FIASCO

Sapa in North Vietnam Picture by John Stapleton

There were strange sapped times and a million silences. Turnbull has been to Washington and seemed to have done well; at least the journalists were impressed and his speech on terror and the Middle East far more nuanced and understanding of the complexities than his predecessor. Kim Beazly is bowing out as Australia's Ambassador to the US, which is a pity as he seemed perfect for the role. Now we will have Joe Hockey, who critics regard as far less appropriate. But Beazly is leaving with reputation intact, highly regarded. It seems a pity he couldn't stay; it would probably have been for the best in an election year.

Finished reading Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World. Brilliant book. Essential reading. Christina Lamb writes beautifully; and is a highly accomplished journalist who seems to know everybody. Some people sneak along in the back alleys; others embrace all the opportunities the world throws their way. Compassionate. Knowledgeable. Insights every other paragraph; one of those books you wish you could read bits to the people around you. But there aren't so many people around anymore; he was out of sync with who to trust or not trust, and life was not so much an adventure as a denouement some days. Everybody grows older; not always wiser. Two steps forward one step back. Two steps forward and three steps back. Too many mistakes at a time when there should be no mistakes. He got pissed and wished he hadn't; stupid things.

The streets grew quieter. Australians seemed just as disillusioned as they had been. The boost in optimism that came with the ascendancy of Turnbull seemed already to have vanished. Good front man, they would say, the admiration, or was it relief, sinking away. But there were no alternatives; the opposition leader Shorten widely regarded as hapless and hopeless, Abbott, despite some very poor grace in defeat, extremely unlikely to ever return to the top job.

He had predicted once, that Abbott would lose his own seat; although at the time it had seemed fantastical, he was still doing reasonably well in the polls and held the seat of Warringah by something like 20%. Now one poll showed most of his own electorate want him to move on; much like the country as a whole.

Seven journalists were killed in Afghanistan; and there was trouble everywhere, death everywhere. The world was a considerably more troubled place than it was even a few short years ago. Summer has been largely grey and overcast, often cold, wet. There were cold snaps in Europe and the US. The story of a million migrants flooding into Europe, mostly Germany, was continuing to play out; and many doubts now being raised about the policies Angela Merkel adopted as an angel of mercy. It is all beginning to look very naive. Sometimes he wondered, what would have happened if all those people had stayed in their home countries; would they have been a pressure cooker for change, by fleeing were they just allowing things to deteriorate. Ruined cities. Collapsed states. Mind bogglingly complex scenarios.

Lleyton Hewitt has played his last singles match; after a sterling 20 year career; widely lauded. Lleyton was a hero in a land with few heroes. Sport taking up an ever increasing percentage of the news bulletins, bread and circuses, and there seemed little room for serious analysis. Australians may once have been happy to talk about politics till the cows came home, but now it was the last thing they wanted to discuss; and it, too, had become a kind of sport for an increasingly narrow band of afficionados.

Australia Day is predicted to be grey and wet, similar to last year.

Sydney University's leading spokesmen all decry the day as a colonialist relic, the celebration of an invasion, the British destruction of an Aboriginal world.

What crisis? What time? A singular loss. He still heard things he wished he didn't; he was going to seek help.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-19/prime-minister-malcolm-turnbull-washington-speech-barack-obama/7097166

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has acknowledged that boots on the ground are needed to defeat Islamic State (IS), but says local and regional troops are the key.

Key points:
Malcolm Turnbull delivers keynote speech in Washington
Says local troops key to defeating IS in Iraq and Syria
Says recent taking of Ramadi an example of Iraqi army leadership
So far refuses US request to increase military commitment

In a speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, the Prime Minister addressed the contentious issue of ground troops directly, having just visited Australian soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The destruction of ISIL requires military action including boots on the ground but they must be the right boots on the right ground," he told an overflowing room.

"The recent retaking of Ramadi is a prime example.

"Led by the Iraqis themselves, assisted by the Coalition's respective air and special forces, it was not just a blow to ISIL, but an example of the right combination.

"An enduring victory must be won and owned by the people of Iraq and Syria."

The Prime Minister met with the crown prince of the UAE, the President of Afghanistan and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi during his visit to the Middle East.

He said the Iraqi Prime Minister thanked him for Australia's involvement there but that it was "politically vitally important for him that the retaking of that city [Ramadi] was done and seen to be done by the Iraqi forces".

The United States has asked Australia, along with other nations, to increase military commitment in the Middle East.

Thus far, Australia has refused although while visiting Australian troops over the weekend the Prime Minister said that stance could change with changing circumstances.

There has been no repeat of the request so far on this visit.

A meeting with Defence Secretary Ash Carter at the Pentagon this morning covered discussions about solutions to problems in the Middle East and possible political solutions in Syria.

In his speech, the Prime Minister highlighted the need for a cohesive approach.

"It is above all a time for all parties … to get on the same page and bring this war to an end.

"All of our words and deeds must be calculated with one aim in mind, to defeat the extremists.

"The biggest challenge is plainly finding that political settlement in Syria.

