As deadly an enemy as the West has ever had

Let me start with this: Iraqis think the U.S. is in cahoots with the Islamic State, and it is hurting the war

On the front lines of the battle against the Islamic State, suspicion of the United States runs deep. Iraqi fighters say they have all seen the videos purportedly showing U.S. helicopters airdropping weapons to the militants, and many claim they have friends and relatives who have witnessed similar instances of collusion.

Ordinary people also have seen the videos, heard the stories and reached the same conclusion — one that might seem absurd to Americans but is widely believed among Iraqis — that the United States is supporting the Islamic State for a variety of pernicious reasons that have to do with asserting U.S. control over Iraq, the wider Middle East and, perhaps, its oil.

“It is not in doubt,” said Mustafa Saadi, who says his friend saw U.S. helicopters delivering bottled water to Islamic State positions. He is a commander in one of the Shiite militias that last month helped push the militants out of the oil refinery near Baiji in northern Iraq alongside the Iraqi army.

The Islamic State is “almost finished,” he said. “They are weak. If only America would stop supporting them, we could defeat them in days.”

Match that up with this: Obama’s Increasingly Surreal War on ISIS.

America’s role in the Global War on Terror grows stranger by the hour. President Obama’s fight against ISIS and other radical Islamic terrorists — such as it is — has entered the Twilight Zone. That is the only explanation for Obama’s increasingly bizarre tactics and statements against these existentially dangerous savages. . . .

All told, the obsessive pursuit of “no civilian casualties — zero,” as retired four-star General Jack Keane quotes Obama as demanding, has led U.S. pilots to report that they fly sorties over ISIS territory and return to base with 75 percent of their bombs undropped. . . .

The Pentagon’s inspector general is probing reports that Defense Intelligence Agency analysts who described ISIS’s threat as grave and robust were told to “cut it out” and “toe the line.” E-mails to that effect may have been destroyed in order to cover up this apparent undercooking of the books. . . .

Standing beside the new leader of the Free World, France’s Francoise Hollande, Obama declared on Tuesday: “Next week, I will be joining President Hollande and world leaders in Paris for the global climate conference. What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children.”

It’s less than not serious. Obama personally stands in the way of a coherent American foreign policy. And then there’s this: State Department ‘troubled’ by Moscow’s move against Soros groups.

The U.S. State Department says it is “troubled” by Russia’s decision to ban two of liberal billionaire George Soros’ pro-democracy charities and label the organizations a threat to national security.

“Today’s designation of the Open Society Foundations and the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation as so-called ‘undesirable’ organizations will only further restrict the work of civil society in Russia for the benefit of the Russian people,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday. “This action is yet another example of the Russian Government’s growing crackdown on independent voices and a deliberate step to further isolate the Russian people from the world.”

The Russians must know something. In fact, Soros hides virtually nothing about his anti-Western hatreds. There’s lots around if you care to look but here is something recent: Rebuilding the Asylum System. That is, promoting the invasion of Europe by millions of refugees. This is who the State Department defends while Putin proscribes his organisations from operating within Russia.

Rats deserting the ship they helped to sink

Steve Hayward draws attention to the fact that Richard Cohen at the Washington Post! has given up on Obama. Very late in the day and much too late to do anything about it, but there is this.

The presidency has changed Barack Obama. His hair has gone gray, which is to be expected, and he looks older, which is also to be expected, but his eloquence has been replaced by petulance and he has lost the power to persuade, which is something of a surprise. You can speculate that if the Obama of today and not Winston Churchill had led Britain in World War II, the Old Vic Theatre Company would now be doing “Hamlet” in German. (Emphasis added.)

It’s not that Obama has lost his gift of eloquence. His problem is he often has nothing to say. . . Obama’s self-inflicted predicament was apparent in the statement he issued following the Paris terrorist attacks. He spoke coldly, by rote — saying all the right things in the manner of a minister presiding at the funeral of a perfect stranger.

He is out of words because he is out of ideas. Consequently, he ought to listen to others. They’re not the ones who are popping off. He is.

