The USA is finally waking up. Half the USA wants both Bush and Cheney impeached. The media dam that has protected these criminals from scrutiny is now breaking under the sheer weight of reality. There's a huge wave of facts ready to sweep around the globe like a tsunami of truth.
Where does that leave John Howard? Stranded like a shag on a rock.
Yesterday the New York Times finally issued an unconditional call for a complete and immediate withdrawal from Iraq:
It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit...Great to see the USA's #1 left-of-center newspaper finally catching up! But what about the carnage that will supposedly ensue if the US pulls out?
The political leaders Washington has backed are incapable of putting national interests ahead of sectarian score settling. The security forces Washington has trained behave more like partisan militias. Additional military forces poured into the Baghdad region have failed to change anything.
Continuing to sacrifice the lives and limbs of American soldiers is wrong. The war is sapping the strength of the nation’s alliances and its military forces. It is a dangerous diversion from the life-and-death struggle against terrorists. It is an increasing burden on American taxpayers, and it is a betrayal of a world that needs the wise application of American power and principles.
A majority of Americans reached these conclusions months ago.
There could be reprisals against those who worked with American forces, further ethnic cleansing, even genocide. Potentially destabilizing refugee flows could hit Jordan and Syria. Iran and Turkey could be tempted to make power grabs. Perhaps most important, the invasion has created a new stronghold from which terrorist activity could proliferate.Damn straight. The Times focusses on the looming problem of getting their troops home alive, and longer-term issues like how to deal with continued terrorist activity in Iraq.
The administration, the Democratic-controlled Congress, the United Nations and America’s allies must try to mitigate those outcomes — and they may fail. But Americans must be equally honest about the fact that keeping troops in Iraq will only make things worse.
Thankfully, the Times also acknowledges that the only real solution will come through the UN:
To start, Washington must turn to the United Nations, which Mr. Bush spurned and ridiculed as a preface to war.The Times calls for the USA to fund most of the international effort, and to accept "many more refugees for permanent resettlement".
What's really sad is that blogs have been saying such things for years. Never mind, at least we are finally getting there.
The NYT editorial is just one gushing leak from the massive information dam that US-based Big Media has constructed. Check out this and this and this.
UPDATE: The truth is finally coming out in the Australian media too. Mind you, it is still stuff that bloggers have been saying over and over and over, for many years:
The crucial factor in US hegemony is that it is able to pay for its oil in US dollars, giving it a gigantic advantage over its competitors in Europe and Asia (and Australia), which must first of all earn foreign exchange from exports to acquire US dollars in order to pay for their oil imports. While oil is a dollar commodity, the US can pay for its oil by printing more "greenbacks".Howard's only recourse - more fear!
The US has gone full circle since the dollar was backed by gold and a healthy trade surplus until the 1980s. Now the main backing for the dollar as the international reserve currency is America's military might.
Saddam Hussein probably signed his own death warrant in 2000 when Iraq indicated that it wished to switch payment for Iraqi oil sold under the United Nations oil-for-food program from US dollars to euros. The switch back to dollars was one of the first decisions made by the US occupying power after the defeat of Saddam in 2003.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) yesterday updated its travel advisory for Indonesia warning there is a high risk of a terrorist attack in the region.
But Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer says the overall threat level for Indonesia has not changed because there is no information suggesting a time and place for an attack.