PHOTO: Mr Turnbull said every option should be on the table in Syria from an institutionalised power sharing arrangement to some form of partition. (ABC News: Brad Fulton)


FEATURED BOOK:

Buy Now

iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac

Available on Google Play

Hard Copy and Nook

Download to Kindle

Free Delivery Worldwide

Delivery in Australia & NZ

Here is the link to a television interview on the program Washington Journal the with the author of America's Destruction of Iraq.

http://www.c-span.org/video/?327868-5/washington-journal-michael-obrien-iraq-war

Compelling in detail, compounding in outrage, America's Destruction of Iraq fills in the gaps of how America's disastrous invasion of Iraq created the ultimate breeding ground for the Islamic State.

FIASCO

Sapa in North Vietnam Picture by John Stapleton

There were strange sapped times and a million silences. Turnbull has been to Washington and seemed to have done well; at least the journalists were impressed and his speech on terror and the Middle East far more nuanced and understanding of the complexities than his predecessor. Kim Beazly is bowing out as Australia's Ambassador to the US, which is a pity as he seemed perfect for the role. Now we will have Joe Hockey, who critics regard as far less appropriate. But Beazly is leaving with reputation intact, highly regarded. It seems a pity he couldn't stay; it would probably have been for the best in an election year.

Finished reading Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World. Brilliant book. Essential reading. Christina Lamb writes beautifully; and is a highly accomplished journalist who seems to know everybody. Some people sneak along in the back alleys; others embrace all the opportunities the world throws their way. Compassionate. Knowledgeable. Insights every other paragraph; one of those books you wish you could read bits to the people around you. But there aren't so many people around anymore; he was out of sync with who to trust or not trust, and life was not so much an adventure as a denouement some days. Everybody grows older; not always wiser. Two steps forward one step back. Two steps forward and three steps back. Too many mistakes at a time when there should be no mistakes. He got pissed and wished he hadn't; stupid things.

The streets grew quieter. Australians seemed just as disillusioned as they had been. The boost in optimism that came with the ascendancy of Turnbull seemed already to have vanished. Good front man, they would say, the admiration, or was it relief, sinking away. But there were no alternatives; the opposition leader Shorten widely regarded as hapless and hopeless, Abbott, despite some very poor grace in defeat, extremely unlikely to ever return to the top job.

He had predicted once, that Abbott would lose his own seat; although at the time it had seemed fantastical, he was still doing reasonably well in the polls and held the seat of Warringah by something like 20%. Now one poll showed most of his own electorate want him to move on; much like the country as a whole.

Seven journalists were killed in Afghanistan; and there was trouble everywhere, death everywhere. The world was a considerably more troubled place than it was even a few short years ago. Summer has been largely grey and overcast, often cold, wet. There were cold snaps in Europe and the US. The story of a million migrants flooding into Europe, mostly Germany, was continuing to play out; and many doubts now being raised about the policies Angela Merkel adopted as an angel of mercy. It is all beginning to look very naive. Sometimes he wondered, what would have happened if all those people had stayed in their home countries; would they have been a pressure cooker for change, by fleeing were they just allowing things to deteriorate. Ruined cities. Collapsed states. Mind bogglingly complex scenarios.

Lleyton Hewitt has played his last singles match; after a sterling 20 year career; widely lauded. Lleyton was a hero in a land with few heroes. Sport taking up an ever increasing percentage of the news bulletins, bread and circuses, and there seemed little room for serious analysis. Australians may once have been happy to talk about politics till the cows came home, but now it was the last thing they wanted to discuss; and it, too, had become a kind of sport for an increasingly narrow band of afficionados.

Australia Day is predicted to be grey and wet, similar to last year.

Sydney University's leading spokesmen all decry the day as a colonialist relic, the celebration of an invasion, the British destruction of an Aboriginal world.

What crisis? What time? A singular loss. He still heard things he wished he didn't; he was going to seek help.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-19/prime-minister-malcolm-turnbull-washington-speech-barack-obama/7097166

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has acknowledged that boots on the ground are needed to defeat Islamic State (IS), but says local and regional troops are the key.

Key points:
Malcolm Turnbull delivers keynote speech in Washington
Says local troops key to defeating IS in Iraq and Syria
Says recent taking of Ramadi an example of Iraqi army leadership
So far refuses US request to increase military commitment

In a speech at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, the Prime Minister addressed the contentious issue of ground troops directly, having just visited Australian soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The destruction of ISIL requires military action including boots on the ground but they must be the right boots on the right ground," he told an overflowing room.

"The recent retaking of Ramadi is a prime example.

"Led by the Iraqis themselves, assisted by the Coalition's respective air and special forces, it was not just a blow to ISIL, but an example of the right combination.

"An enduring victory must be won and owned by the people of Iraq and Syria."

The Prime Minister met with the crown prince of the UAE, the President of Afghanistan and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi during his visit to the Middle East.

He said the Iraqi Prime Minister thanked him for Australia's involvement there but that it was "politically vitally important for him that the retaking of that city [Ramadi] was done and seen to be done by the Iraqi forces".

The United States has asked Australia, along with other nations, to increase military commitment in the Middle East.

Thus far, Australia has refused although while visiting Australian troops over the weekend the Prime Minister said that stance could change with changing circumstances.

There has been no repeat of the request so far on this visit.

A meeting with Defence Secretary Ash Carter at the Pentagon this morning covered discussions about solutions to problems in the Middle East and possible political solutions in Syria.

In his speech, the Prime Minister highlighted the need for a cohesive approach.

"It is above all a time for all parties … to get on the same page and bring this war to an end.