It’s not like Cohen says that it was the worst imaginable mistake to have elected Obama, only that he cannot come up with some kind of rhetorical flourish to express the point he needs to make. Except that Obama doesn’t want to make such points. None of that would coincide with his beliefs. If after seven years that’s not obvious I have no idea what could ever be done to get such people to see what has gone on before their eyes. The more important question is how did Obama get elected in the first place and what can be done to prevent such disasters from happening again?

Abbott’s problem was to be ahead of his time

Since the terrorist attacks in Paris, the rest of the world has caught up with what Tony understood from the start. This is from Andrew Bolt on Turnbull should apologise to Abbott. Or is the US now guilty of “machismo”, too?.

Tony Abbott suggested:

Preferably with Sunni states such as Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, as well as with the US, Britain and France, Australia should be prepared to contribute more to a military campaign to destroy this terrorist caliphate on the ground in Syria and Iraq. This could involve less restrictive targeting rules for airstrikes and the deployment of special forces on the ground in support of local forces, similar to the 2001 campaign where the Northern Alliance defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Julie Bishop misrepresented:

As Tony Abbott well knows, Australia does not act unilaterally. We need legal basis under international law to send our forces into other countries.

Malcolm Turnbull rejected:

Yesterday Turnbull was seen to be giving his predecessor a “slap down” in his national security address to parliament suggesting there was no room for “gestures or machismo” and ridiculed any idea of a “unilateral” Australian invasion of Syria or a “Western-led invasion”….

Even as Turnbull said the response to the Paris terror attacks “must be as clear eyed and strategic”, it was “not a time for gestures or machismo” and there was no support “for a large US-led Western army to attempt to conquer ISIL” in Iraq or Syria, the outrage grew that he was putting up a “straw man” argument against Abbott.

The US now accepts:

The United States is deploying ‘specialised’ troops in Iraq to fight the Islamic State group, including by leading raids against the jihadists over the border in Syria, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says.

Speaking to the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, the Pentagon chief said that a ‘specialised expeditionary targeting force’ was being deployed in Iraq to help Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces battle IS….

He said the special forces would also be able to intervene in neighbouring Syria, where Washington has already announced it is sending about 50 special operations troops.

‘These special operators will over time be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture ISIL leaders,’ he said.

Malcolm Turnbull’s response? The response of the journalists who joined Turnbull in smashing Abbott’s suggestion?

Explaining the International Impact of the 2008 Financial Crisis

This was part of a video I recorded in July while in the US and has now appeared as part of a series put out by the National Center for Policy Analysis. My point was that for the US the Global Financial Crisis looked like a domestic issue, but for the rest of us it looked like a problem that had begun internationally but which had swamped our economies irrespective of the domestic policies that had existed up until then. So while the US can examine its various institutional arrangements, the rest of us have few lessons to learn about the causes of the GFC, but many lessons about what not to do when an economy enters recession. And most importantly, neither in the US or elsewhere could the explanation be based on a theory of over-saving and demand deficiency. All recessions are due to structural imbalances which are never repaired by increases in public spending.

Abbott attacks Bishop

The saga more than continues but is becoming explosive. The SMH story on the secret conversation of February 8 between Malcolm, Julie and Scott has now got Abbott truly riled. Abbott will let a lot go by but he is old school on this and will not tolerate out and out lying. He was always certain to be angry about what had been done, but this smug leaking of a story – almost certainly by Malcolm himself – that must absolutely have remained subterranean if the tensions were to ebb away must have been the last straw. This from the SMH: Tony Abbott unleashes public attack on Julie Bishop, accusing her of telling falsehoods. Only someone as politically stupid as Turnbull would allow such a potential firestorm to break out. Only he can be the source of the story that has riled Abbott and no doubt many others. He always wants to show how much smarter he is than everyone else. So this is where we now are at.

Tony Abbott has unleashed a public attack on his former deputy, Julie Bishop, to accuse her of telling falsehoods.

In a new outbreak of recriminations over the leadership coup, Mr Abbott has made a four-point repudiation of the Foreign Affairs Minister and deputy Liberal leader.

The former prime minister told Fairfax Media it was “false” that Ms Bishop had warned him of a phone call where Malcolm Turnbull was making plans for a post-Abbott government seven months before he challenged for the leadership.

The call was a clear sign that Mr Turnbull, then communications minister, was considering a leadership strike against Mr Abbott.

