Posts by Simon Grigg
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
These, just to be clear, are the guys that even Bush wanted nothing to do with but Obama has lifted sanctions on and is training and arming.
and here is why:
INDONESIA threatened to derail a visit to Jakarta by President Barack Obama this year unless he overturned the US ban on training the controversial Kopassus army special forces.
Leaked US State Department cables reveal that the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, privately told the Americans that continuing the ban - introduced in 1999 because of Kopassus's appalling human rights record - was the ''litmus test of the bilateral relationship'' between the US and Indonesia.
Six months later the US agreed to resume ties with Kopassus, despite fierce criticism from some human rights groups and American politicians about Jakarta's failure to hold officers to account for their role in atrocities.
and
The US embassy is also revealed in another cable as heavily playing down a report by Human Rights Watch last year that alleged Kopassus soldiers had committed recent human rights abuses in Papua. The embassy calls the report unbalanced and unconfirmed and says the abuses detailed do not appear to ''meet the standard of gross violation of human rights''.
The Kopassus torture video that so rocked Indonesia this year (I won't link) is freely available online.
-
I've just borrowed a tinfoil hat from James, but perhaps this is why Julia was so anti the cables coming out......
-
Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Rich Lock,
Nope, Rich ...all thoroughly debunked by some dude at the FT. Apparently it was all tied to some flighty theory built around a grand conspiracy - this too.
-
Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to James Bremner,
which as the US is the world's sole superpower
China's shut up shop then? Because around this 'hood they were looking fairly dominant of recent.
-
Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to James Bremner,
James that really doesn't answer either question. I'll mark you down for a don't know on both which is pretty much what I expected.
-
James, can you clearly define 'the left' please.
I'd also be very keen to know, in precise terms please, what negative stereotypes have been debunked.
I'm genuinely curious to know what you mean by both since it now seems you've quietly moved on from your earlier proclamations of claims by some undefined folks of a grand secret conspiracy.
-
Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to James Bremner,
Surely you are not going to dispute that.
Actually I am James. Firstly polling has shown that general distrust of the USA's foreign policies outside the US, has many political starting points, varying from country to country. Some of the harshest critics of the Iraq war came from the right of the political spectrum and could be found in the pages of papers like The Times and from right leaning historians. You don't get the sort of disapproval ratings found across the world by just upsetting the leftists.
Secondly, I'm not sure that your definition of left and centre would tally with the way the terms are used in the rest of the world. Thus what you may tag as leftist really is perhaps perceived as more centrist once you get beyond your borders and the rabid right that you seem to find comfort with. Many people who, for example, would likely vote Liberal in Australia or National in NZ would hold views that you would tag dangerously leftist. Discomfort with US foreign policy does seem to be widely held. Witness the support for Assange in Australia just this week.
Thirdly, in much of the world extreme unhappiness with the way the US deals with them and with others polls into the 80s and 90s. Are these all 'lefties' or do they simply not matter in your world?
The problem with that article was that it built up an argument based on several falsities, one being that there was this guiding concept built around a grand conspiracy, and secondly that there was nothing of import in what has been released to date. Having built these straw men it gloatingly proceeded to knock them down - and then you jumped onto the result.
And yes, PNAC...
-
Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to Matthew Reid,
Shame that doesn't help with the NZ wine over there.
It was a silly aside but it is Xmas and it would be nice to turn up to a house with a bottle of Cloudy Bay rather than something from their international competition. I do try to wave the flag when I can but it's not always easy.
The soccer was a huge boost - hard to understate - with NZ being in almost every conversation and cab drivers shaking my hand furiously. Whole nations adopted us as their team. We seem to have let the opportunity of being the popular flavour of the moment slip though. I went to a massive trade show shortly afterwards and, whilst every nation you can think of, including Samoa, had a stand, we didn't.
AusAID does have an impressive Indonesia dossier
That's the tip too as various Australian government departments do their own thing outside AusAID. The Oz tax dept built a whole IT infrastructure for the Indonesian tax dept, Australian customs have revamped the entry procedures and infrastructure at every point of entry, the Federal Police are bashing their heads trying to help reform the notoriously corrupt and broken Indonesian equivalent and so on.
-
Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to James Bremner,
that no evidence of American grand conspiracies has come out of Wikileaks,
It's a non point / fairly hefty straw man - the idea that most voices on the centre or left, at least anyone I know, has grand conspiracy theories as a starting point is as you say nuttier than a fruit cake. But if that's where you are coming from James, so be it...
-
The fall of Saigon, the Iranian revolution and then the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan all occured in that period.
All of those were failures of US hegemony rather than pointers to its non-existence. There were not many countries world-wide where the US was not trying to exert some sort of influence in the 1970s, including the Soviet Bloc.
To be fair Simon, I understand that Australia focuses on SEA and NZ on the Pacific
Yep, I get that and I think that my comment was probably a little self serving - frustrated at the endless little red maps of Australia on signs in Indonesia. Australia's work throughout South East Asia is quite something.
Still, I guess the profits from processing all that oil and gas from the Timor Sea rather balances the books.
Plus [self-serving semi-patriotic whinge] I'd be happier though if I could buy NZ wine up here at a decent price. The Australians, Italians, French, South Africans, Californians and various South American nations all manage to get a reasonable bottle into the shops for around $20 - nothing from New Zealand hits the shelves for much under $80. It tends to stay on the shelves.