"All of our words and deeds must be calculated with one aim in mind, to defeat the extremists.

"The biggest challenge is plainly finding that political settlement in Syria.

PHOTO: Mr Turnbull said every option should be on the table in Syria from an institutionalised power sharing arrangement to some form of partition. (ABC News: Brad Fulton)


FEATURED BOOK:

Buy Now

iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac

Available on Google Play

Hard Copy and Nook

Download to Kindle

Free Delivery Worldwide

Delivery in Australia & NZ

Here is the link to a television interview on the program Washington Journal the with the author of America's Destruction of Iraq.

http://www.c-span.org/video/?327868-5/washington-journal-michael-obrien-iraq-war

Compelling in detail, compounding in outrage, America's Destruction of Iraq fills in the gaps of how America's disastrous invasion of Iraq created the ultimate breeding ground for the Islamic State.

FANTASTIC FLIGHTS

Ruschutters Bay in the predawn Picture by John Stapleton

​

When Paris was attacked politicians and pundits fell all over themselves rushing to proclaim what Washington should do next in the war on terror. The vast majority of them would have done better to keep quiet and read Charlie Savage’s new book, “Power Wars,” instead. It offers a master class in how to think seriously about crucial aspects of the subject.


Gideon Rose, The New York Times.


Flights of fancy and a deconstructive air. Build, rebuild, destroy. "Nothing in this country works," his friend grumbled after they left the ANZ bank in Newtown. It was taking five days to transfer funds which should have taken less than a second. "The biggest thieves in the country are the banks, the insurance companies and the government," he grumbled; a kind of secondhand discontent, because by now he had no faith that anything would ever improve. It was simply a matter of watching the decline and fall. A thousand times, a thousand times. A democracy that was increasingly becoming a failed state; a failure for its citizens, a failure of purpose, a loss of hope. "It's no wonder everyone wants to leave Australia," he said, as they crossed back over King Street.

Lord Malcolm was off in the US hobnobbing with Obama, but at least he had done one sensible thing since coming to power: he had knocked back the request for more troops and more involvement in the Middle East. Australia, historically, almost never said no to anything the Americans asked, an historical obsequiousness which had cost them billions in useless wars and arms purchases, made their own populations less safe, cost hundreds of lives destroyed or damaged, but there it was. We could stand proud. No we could not.

Turnbull had just made a flying 90 minute visit to Iraq; to the Australian base, where 100 SAS soldiers remained hunkered down in a compound where they dared not go outside, within spitting distance of Islamic State territory; and a prime target. The official claims that they were there training Iraqi troops was no doubt just bullshit. For a start, they were a proud people, why would they want to be trained by a bunch of infidels from the other side of the world? The Daily Telegraph, a Murdoch rag which had really in recent years become a rag, reported that the troops were ecstatic to see their Prime Minister. No Australian is ecstatic at the site of a politician, a ruling class for which they have little but contempt. Perhaps they were a little over-excited at the idea that they might finally be getting out of the hellhole that Abbott, Turnbull's predecessor, had sentenced them to. Hundreds of millions of dollars had been wasted on a deployment which had, like all the other involvements, simply made matters worse.

"Lions led by donkeys," as the British would say of their own incompetent generals. "Police informant." There you go. The voices always knew best. Some things didn't make sense. Stories didn't add up. Delusions didn't always count. "What's an old guy like you doing here in shorts?" some potbellied houso demanded to know. "Same as me? Parading your wares?"

"Thanks," he said, and listened to some cruelly, crudely pointless jokes.

"Nothing is as it seems." "Things are not always what they appear." He was going to annoy them as best he could. Imaginary friends. As he walked past graffitied walls and rundown houses, tatty down-at-hell shops and a cruel wandering of the mind. He had wanted a base, he didn't want a home. Everything was far from ideal; but perhaps constraints were what were called for. Not the freedom to party through the long nights; drawn not by the oblivion seeking of the past, because he could not cope with the way he felt or the way he thought, but by some hopelessly juvenile desire for adventure which never was. Sex that never was. Satisfaction, fulfilmnet, that could never be. Sydney for many of its increasingly unhappy inhabitants was merely a prelude, a backdrop, a launch pad. He would be gone soon enough.


"Are we really that stupid?"


THE BIGGER STORY:

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/terror/malcolm-turnbull-we-wont-be-in-iraq-forever/news-story/7dc9bb77a444747727a359ed659e7540

Malcolm Turnbull has countered calls for more Australian “boots on the ground” in Iraq as he prepares for a meeting with US President Barack Obama within days to renew talks on the fight against Islamic State.

Visiting Australian troops in the Middle East on the weekend, Mr Turnbull declared it vitally important that people see Iraqi forces rather than foreign troops retaking cities like Ramadi from the terrorist group.

The Prime Minister also revealed that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi made no request for additional Australian help to defeat Islamic State.

“The Iraqi government did not ask us to do anything extra, although we had a very constructive discussion with the Prime Minster,” Mr Turnbull said.

Days before flying to Washington DC for talks on international security, Mr Turnbull flew into Baghdad and an Australian base north of the Iraqi capital to meet some of the 300 Australian troops who are training local soldiers.

While Mr Turnbull said the Australian contribution would “evolve” over time, he gave no ground to critics including former defence minister Kevin Andrews who have renewed their calls for a bigger commitment to defeat the terrorists.