In the February 8 call, Mr Turnbull offered Scott Morrison the treasurer’s post in a future Turnbull government, as disclosed by Fairfax Media’s Shirtfronted series this week.

Ms Bishop was in the same room as Mr Turnbull at the time, a silent participant in the call. The three continued to serve in the Abbott cabinet for another seven months and six days.
When Ms Bishop was asked on Channel Nine on Tuesday whether she had told Mr Abbott about the call, she responded: “Of course, of course.”

But Mr Abbott said: “The claim that Julie Bishop made on Channel Nine that she told me about the conversation between Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison that she witnessed is false.”

On a second point, Mr Abbott said it was not true that Ms Bishop had urged him to appoint two more women to his first cabinet.

In part two of Fairfax’s Shirtfronted, Ms Bishop is said to have suggested that Marise Payne and Sussan Ley be appointed to the cabinet, but met opposition from Mr Abbott’s then chief of staff, Peta Credlin, during a leadership dinner at Canberra’s Ottoman restaurant soon after winning power.

But Mr Abbott told Fairfax Media: “The suggestion that Julie Bishop lobbied me to get Marise Payne and Sussan Ley into cabinet in September 2013 is false. The suggestion that Peta Credlin opposed that is also false.”

Mr Abbott also took issue with two more of Ms Bishop’s comments on Channel Nine.

He challenged her remark that his cabinet had held firm during the first and unsuccessful leadership spill in February.

Ms Bishop had said: “The cabinet held absolutely firm and 39 people voted for the spill, even though there was no leadership contender,” Ms Bishop said.
“Tony Abbott then said that he wanted six months to turn things around and when the next spill motion came, 54 members of the party voted for a new leader. That’s how I saw the situation,” she said.

“I certainly was not aware of white-anting, although I’m sure that the former prime minister has a number of concerns about what went on in those last six months of his time as prime minister.”
Mr Abbott said: “Julie Bishop’s claim that the cabinet was solidly behind me was rendered ridiculous by the leaking that so obviously took place.”

Most conspicuous was Fairfax Media’s coverage of a cabinet revolt over Mr Abbott’s proposed changes to citizenship laws.

Ms Bishop said that Mr Abbott was mistaken to have said that he’d been “white-anted” from within.

She said the former prime minister was undone by his own performance as leader.

Mr Abbott rejected this too: “If that’s true, why has the government not changed any of its key policies?”

Finally, Mr Abbott rejected the general proposition that he might have saved his prime ministership if he’d removed the controversial Ms Credlin and his treasurer, Joe Hockey.

“The idea that Malcolm Turnbull would have been content to remain a minister if only I’d sacked Credlin and Hockey is fatuous.”

Malcolm is not the man to heal this breach.

Making people poor in old age

This is a comment on The Oz question time report, on how to arrange superannuation. Strangely, this was my proposal when I was doing what I could to oppose the introduction of the Superannuation Guarantee and compulsory super.

The present arrangements for supporting people in their later years are ridiculously complex. Why didn’t we follow the model used, very successfully, by other countries…. Everyone gets the age pension, including those who have assets (and why not? They’ve probably contributed more than most). And to pay for it we remove most of the tax breaks on Super. No assets test; and no-one manipulating their finances so that they creep into the qualification for a part pension (along with all the associated discounts).

Of course, the superannuation industry would hate it…. And the unions (who have benefitted hugely from the way Keating designed the system) would absolutely loathe it.

Everyone to get the Age Pension and then you are on your own to do what you like. Unfortunately, the possibilities for graft are much constrained with such a system. I saw the dollar signs in the eyes of many a person, and there was no deviating from the system we now have. As I said then, and I say now, it is a system that will make many a person poor in old age.

A padded cell is even safer

Jay Nordinger has gone Underground at Brown and here’s what he found. He found that the university had set up a retreat for university students who might be traumatised by having to listen to a speaker they did not agree with. This is what they therefore did.

Students set up a safe space for those who might attend the debate and be shaken by something they heard. A “safe space”? Yes. This space, in the words of Judith Shulevitz, writing in the New York Times, was a room “equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and staff members trained to deal with trauma.”

What can anyone say about any of this?