No, No, No, No, NO!!!!

Australia (where I live) has decided to support the US Missile Defence Program (aka Star Wars).

How stupid is that? The technology is unproven, the costs are astronomical, the logic is cretinous, but the motivation is obvious. Our PM John Howard is desperate to display just how far he can bend over to please his weasely master, Uncle G. W. Sam. As the Australian Greens leader has pointed out, this is a missile defence system for THE USA, not Australia or anybody else. And it's not even a good idea for THEM!

I am so sick of my $%@#*ed up so-called-democratic "government". It's not bad enough that Australians around the world have become valid terrorist targets for a war in Iraq that 82% of us DID NOT WANT, it's not bad enough that we have become international pariahs by violating UN laws on the treatment of refugees BECAUSE OUR GOVERNMENT LIES TO US, now we have to throw money out the window, piss off the neighbours and escalate the arms race once again at a time when the world is crying out for help on global warming, AIDS, hunger, education, poverty....

The great tragedy of the Bush administration is that prior to his election, the USA stood at a crossroads. Victorious in the Cold War, they could have legitimately claimed a victory for the values of truth, freedom and democracy which they championed since the Civil War. Instead, isolated from any true understanding of other nations, they chose isolation and continued escalation. Bush's election was a triumph of greed and corporate capitalist control.

US citizens will learn one day - apparently the hard way - that they cannot survive within a bubble, cut of from the rest of the world, clinging to illusions of safety. The only way to ensure the real security of the USA is to engage with the rest of the world and help EVERYONE achieve equality, unity and mutual respect. At this stage of the game, as the world grows ever smaller, it really is all or nothing. But it would take a leader with vision to communicate that truth to the US public, and Generallisimo El Busho is no such man. Unfortunately, neither is Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

How long till the unwanted US bases in Japan are re-located to Australian shores, Johnny?