“What further commitments we were to make would depend on the circumstances, but we do not intend to be in Iraq forever,” Mr Turnbull said.

Addressing troops the Taji base, Mr Turnbull told them that his Iraqi counterpart had strongly praised the Australians for their “critical role” in helping Iraqi troops retake Ramadi.

The success against Islamic State had given the Iraqi government a “strategic lift” that could not have been done without the Australian troops, Mr Turnbull said.

Mr al Abadi had given the impression of “real, substantial confidence” that Iraq was “turning the corner” in the battle against Islamic State, Mr Turnbull told the troops.

“It’s obviously vitally important that a city like Ramadi, and others to follow, are seen to be taken by Iraqi forces,” Mr Turnbull told them.

“They’ve got to win back their country but they need our help, and more importantly they need your help and you’ve provided it with great skill.”

Australia is the second-largest contributor to the US-led fight against Islamic State, with six Hornet fighter jets flying missions over Iraq and Syria while hundreds of troops assist the Iraqi National Army.

A Sense of Place Book Blog

FEATURED BOOK:

Barack Obama promised change from George W. Bush's global war on terrorism. But the Obama administration used drones to kill suspected militants and vacuumed data on Americans' phone calls. Obama criticized Bush's unilateralism and secrecy, but launched wars without going to Congress and presided over an unprecedented crackdown on leaks. As the New York Times New York Times book reviewer Gideon Rose wrote of Power Wars: Inside the Post 9/11 Obama Presidency by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Charlie Savage explores how and why Obama and his legal team, an elite, liberal group who vowed to restore the rule of law, end up accused of entrenching the sweeping powers of the post-9/11 security state. If legitimate, the accusation stands to change the legacy of Obama's entire presidency.

Buy Now

iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac

Free Delivery Worldwide

Delivery in Australia & NZ

Kindle

FANTASTIC FLIGHTS

Ruschutters Bay in the predawn Picture by John Stapleton

​

When Paris was attacked politicians and pundits fell all over themselves rushing to proclaim what Washington should do next in the war on terror. The vast majority of them would have done better to keep quiet and read Charlie Savage’s new book, “Power Wars,” instead. It offers a master class in how to think seriously about crucial aspects of the subject.


Gideon Rose, The New York Times.


Flights of fancy and a deconstructive air. Build, rebuild, destroy. "Nothing in this country works," his friend grumbled after they left the ANZ bank in Newtown. It was taking five days to transfer funds which should have taken less than a second. "The biggest thieves in the country are the banks, the insurance companies and the government," he grumbled; a kind of secondhand discontent, because by now he had no faith that anything would ever improve. It was simply a matter of watching the decline and fall. A thousand times, a thousand times. A democracy that was increasingly becoming a failed state; a failure for its citizens, a failure of purpose, a loss of hope. "It's no wonder everyone wants to leave Australia," he said, as they crossed back over King Street.

Lord Malcolm was off in the US hobnobbing with Obama, but at least he had done one sensible thing since coming to power: he had knocked back the request for more troops and more involvement in the Middle East. Australia, historically, almost never said no to anything the Americans asked, an historical obsequiousness which had cost them billions in useless wars and arms purchases, made their own populations less safe, cost hundreds of lives destroyed or damaged, but there it was. We could stand proud. No we could not.

Turnbull had just made a flying 90 minute visit to Iraq; to the Australian base, where 100 SAS soldiers remained hunkered down in a compound where they dared not go outside, within spitting distance of Islamic State territory; and a prime target. The official claims that they were there training Iraqi troops was no doubt just bullshit. For a start, they were a proud people, why would they want to be trained by a bunch of infidels from the other side of the world? The Daily Telegraph, a Murdoch rag which had really in recent years become a rag, reported that the troops were ecstatic to see their Prime Minister. No Australian is ecstatic at the site of a politician, a ruling class for which they have little but contempt. Perhaps they were a little over-excited at the idea that they might finally be getting out of the hellhole that Abbott, Turnbull's predecessor, had sentenced them to. Hundreds of millions of dollars had been wasted on a deployment which had, like all the other involvements, simply made matters worse.

"Lions led by donkeys," as the British would say of their own incompetent generals. "Police informant." There you go. The voices always knew best. Some things didn't make sense. Stories didn't add up. Delusions didn't always count. "What's an old guy like you doing here in shorts?" some potbellied houso demanded to know. "Same as me? Parading your wares?"

"Thanks," he said, and listened to some cruelly, crudely pointless jokes.

"Nothing is as it seems." "Things are not always what they appear." He was going to annoy them as best he could. Imaginary friends. As he walked past graffitied walls and rundown houses, tatty down-at-hell shops and a cruel wandering of the mind. He had wanted a base, he didn't want a home. Everything was far from ideal; but perhaps constraints were what were called for. Not the freedom to party through the long nights; drawn not by the oblivion seeking of the past, because he could not cope with the way he felt or the way he thought, but by some hopelessly juvenile desire for adventure which never was. Sex that never was. Satisfaction, fulfilmnet, that could never be. Sydney for many of its increasingly unhappy inhabitants was merely a prelude, a backdrop, a launch pad. He would be gone soon enough.


"Are we really that stupid?"


