Free Republic

Ron DeSantis can save Australia. In Jim Cousen's dreams. In the spirit of Mark Twain and Huck Finn, I hope for the best from people but more often seem to cop their worst. God Bless Laughter. Tyrants fall when exposed as jokes.

As most of you have read or seen by now, a journalist and NBC/MSNBC media consultant named William “Bill” Arkin has created quite a stir by viciously insulting American soldiers in Iraq. He wrote at his Washington Post blog, “Early Warning: William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security” column (1/30/07), that “… this NBC (Nightly News) report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer force that thinks it is doing the dirty work” re Iraq. The “report,” according to Arkin, featured “a number of soldiers (who) expressed frustration with...

The One Nation party claims it inspired American conservative politician Sarah Palin's bus tour of the US. Party members say Ms Palin was influenced by controversial redhead Pauline Hanson in launching her "One Nation" campaign tour. One Nation NSW president Richard Putral told The Age that a party member from the Northern Territory had met Ms Palin in the US, where they exchanged political ideas. "It just developed from there," he said. The former Republican governor and vice-presidential candidate in 2008 launched the tour last month. She hopes to "educate and energise Americans about our nation's founding principles" on the...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday shrugged off a reward for her arrest as a war criminal announced by university students ahead of a visit to New Zealand. “Protest is a part of democratic society and student protests are particularly a long honoured tradition in democratic society,” Rice told a news conference in the West Australian capital Perth. “And I can only say that the United States has done everything that it can to, in this war on terror, live up to our international and our national laws and obligations.” New Zealand university students had earlier offered a reward...

The US Congress' vote to push for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq was wrong and will bring comfort to Al-Qaeda insurgents, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Friday. The Democrat-dominated US Senate on Thursday passed legislation which set a timeline for the recall of US troops from Iraq, where the US has been engaged in a bloody war since March 2003. US President George W Bush has vowed to veto the law. Howard, a staunch Bush supporter who has also committed troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, said the vote by the US Congress was "probably not helpful to the...

Mr Howard said the deal would bring the two countries closer Australian Prime Minister John Howard has dismissed suggestions that a security declaration with Japan could strain ties with China. Mr Howard is set to sign the ground-breaking deal during a four-day visit to Japan which begins on Sunday. The agreement is thought to include co-operation on terrorism, peacekeeping and disaster relief. Australia has been looking to exert more influence in Asia, in terms of business as well as regional security. Full details of the pact have not been revealed but it is expected to include plans for greater...

ABOUT 350 anti-Iraq war protesters last night formed a hostile welcome committee for US Vice-President Dick Cheney, clashing with police outside Sydney's Town Hall as they ignored calls for peaceful protests. Mounted police officers and members of the riot squad scuffled with protesters in scenes reminiscent of violent anti-globalisation protests at the G20 summit in Melbourne last year. The crowd, led by members of the Stop The War Coalition, marched down George Street - one of Sydney's main streets - without permission from police, who cited traffic concerns for the decision. The clashes occurred when protesters attempted to break through...

The Australian Left has good cause to back the American alliance YESTERDAY the US Left won an important victory. This is a good time, then, to examine the Australian Left's approach to the US and to our alliance with that country. Sometimes it seems the alliance does not need defending, except from a few on the Right who are in danger of loving it to death. Generally, left-wing critics stop short of advocating its junking altogether. In his diary Mark Latham described the alliance as "the last manifestation of the White Australia mentality" (a conclusion that must have surprised Colin...

The US military has developed a comprehensive operational plan to fight China and defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese attack, according to a recent news article and comments by Taipei Times sources. The plan, which is overseen by the US Pacific Command headquartered in Honolulu, involves not only US Pacific forces, but also US troops and equipment worldwide, according to military experts. And, while the plan, officially designated "Oplan 5077-04," includes provisions for the possible use of nuclear weapons, the focus of that section of the plan is that nuclear weapons should be avoided. The Pentagon refused to comment...

The American alliance – under the ANZUS Treaty – is "one of the fundamental institutions of our national life," according to Professor Hugh White of the Australian National University's Strategic Studies and who once headed the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. It is an assessment relatively few Australians would contest – even those who oppose its current operation. As White points out, even when individual policies are unpopular, or US leaders are unpopular, Australians "still have a very high regard for the alliance as a whole". He says at the time of the past US presidential election, about 80 per cent...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States and one of its key Asia-Pacific allies, Australia, agreed to develop a controversial missile defense shield to deter and protect against countries having access to ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Canberra also agreed to allow the United States to have a key military training center in Australia following annual talks between their foreign and defence ministers in Washington. A memorandum of understanding to develop a system to defend the two countries from missile attacks was signed by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his Australian counterpart Robert Hill. Rumsfeld told reporters that...

Alliance with US 'no given' AUSTRALIA'S alliance with the US has reached a "new zenith" under John Howard but its future is threatened by unrealistic expectations, resentment in Asia, and a lack of bipartisan political support, a new US study says. As the US's highest ranking military official, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers, visits Australia today for talks with the Prime Minister, Defence Minister Robert Hill and defence force chief Peter Cosgrove, the US War College Strategic Studies Institute says resentment within Asia at Australia's involvement in Iraq and unrealistic US expectations about Australia's...

Pressure on over nuclear ship ban 12 August 2003 The United States wants New Zealand to relax its ban on nuclear-propelled warships, saying US ships need the freedom to use New Zealand ports as part of the "war on terror". Top-ranking US Government official Grant Aldonas, who is Under-Secretary of Commerce (International Trade), yesterday described the nuclear issue as an "artefact of another age". "We need to recognise the concerns that motivated our thoughts about the actions in the mid-1980s, which came at a time when we were very much focused on the Cold War," he told an Auckland business...