US's ability to handle this war, Mr Downer has really bristled at that question.

Mr Downer says the US President should take the time to decide what is right.

"It's not the haste with which the President makes his decisions, it's the
quality of the decisions that counts," he said.

Mr Downer said: “We are Australians, and basically, with our mates, we don't go around bagging them for the convenience of headlines and popular, being sort of cheapskate populist politicians. No, we don't do that.

We stick by our mates through thick and thin, and when times are difficult for them … I mean, I think when times are difficult for you that's when you look to your friends to see if they're really friends. And the one thing I don't think the Americans will ever find is that Australians are weak fair-weather friends.”

Dr Nelson signed a memorandum of understanding on the jets to replace F-111s
and FA-18s.

Australia Reaffirms Support For US & Iraq War

in denial .....

Yes Gus, Clowner is as deluded as Bush.

His comments about sticking with mates sound very noble but when your "mate" deliberately lies to you, so as to involve you in an illegal war of aggression that results in the destruction of one of the world's oldest civilizations & the fruitless deaths of more than 650,000 of her people, anyone with half a brain would have to question their standing as a so-called "mate".

And when your "mate" breaks international law, flouts its own constitution & deliberately adopts the worst criminal practices, such as torture, kidnapping & murder, & applies them against citizens of your country, how could we call them a "mate"?

As always, the Howard government's values set is as screwed-up as everything-else they touch & like bushit, they seek refuge in denial.

Dopey Downer doesn't get it. Australia is no longer a "mate" of the US; it has become a criminal accomplice.

Xmas present for arms dealers

from London

'National interest' halts arms corruption inquiry


David Leigh and Rob Evans
Friday December 15, 2006
The Guardian

A major criminal investigation into alleged corruption by the arms company BAE Systems and its executives was stopped in its tracks yesterday when the prime minister claimed it would endanger Britain's security if the inquiry was allowed to continue.

The remarkable intervention was announced by the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, who took the decision to end the Serious Fraud Office inquiry into alleged bribes paid by the company to Saudi officials, after consulting cabinet colleagues.

In recent weeks, BAE and the Saudi embassy had frantically lobbied the government for the long-running investigation to be discontinued, with the company insisting it was poised to lose another lucrative Saudi contract if it was allowed to go on. This came at a time when the SFO appeared to have made a significant breakthrough, with investigators on the brink of accessing key Swiss bank accounts.