How embarrassment!

After about a decade of moral freefall under Prime Minister John Howard, Australia has finally cemented its place as an international parriah. This article from the UK Guardian newspaper is a must-read for all Australians, providing a startling insight into how the ill-considered comments of our inept Foreign Minister are seen abroad. It would be nice to think that this was just an abberation, a slip of the tongue, but unfortunately we really do seem to have subscribed 100% to El Busho's (now officially) God-given doctrine.

An except from the Guardian article:

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - The Australian government on Thursday branded multilateral forums such as the United Nations ``ineffective and unfocused'' and said its foreign policy will increasingly rely on ``coalitions of the willing'' like the one that waged war in Iraq.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also said that in Canberra's view, other nations' sovereignty was ``not absolute.''

As an Australian, I assume that means that our own sovereignty is also not absolute? So if a foreign leader like Malaysia's PM decides it is in his own best interests to attack us, he is also completely justified??? Or are we really getting into religious wars now?

Click here for a link to that Ha'aretz article in which Bush claims he was directed by God to smite Osama and Saddam.

In other news, a brave Ha'arestz reporter asks why the Israeli media gods recently decided to drop the BBC World Service from non-digital cable television? Hmmn... could it have something to do with the same reasons why the BBC was given table number 148, near the toilets and the kitchens, at a major White House event?

Media Wars are afoot... As Bush, Howard and every other would-be totalitarian ruler knows, the best way to discourage dissent is to control the airwaves, TV, newspapers.... but can you control the Blogs?? :-)