negative news in orbit
From the EE Times:

Hints of such a policy showed up in the Rumsfeld Commission report of January 2001, which warned of a "space Pearl Harbor" if the United States did not dominate low-earth, geosynchronous and polar orbital planes, as well as all launch facilities and ground stations, to exploit space for battlefield advantage.

The European Union complained in no uncertain terms five years ago that the NRO and National Security Agency were using global electronic-snooping programs like Echelon outside the boundaries of mutual NATO advantage. The European Space Agency chimed in last fall, when the Defense Department tried to bully ESA into changing its design plans for a navigational-satellite system called Galileo.

In the aftermath of the successful Iraq campaign, concern goes much deeper and extends to the heart of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command inside Cheyenne Mountain near here. While Canada is supposed to be an equal member of NORAD, representatives of Canada's military and civilian establishment are complaining that they are not allowed to use space-based communications and intelligence in the same way the United States can.

"We cannot address the way the U.S. views missile defense and weapons in space without dealing with their insistence on space negation head-on," said Lawson of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs.

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Judd Blaisdell, director of the Air Force Space Operations Office, said recently, "We are so dominant in space that I pity a country that would come up against us."

Oh well, at least George Bush will get a chance to dress up as Luke Skywalker.

Link courtesy of Gyre.

nine weeks and counting
From the BBC:

The new American administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, has abolished the ministries and institutions that formed the backbone of Saddam Hussein's power structure.

The Iraqi army - including Saddam Hussein's once formidable Republican Guard - has been disbanded, and will be replaced by a new defence force.

The defence and information ministries, the military and security courts and the Olympic Committee have all been dissolved.

Okay, this is largely a symbolic act, but why wait 9 weeks to do something so basic? It can't be because the occupation is busy with real actions like restoring basic services because they've moved at snail's pace on those as well.

Phil Carter's excellent analysis in the Washington Monthly gives the real answer:

Even the failures of these previous missions demonstrate that manpower is less important to the achievement of military victory than to coping with victory's aftermath. In Kosovo, according to retired Gen. Montgomery Meigs, then commander of the Balkan stabilization force, we were forced to "do less" because the Pentagon claimed it could not send more peacekeeping troops. As a result, says Meigs, "we were unable to run operations inside Kosovo to interdict the internal movement of arms and Albanian-Kosovar fighters to [neighboring] Macedonia." Those armed separatists set off a civil war in Macedonia--stopped only by the timely deployment of more Western troops, including Americans, into that country.

Something very similar happened in Afghanistan. Our biggest failure there occurred in the mop-up stage, following the flight of the Taliban government. Because we had so few troops on the ground, we failed to cut off and destroy the remnants of al Qaeda--including, most likely, Osama bin Laden himself--as they fled into the lawless mountain regions of the Afghan and Pakistani frontier. Our subsequent efforts at nation-building on the cheap have yielded similar results. Our unwillingness to put many troops on the ground has made a mockery of the president's promise for a "Marshall Plan" for Afghanistan. The Western-oriented, U.S.-installed president, Hamid Karzai, controls little more than Kabul, and the rest of the country has already drifted back into warlordism.

Keeping the coalition numbers down may have been a simple miscalculation. The Pentagon's civilian leadership may believe that machinery is everything and boots on the ground are futile. Of course, there's also a fair chance that it was thought a lot easier to sell a fast, clean war with few troops than a long and difficult occupation with hundreds of thousands of troops.

afterthought
The Guardian reports similar problems:

Tony Blair has been told in stark terms that American forces have exacerbated tensions because they have refused to mingle among the local population in the same way as British forces in Iraq's second city of Basra.

The finger of blame is being pointed at troops from the 3rd Infantry Division, the main US forces in Baghdad, who are said to be desperate to return home after bearing the brunt of the military campaign.

One source said: "In the capital the US forces have not adopted the mingling profile with the populace that has been a success in other cities. That is not the instinct of a heavily armoured division that has gone through a tough war."

The failure to secure Baghdad, which contrasts with successes by US and British forces in other parts of Iraq, will have grave consequences for reconstruction. It is understood that US corporations, such as Bechtel and the USAid government department, are reluctant to start repairing Iraq's infrastructure until Baghdad is safer.

Ruddock's rules
From Immigration Minister Ruddock's interview with Kerry O'Brien:

KERRY O'BRIEN: Do you acknowledge that at least in a number of instances that self-harm was an act of desperation, not some cynical act to somehow try and fool us into accepting them but an act of desperation?

Do you accept that?

PHILIP RUDDOCK: It depends on what you mean by 'desperation', Kerry.

KERRY O'BRIEN: I mean in despair.

PHILIP RUDDOCK: If you were saying are they despairing that they may not have claims that would entitle them to refugee status and hope that by behaving that way they might influence the decision I think many people tried to do just that.

And that was the advice that I was receiving from people who independently went and sought to mediate and ascertain what the reasons were for the incidents that were occurring.

In Ruddock's world no-one ever suffers depression or despair and self-harm is all malingering to pressure the minister. It makes good rhetoric and gets gobbled up eagerly by the media chooks, but it's not good psychology and the entire policy is inconsistent with international practice. Given the atrocious situation reported by Four Corners it's amazing that his advisers have not already briefed him on the nature of despair. Despair is, after all, the cornerstone of his policy.