THE BIGGER STORY:

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/terror/malcolm-turnbull-we-wont-be-in-iraq-forever/news-story/7dc9bb77a444747727a359ed659e7540

Malcolm Turnbull has countered calls for more Australian “boots on the ground” in Iraq as he prepares for a meeting with US President Barack Obama within days to renew talks on the fight against Islamic State.

Visiting Australian troops in the Middle East on the weekend, Mr Turnbull declared it vitally important that people see Iraqi forces rather than foreign troops retaking cities like Ramadi from the terrorist group.

The Prime Minister also revealed that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi made no request for additional Australian help to defeat Islamic State.

“The Iraqi government did not ask us to do anything extra, although we had a very constructive discussion with the Prime Minster,” Mr Turnbull said.

Days before flying to Washington DC for talks on international security, Mr Turnbull flew into Baghdad and an Australian base north of the Iraqi capital to meet some of the 300 Australian troops who are training local soldiers.

While Mr Turnbull said the Australian contribution would “evolve” over time, he gave no ground to critics including former defence minister Kevin Andrews who have renewed their calls for a bigger commitment to defeat the terrorists.

“What further commitments we were to make would depend on the circumstances, but we do not intend to be in Iraq forever,” Mr Turnbull said.

Addressing troops the Taji base, Mr Turnbull told them that his Iraqi counterpart had strongly praised the Australians for their “critical role” in helping Iraqi troops retake Ramadi.

The success against Islamic State had given the Iraqi government a “strategic lift” that could not have been done without the Australian troops, Mr Turnbull said.

Mr al Abadi had given the impression of “real, substantial confidence” that Iraq was “turning the corner” in the battle against Islamic State, Mr Turnbull told the troops.

“It’s obviously vitally important that a city like Ramadi, and others to follow, are seen to be taken by Iraqi forces,” Mr Turnbull told them.

“They’ve got to win back their country but they need our help, and more importantly they need your help and you’ve provided it with great skill.”

Australia is the second-largest contributor to the US-led fight against Islamic State, with six Hornet fighter jets flying missions over Iraq and Syria while hundreds of troops assist the Iraqi National Army.

A Sense of Place Book Blog

FEATURED BOOK:

Barack Obama promised change from George W. Bush's global war on terrorism. But the Obama administration used drones to kill suspected militants and vacuumed data on Americans' phone calls. Obama criticized Bush's unilateralism and secrecy, but launched wars without going to Congress and presided over an unprecedented crackdown on leaks. As the New York Times New York Times book reviewer Gideon Rose wrote of Power Wars: Inside the Post 9/11 Obama Presidency by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Charlie Savage explores how and why Obama and his legal team, an elite, liberal group who vowed to restore the rule of law, end up accused of entrenching the sweeping powers of the post-9/11 security state. If legitimate, the accusation stands to change the legacy of Obama's entire presidency.

Buy Now

iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac

Free Delivery Worldwide

Delivery in Australia & NZ

Kindle

RAPPROACHEMENT IN A WEB OF LIES

Signs of the Cross Picture by John Stapleton

"It is very dangerous to write the truth in war and the truth is very dangerous to come by."
Ernest Hemmingway


Signs of the Cross. Golgotha. Everywhere impuned. Flashes of time across distance; pain across space, as if suffering could be translated from one time zone to another, from one historical era to another. But there was nothing like the present. A web of glittering lies. He was reading Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World, by Christina Lamb. Compulsory, compulsive reading. Anyone left who somehow thought the West's involvement in Afghanistan and then Iraq had been a good idea, a gesture for a noble cause, had only to read this book. What a mess. Compounding disbelief. Forty one Australian soldiers died there between 2001 and 2014, along with hundreds of British and Americans. There was no use pretending they did not die in vain, at the hands of weak, self-serving politicians pandering to international alliances and idiotic, unworldly ideologies. They should have had the courage to say: No. They should have had the determination, the strength, to stare incompetence and dysfunction in the face, and withdraw. But they did not. This was Australia. This was the West. This was the path to 2016.

No one had had the courage to stand up and say Go Back: You Are Going The Wrong Way. Mission Accomplished. Heart rending speeches at funerals. All a farce the best of fiction writers could never have invented. The ever expanding highway to the Apocalypse; to a world where one terror story overlaid another, where Islamic State and their myriad affiliated or like-minded groups had won the day, simply by becoming the biggest story on Earth.

In his own life things were becoming simpler or more complex, it was hard to tell. His pursuers had become more subtle, or decamped. It was no longer possible, in the drone of morning television and radio stations, of yawning awakenings and stabs of "I don't want to go to work", what was what, who wished him ill. "He's got my vote." "You're biased against him." "He's lost that job." "For someone so intelligent, he can be amazingly stupid." "I just don't like him, he gives me the creeps." And of course the accusation of arrogance, because anyone who stood up, anyone who did anything, was arrogant in presumption, in a world that so actively sought the ordinary; cooking shows and flash trash and the Goggle Box, a show about people watching television, the ever expanding role of sport in news bulletins, as if anything but genuine news best served the desires of their listeners.

For nobody read anymore.

In awakenings, in crystal dawns, in the emergence from the miasma, brushing away cobwebs, the trails of deceit, the oh too many lies, another parade of politicians was treating the public as if they were idiots. Tony Abbott, the most dangerous Prime Minister in Australian history, was gone; but in his place the bureaucracy had a newer, smarter, more polished presenter, Malcolm Turnbull. Or Lord Malcolm, as he called him, a cheap shot at his wealth and standing. "I look forward to the day when you're Prime Minister," he had said to him once, at a launch of John Olsen's work at a gallery in Woollahra, but when the time came, the targets switched. Because while the oft hated Abbott was gone, in his place was just a more polished spruiker. Malcolm had been too long in the wings; and had forgotten the simple creeds of politics: why should someone go to work in a factory to pay taxes to support this?

