Free Republic

THE tragedy of East Timor would make the angels weep. Just as it was the Timorese civil war that in 1975 precipitated Indonesian military intervention, with all of its dolorous consequences, so it is civil conflict today that has precipitated Australian military intervention. The two interventions cannot be compared, of course. Hopefully, Australia's will be short and relatively non-violent. And no one in Australia wants to incorporate East Timor. But it is time to speak bluntly. The situation in East Timor is much worse than even most analysts and commentators realise. The savage killings and lawlessness of the past few...

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has been wounded in a pre-dawn attack on his home that killed a guard, says army spokesman Major Domingos da Camara said. It was unclear what condition Ramos-Horta - a Nobel Peace laureate - was in following Monday morning's attack, he said. However Reuters reported he had been wounded in the stomach, quoting a military spokesman. House guards shot back, killing attacking rebel soldier Alfredo Reinado, who was wanted on murder charges for a flare up of violence in 2006, da Camara said. Two cars passed Ramos-Horta's house on the outskirts of the capital, Dili,...

Here is Gore Vidal, often hailed as the most important literary essayist in America, a liberal maverick, whose languid but always spirited voice of opposition to most US administrations since Kennedy's Camelot never fails to find the keen ears of the European liberal-left. He was asked on Australian radio about what Vidal calls the "Bush-Cheney junta", and how the Iraqis could have been freed from Saddam Hussein's murderous regime without US armed force. His answer: "Don't you think that's their problem? That's not your problem and that's not my problem. There are many bad regimes on earth, we can list...