First for the day, to Iraq. While the media's focus has only slowly been realising things are happening away from Aceh, Phuket, Sri Lanka et al, over 30 coalition troops have died in Iraq already this month. Along with dozens of Iraqi civilians, police and national guard - the deputy commissioner of Baghdad's police was assassinated a couple of days ago, and the head of Iraqi intelligence says there are 200,000 supporters of the insurgency...
Weather woes around the world - a huge mudslide in California has basically wiped out a coastside town, three dead, 27 missing at this stage. What with the heavy snow in the Californian mountains, it must be feeling decidedly wintery in the state - and has rained for fifteen days in a row in Los Angeles, so much for never raining in Southern California (oh no, now I'm humming along to that maudlin song LOL)...
And pretty major bushfires seemed to have just come out of thin air in South Australia. Strong winds and temperatures up to 40 degrees - eight people dead, and about twenty missing. Did anyone die in the Canberra bushfires a couple years ago? They were wondering on the morning news whether it was the worst fires since Ash Wednesday in 1983 - hmmm.
Some more Guantanamo Bay detainees being released by the US military. Think I grazed over the fact that the remaining Brits were being released, but more importantly for this corner of the world, one of the Australians held is coming home, Mamdouh Habib. The Australian government is saying that he will stay under close surveillence (spelling?) back home. If he is being released without being charged (admittedly, under the assurances that the Australian government will 'look after' him) why on earth is he still being called a terrorist suspect? Sure, he may have friends that won't be invited to Dubya's second inauguration, but if they have kept him for three years, including a six month stint in Egypt, surely any of the information he had has been squeezed out of him by now?
I hope the Australian government is as careful of his psychiatric needs as they will be about checking up on him national security wise... I can't imagine being in the wrong place at the wrong time and then being picked up without due legal process for three years. And then the US is saying that some of the detainees (from countries where they can't get the local governments to keep tabs on them I guess) may never be charged but held forever.
As I have said before, yes, I can deal with the war in Iraq (don't agree with it, but can deal with it), I can deal with the Administration being so in the red that the dollar may crash any day now, I can deal with the idea of the extreme right Republicans and the culture wars in the USA, but the most damage the US has done to itself under Bush is this whole outside due legal process for 'terrorism suspects' - it is such a blinding own goal. But then again, the Administration is good at blinding itself to bad news, lol when was the last time reality was admitted in statements about Iraq...
Later peeps
Pauly
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