The projects were endless; and largely meaningless. Innovation had become the catchword of the new administration, and the government was spending $29 million just to promote its one billion dollar innovation program. In other words, as always in Australian political life, money was being ripped off the back of workers and diverted to the professional classes. Australia was notoriously hopeless at innovation; the country which had invented the bionic eye but failed to make a cent from the invention, the country which had been responsible from some of the signal research behind WiFi, but again failed to capitalise on it. A billion dollars would be frittered away in research grants. There was no test for success; there was no achievable goal. This was a country which, despite its vast distances and scattered population, had hopeless telecommunications, hopeless internet, a country going backwards, a population turning inwards.

Considerable swathes of the population had little or no access to the most sophisticated technology ever utilised by man; the transformative technologies of the 21st Century. People remained remarkably ignorant of the so-called information superhighway which could so enrich their lives; and believed they were happier that way. It suited the governing class to have an ignorant, defenceless, population, lulled to sleep by a largely hapless public broadcaster and an often equally hapless privately owned media. The stories, the questioning, the thrusting urgency to create a better world, it was all gone. In its place: Australian bombs, as part of a stitched together and utterly hypocritical alliance, the so-called Coaltion of the Willing fast forwarded, rained down on Iraq, killing Muslims, killing people for their religious beliefs. Nobody asked why Australia continued to push down a path which had so obviously failed. All questions about what tragets taxpayer funded bombs were taking out were referred to America. The country had handed over its foreign policy to the U.S. of A. Nobody queried, almost nobody bar the Muslim minority protested. And so we marched, as if blindfolded, to our own Golgotha. The cruelties would only mount.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-15/newly-discovered-supernova-most-powerful-explosion-ever-seen/7086138


Newly discovered supernova most powerful stellar explosion ever seen
ABC Science By Stuart Gary

Updated Fri at 2:54pm
PHOTO: An artist's impression of the super-luminous supernova ASASSN-15lh as it would appear from an exoplanet located about 10,000 light-years from the blast. (Beijing Planetarium/Jin Ma)


Astronomers have detected the most powerful stellar explosion ever seen — a massive supernova, twice as powerful as anything previously recorded.

Key points
Massive supernova is 570 billion times brighter than our Sun, and 20 times brighter than all the stars in our Milky Way Galaxy combined.
Scientists unsure about what could be powering the supernova named ASASSN-151h
Unlike other super-luminous supernovae, ASASSN-151h exploded in a large, calm galaxy

The supernova, named ASASSN-15lh, occurred in a distant galaxy 3.8 billion light-years away, and is 200 times more powerful than the average supernova.

The huge blast, reported in the journal Science, is at the very upper limit of researchers' understanding of stellar physics, raising new questions about how such a powerful event could be generated.

"It's an extreme example — it's so extreme that it's really unclear what's actually causing the supernova — if that's what it is," one of the study's authors, Dr Benjamin Shappee of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, said.

"This was so exciting and so far outside what's expected, I was a little sceptical until we got the follow-up data.

"Then when we saw it on two different telescopes and confirmed the data I started to get extremely excited."

The record-breaking explosion, thought to be a super-luminous supernova, was discovered in June using the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae system (ASASSN).

Most super-luminous supernovae occur in small, busy star-forming galaxies. However, ASASSN-15lh exploded in a large and rather calm galaxy.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/david-bowie-left-an-incalculable-legacy/news-story/05b3d0bc519d68d8bd114386261ee630

David Bowie left an incalculable legacyJanuary 17, 2016 12:00am
RICHARD WILKINS

Sunday Herald Sun

Richard Wilkins with David Bowie.



DON McLean wrote the song American Pie, lamenting the death — more than half a century ago — of his idol Buddy Holly.

But for many of us it will be the sad day last week that we’ll never forget — the day we learnt of the passing of one of the giants of contemporary music and pop culture.

David Bowie. Even the name screams rock star and his loss is enormous, his legacy incalculable.

The first time I heard him was when Ground Control was dialling up Major Tom and telling him to take his protein pills and put his helmet on — what a song.

The Beatles and The Stones, the Hollies and The Who didn’t sound like that. It was the first glimpse of Bowie’s fascination with the cosmos and a clear indication that he was one to push the boundaries in every way. So inventive and imaginative, with a wry humour and intelligence to burn. He was sailing uncharted waters, following no one, the master of reinvention. While the word chameleon is often used when people are describing Bowie, it’s perfectly accurate.

To meet Bowie was to understand the concept of being in the presence of greatness. He was such a lovely man, passionate about his work, keen to talk about it and eager to have you listen to it. And while his reputation preceded him, he still radiated a warmth and generosity of spirit that made him instantly likeable. Charming, funny, confident about himself, but slightly shy around others, he was everything we want our rock stars to be.

