Posts Tagged ‘war’

Quite a day or two then!

Written By: - Date published: 6:17 pm, September 18th, 2018 - 83 comments

A quick smorgasbord of reported news from Syria, to China and Sweden, to antisemitism and (hidden behind the links) an interview with (hopefully) the first woman who will serve as President of the USA.

Updated

The War on Carbon

Written By: - Date published: 6:02 am, June 22nd, 2018 - 50 comments

Or a conscientious objection to any War on Climate Change, or War on Global Warming.

What’s the Game?

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, April 14th, 2018 - 194 comments

What the hell are Macron, May and Trump playing at?

Crazees and clowns

Written By: - Date published: 9:58 am, April 12th, 2018 - 42 comments

Can we have some sanity please?

Framing Syria

Written By: - Date published: 5:34 pm, April 12th, 2017 - 48 comments

If you’re determined to  believe that western liberal democracy is essentially benign and only ever makes mistakes and honest mis-judgements, or is something that’s sometimes marred by an odd ‘bad apple’ or two, then this post on Syria probably isn’t the post for you.

World War?

Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, April 7th, 2017 - 221 comments

Well…don’t know about you, but I’m feeling like I want to throw up.

Australia’s war

Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, February 25th, 2017 - 5 comments

Surprising no one: “A newly declassified report obtained by Fairfax Media reveals Australia’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq was undertaken solely to enhance our alliance with the US.”

Kansas ANZUS.

Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, February 5th, 2017 - 45 comments

What to do when your erstwhile ally loses the plot?

Special Relationship 2

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, January 27th, 2017 - 58 comments

The Bush Blair “special relationship” was a geopolitical disaster of epic proportions. Get ready for Round 2, Trump May.

Chilcot report – Blair’s bad week

Written By: - Date published: 10:02 am, July 5th, 2016 - 44 comments

Even before its release the Chilcot report is drawing attention to the hubristic warmongering that will forever stain Blair’s time in office.

Afghanistan – a forgotten war

Written By: - Date published: 6:43 pm, February 15th, 2016 - 27 comments

More than a decade after the Taliban Government was ‘regime changed’ by the west, the Taliban are resurgent and Afghan civilian deaths are as high as ever.

UK votes to bomb Syria

Written By: - Date published: 11:59 am, December 3rd, 2015 - 81 comments

Cameron-bomb-syria

Turkey shoots down Russian jet

Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, November 25th, 2015 - 151 comments

Late yesterday Turkey (a NATO member) shot down a Russian jet, either inside its airspace (Turkey claims) or over Syria (Russia claims).

Ground troops to Iraq – PM please explain

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, November 19th, 2015 - 26 comments

PM please explain, what the hell good would sending a few Kiwi ground troops to the ongoing disaster of the Middle East achieve? Is it the whole cost of being in the club thing again?

Finally Fighting for Democracy?

Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, October 31st, 2015 - 31 comments

Boots on ground.

The Taji report

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, October 13th, 2015 - 17 comments

An American report which came out shortly before Key’s visit to our troops at Taji camp in Iraq is strongly critical of conditions there, and of the efficacy of the training process. Key claims he didn’t know, yet another of his outbreaks of “convenient ignorance”.

Key the “statesman” strikes again

Written By: - Date published: 3:37 pm, April 15th, 2015 - 71 comments

key-name

A Bright Spark Burning…

Written By: - Date published: 1:39 pm, March 11th, 2015 - 40 comments

A further piece on the peoples’ revolution within Northern Syria.

Public support for the Iraq deployment (In which the insightful and knowledgable Mike Hosking springs to the defence of the embattled PM!)

Written By: - Date published: 7:11 am, February 27th, 2015 - 89 comments

Despite the best efforts of Mike Hosking, the poll numbers tell us that Kiwis have lost their historical appetite for this kind of misadventure.

Three speeches on going to war

Written By: - Date published: 8:42 am, February 25th, 2015 - 109 comments

The first three speeches from yesterdays session in Parliament on sending troops to Iraq – John Key, Andrew Little, Russel Norman. Little’s speech is cogent, Norman’s is brilliant.

ISIS. Crowdsourcing a solution.

Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, February 24th, 2015 - 172 comments

So, we’re off to Iraq. If the answer to ISIS isn’t sending Kiwi troops, what do Standardistas think practical alternatives might be?

EDIT: Key announces 143 troops to go to Iraq and support staff.

NZ sending troops to Iraq

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, February 23rd, 2015 - 227 comments

New Zealand will be sending troops to Iraq, and you read it first on The Standard. Or in other words, why are we still pretending that the decision hasn’t been made?

Mission Accomplished

Written By: - Date published: 7:19 am, February 14th, 2015 - 55 comments

“You gotta hand it to John Key: the timing is perfect. On a slow-news Friday at a time when the media is falling over itself to hype the cricket world cup, the last veil drops to reveal al Jaafari and his request for assistance.”

War HUH!

Written By: - Date published: 8:18 am, February 13th, 2015 - 417 comments

NZ is again being asked to go to war in Iraq. The Clark Labour Government said no a decade ago, but in 2015 there may be a compelling reason to join the fight; this time it’s the right thing to do. New Standard author te reo putake puts the case for NZ entering the battle against ISIS.

So now it’s a family not a club

Written By: - Date published: 3:48 pm, February 4th, 2015 - 114 comments

John Key wanted to be in the Five Eyes “club”, but I guess that didn’t focus group well, so now we’re being fed a new line – “family”.

War Begets War

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, January 19th, 2015 - 75 comments

We’re not good at learning from history.

Off to war

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, October 16th, 2014 - 70 comments

Broken promise. Lies. War. The Herald willing to believe anything to defend Brand Key. Just another day in NZ politics.

NZ troops to Iraq?

Written By: - Date published: 8:41 am, October 1st, 2014 - 109 comments

Key’s public position on sending troops to Iraq has (surprise!) changed since the election. His private position on the topic probably hasn’t changed since 2003.

Sarin

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, September 2nd, 2013 - 128 comments

On the one hand, there is the building propaganda blitz to justify military action in Syria, and on the other…

Obama and the UK

Written By: - Date published: 2:10 pm, September 1st, 2013 - 26 comments

So Barack Obama is going to adhere to the US constitution this time around ( unlike as was the case with Libya) and await the potential green light of Congress before commencing with any military action in Syria.

Syria et al.

Written By: - Date published: 5:09 pm, August 29th, 2013 - 311 comments

Sometimes the most complicated and complex situation becomes clear when viewed from a simple and obvious perspective.

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