FEATURED BOOK:

From one of the world's most admired war correspondents, Christina Lamb, comes a searing indictment of the West's involvement in wars against fundamentalist Islam, Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World. The pointless loss of American, British and Australian lives, has achieved nothing; despite the efforts to eliminate the Taliban from the country, their presence has continued to grow. Insurgent attacks have also increased, and the region still struggles against poverty, an unstable infrastructure and a huge number of land mines. Initially billed as the West's success story by both Bush and Blair, Afghanistan remains a lawless, violent land. The promises made to its people in 2001 have not been fulfilled. Foreign correspondent for one of the world's leading newspapers, The Sunday Times, educated at Oxford, a Fellow at Harvard University, a member of the National Geographic Society, former British Foreign Correspondent of the year and a multi award winner, Lamb has been reporting on the region of "pomegranates and war" since the age of 21, when she crossed the Hindu Kush into Afghanistan with mujaheddin fighting the Russians and fell unequivocally in love with this fierce country, a relationship which has dominated her adult life. Lamb has fought with the mujahadeen dressed as an Afghan boy, experienced a near-fatal ambush and head-on encounter with Taliban forces and successfully established links with American, British, Afghan government, Taliban and tribal fighters. Her unparalleled access to troops and civilians on the ground, as well as to top military officials has ensured that Farewell Kabul is the definitive book on the region, exposing the realities of Afghanistan unlike anyone before, compelling, moving and impossible to put down.

Buy Now

iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac

Free Delivery Worldwide

Delivery in Australia & NZ

Kindle

RAPPROACHEMENT IN A WEB OF LIES

Signs of the Cross Picture by John Stapleton

"It is very dangerous to write the truth in war and the truth is very dangerous to come by."
Ernest Hemmingway


Signs of the Cross. Golgotha. Everywhere impuned. Flashes of time across distance; pain across space, as if suffering could be translated from one time zone to another, from one historical era to another. But there was nothing like the present. A web of glittering lies. He was reading Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World, by Christina Lamb. Compulsory, compulsive reading. Anyone left who somehow thought the West's involvement in Afghanistan and then Iraq had been a good idea, a gesture for a noble cause, had only to read this book. What a mess. Compounding disbelief. Forty one Australian soldiers died there between 2001 and 2014, along with hundreds of British and Americans. There was no use pretending they did not die in vain, at the hands of weak, self-serving politicians pandering to international alliances and idiotic, unworldly ideologies. They should have had the courage to say: No. They should have had the determination, the strength, to stare incompetence and dysfunction in the face, and withdraw. But they did not. This was Australia. This was the West. This was the path to 2016.

No one had had the courage to stand up and say Go Back: You Are Going The Wrong Way. Mission Accomplished. Heart rending speeches at funerals. All a farce the best of fiction writers could never have invented. The ever expanding highway to the Apocalypse; to a world where one terror story overlaid another, where Islamic State and their myriad affiliated or like-minded groups had won the day, simply by becoming the biggest story on Earth.

In his own life things were becoming simpler or more complex, it was hard to tell. His pursuers had become more subtle, or decamped. It was no longer possible, in the drone of morning television and radio stations, of yawning awakenings and stabs of "I don't want to go to work", what was what, who wished him ill. "He's got my vote." "You're biased against him." "He's lost that job." "For someone so intelligent, he can be amazingly stupid." "I just don't like him, he gives me the creeps." And of course the accusation of arrogance, because anyone who stood up, anyone who did anything, was arrogant in presumption, in a world that so actively sought the ordinary; cooking shows and flash trash and the Goggle Box, a show about people watching television, the ever expanding role of sport in news bulletins, as if anything but genuine news best served the desires of their listeners.

For nobody read anymore.

In awakenings, in crystal dawns, in the emergence from the miasma, brushing away cobwebs, the trails of deceit, the oh too many lies, another parade of politicians was treating the public as if they were idiots. Tony Abbott, the most dangerous Prime Minister in Australian history, was gone; but in his place the bureaucracy had a newer, smarter, more polished presenter, Malcolm Turnbull. Or Lord Malcolm, as he called him, a cheap shot at his wealth and standing. "I look forward to the day when you're Prime Minister," he had said to him once, at a launch of John Olsen's work at a gallery in Woollahra, but when the time came, the targets switched. Because while the oft hated Abbott was gone, in his place was just a more polished spruiker. Malcolm had been too long in the wings; and had forgotten the simple creeds of politics: why should someone go to work in a factory to pay taxes to support this?

The projects were endless; and largely meaningless. Innovation had become the catchword of the new administration, and the government was spending $29 million just to promote its one billion dollar innovation program. In other words, as always in Australian political life, money was being ripped off the back of workers and diverted to the professional classes. Australia was notoriously hopeless at innovation; the country which had invented the bionic eye but failed to make a cent from the invention, the country which had been responsible from some of the signal research behind WiFi, but again failed to capitalise on it. A billion dollars would be frittered away in research grants. There was no test for success; there was no achievable goal. This was a country which, despite its vast distances and scattered population, had hopeless telecommunications, hopeless internet, a country going backwards, a population turning inwards.

Considerable swathes of the population had little or no access to the most sophisticated technology ever utilised by man; the transformative technologies of the 21st Century. People remained remarkably ignorant of the so-called information superhighway which could so enrich their lives; and believed they were happier that way. It suited the governing class to have an ignorant, defenceless, population, lulled to sleep by a largely hapless public broadcaster and an often equally hapless privately owned media. The stories, the questioning, the thrusting urgency to create a better world, it was all gone. In its place: Australian bombs, as part of a stitched together and utterly hypocritical alliance, the so-called Coaltion of the Willing fast forwarded, rained down on Iraq, killing Muslims, killing people for their religious beliefs. Nobody asked why Australia continued to push down a path which had so obviously failed. All questions about what tragets taxpayer funded bombs were taking out were referred to America. The country had handed over its foreign policy to the U.S. of A. Nobody queried, almost nobody bar the Muslim minority protested. And so we marched, as if blindfolded, to our own Golgotha. The cruelties would only mount.

THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-15/newly-discovered-supernova-most-powerful-explosion-ever-seen/7086138


Newly discovered supernova most powerful stellar explosion ever seen
ABC Science By Stuart Gary

Updated Fri at 2:54pm
PHOTO: An artist's impression of the super-luminous supernova ASASSN-15lh as it would appear from an exoplanet located about 10,000 light-years from the blast. (Beijing Planetarium/Jin Ma)


Astronomers have detected the most powerful stellar explosion ever seen — a massive supernova, twice as powerful as anything previously recorded.

Key points
Massive supernova is 570 billion times brighter than our Sun, and 20 times brighter than all the stars in our Milky Way Galaxy combined.
Scientists unsure about what could be powering the supernova named ASASSN-151h
Unlike other super-luminous supernovae, ASASSN-151h exploded in a large, calm galaxy

The supernova, named ASASSN-15lh, occurred in a distant galaxy 3.8 billion light-years away, and is 200 times more powerful than the average supernova.

The huge blast, reported in the journal Science, is at the very upper limit of researchers' understanding of stellar physics, raising new questions about how such a powerful event could be generated.

"It's an extreme example — it's so extreme that it's really unclear what's actually causing the supernova — if that's what it is," one of the study's authors, Dr Benjamin Shappee of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, said.

"This was so exciting and so far outside what's expected, I was a little sceptical until we got the follow-up data.

"Then when we saw it on two different telescopes and confirmed the data I started to get extremely excited."

The record-breaking explosion, thought to be a super-luminous supernova, was discovered in June using the All-Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae system (ASASSN).

Most super-luminous supernovae occur in small, busy star-forming galaxies. However, ASASSN-15lh exploded in a large and rather calm galaxy.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/david-bowie-left-an-incalculable-legacy/news-story/05b3d0bc519d68d8bd114386261ee630

David Bowie left an incalculable legacyJanuary 17, 2016 12:00am
RICHARD WILKINS

Sunday Herald Sun

Richard Wilkins with David Bowie.



DON McLean wrote the song American Pie, lamenting the death — more than half a century ago — of his idol Buddy Holly.

But for many of us it will be the sad day last week that we’ll never forget — the day we learnt of the passing of one of the giants of contemporary music and pop culture.

David Bowie. Even the name screams rock star and his loss is enormous, his legacy incalculable.

The first time I heard him was when Ground Control was dialling up Major Tom and telling him to take his protein pills and put his helmet on — what a song.

The Beatles and The Stones, the Hollies and The Who didn’t sound like that. It was the first glimpse of Bowie’s fascination with the cosmos and a clear indication that he was one to push the boundaries in every way. So inventive and imaginative, with a wry humour and intelligence to burn. He was sailing uncharted waters, following no one, the master of reinvention. While the word chameleon is often used when people are describing Bowie, it’s perfectly accurate.

To meet Bowie was to understand the concept of being in the presence of greatness. He was such a lovely man, passionate about his work, keen to talk about it and eager to have you listen to it. And while his reputation preceded him, he still radiated a warmth and generosity of spirit that made him instantly likeable. Charming, funny, confident about himself, but slightly shy around others, he was everything we want our rock stars to be.

FEATURED BOOK:

From one of the world's most admired war correspondents, Christina Lamb, comes a searing indictment of the West's involvement in wars against fundamentalist Islam, Farewell Kabul: From Afghanistan to a More Dangerous World. The pointless loss of American, British and Australian lives, has achieved nothing; despite the efforts to eliminate the Taliban from the country, their presence has continued to grow. Insurgent attacks have also increased, and the region still struggles against poverty, an unstable infrastructure and a huge number of land mines. Initially billed as the West's success story by both Bush and Blair, Afghanistan remains a lawless, violent land. The promises made to its people in 2001 have not been fulfilled. Foreign correspondent for one of the world's leading newspapers, The Sunday Times, educated at Oxford, a Fellow at Harvard University, a member of the National Geographic Society, former British Foreign Correspondent of the year and a multi award winner, Lamb has been reporting on the region of "pomegranates and war" since the age of 21, when she crossed the Hindu Kush into Afghanistan with mujaheddin fighting the Russians and fell unequivocally in love with this fierce country, a relationship which has dominated her adult life. Lamb has fought with the mujahadeen dressed as an Afghan boy, experienced a near-fatal ambush and head-on encounter with Taliban forces and successfully established links with American, British, Afghan government, Taliban and tribal fighters. Her unparalleled access to troops and civilians on the ground, as well as to top military officials has ensured that Farewell Kabul is the definitive book on the region, exposing the realities of Afghanistan unlike anyone before, compelling, moving and impossible to put down.

Buy Now

iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Mac

Free Delivery Worldwide

Delivery in Australia & NZ

Kindle