Human Rights Watch comments:

Australia is the only country to grant temporary status to refugees who have been through a full asylum determination system and who have been recognized as genuinely in need of protection for 1951 Refugee Convention reasons. Temporary Protection, as it is used in Europe and as permitted by various United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ExCom1 Conclusions,2 is granted to asylum seekers as a group when they are fleeing an emergency that is self-evidently causing forced displacement or when the number of arriving asylum seekers threatens to overwhelm the administrative capacity of receiving states. In all other instances refugees are able to enjoy full and permanent protection after they have gone through the refugee determination process.

We are also the only country demanding that groups like the East Timorese return home and the only country imposing a blanket penalty on anyone stopping for 7 days in a third country.

Lastly, I think it's interesting one of Ruddock's favourite lines is that the issues raised on Four Corners are now only 'historical' because Woomera is closed. The same policy remains in force and the new detention centre is operated by the same company. Only the address and the spin has changed.

snark of the week
From Slate:

By now, Paul Bremer must have come to grips with the enormity of the task facing him. As President Bush's special envoy and the chief U.S. civilian in Iraq, he must mediate among fierce tribal factions riven by ancient hatreds. And that's just in the Bush administration.

General on Aceh duty again skips his trial for rights abuses

JAKARTA (JP): Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, who is accused of crimes against humanity in East Timor, had failed to appear before the human rights court here on Wednesday for the third time in succession because he is helping supervise a major military assault in Aceh province, AFP reported.

Chief judge Marni Emmy Mustafa said the court would issue a ruling next month in the case, although it was not clear if this would amount to a verdict.

"To maintain the authority of the court, because the trial has already been postponed three times and enough time has been accorded to the defendant, on June 5 the council of judges will come out with a ruling," Marni said.

Adam Damiri headed the military command overseeing East Timor in 1999 and is now posted to military headquarters.

His lawyer Hotma Sitompul told the court that Adam cannot attend because of his duties in Aceh, where the government Monday launched a major assault on separatist rebels.

Adam is one of two generals still awaiting verdicts in cases linked to the military-backed militia violence against independence supporters in East Timor in 1999.

No-one could ever accuse a TNI general of inconsistent behaviour.

Get used to it
The international community will spend the next quarter-century justifying or downplaying stories like this:

Mahmood Malik, whom Gam considers its prime minister, urged the UN to intervene immediately. He called for an international fact-finding mission to be sent to the province to investigate the "crimes against humanity that have been committed".

Lieutenant Colonel Yani Basuki, a military spokesman, refused to comment on the incident. "We are still checking the reports," he said. "We will have more details tomorrow."

But Mr Nazir said none of his son's killers would ever face justice. "There's no way we are going to complain," he said. "We are far too afraid of the Indonesian military. There's nothing we can do."

Gen Endang also said that he was imposing restrictions on the media, reversing earlier promises of free access. He said journalists who quoted Gam spokesmen would be banned from the province.

What is about Australian politicians and a bill of rights?
The ACT has published a report advocating a bill of rights. In recent years committees have advised against a bill of rights in NSW or, as in Queensland, advised in favour and had their advice rejected. If anyone had dared to mention a bill of rights at the 1999 constitutional convention I suspect the ALP and Coalition delegates would, as one, have leapt onto the nearest table and started screaming.

We are now the only democracy without any form of statutory, let alone constitutional, protection of human rights, except for strictly limited rights mentioned in the federal constitution. Why? And do not significant failures such as Woomera suggest we need one?

the Murray's chance of survival: moderate, maybe
There's a good article at Public Opinion linking to an article on the ACF website:

The Australian Conservation Foundation has expressed deep concern about a static core environment budget and cuts to salinity expenditure in the federal budget.

ACF Executive Director Don Henry said, "The Prime Minister had promised that salinity, tree clearing and water were priorities for the next 12 months. But this budget contains no additional commitments, instead we're seeing cuts and little progress in these critical areas."

"The core environmental budget has stayed static, right at the time when Australia's growing extinction crisis demands increased funding for threatened plants and animals, climate change and the Murray Darling River system."

"The recently leaked government report, the Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment talks starkly of an extinction crisis sweeping Australia, which has the world's worst mammal extinction rate. The report declared that a 'significant increase in funding was necessary to achieve effective biodiversity conservation outcomes'."

"And yet this year's budget cuts salinity funding by $63 million over two years and provides no additional money to address tree clearing," said Henry.

"Later this year Federal and State ministers will meet to decide whether to rescue our great Murray Darling river-system. This requires an immediate allocation of $50 million from the federal government."

"But this budget is as dry as a dead river bed, for the Murray Darling. Instead of rescuing the Murray, the government is leaving it endangered and on life support."

The saddest comment is from the government's own mouth. Read The living Murray from the Murray-Darling Basin initiative. The initiative sets up 3 reference points:

Reference Points - Average amount of extra water provided to the River Murray environment
350 GL a year
750 GL a year
1500 GL a year

The initiative estimates 10 years to implement the first 2 options and 15 for the thirds.

The initiative estimates the' likelihood of a healthy working river from an ecological perspective' at Low for the first option, Low to Moderate for the second option and only Moderate if we add 1500 gigalitres of environmental flow. So the best outcome from the most radical proposal the basin authorities are considering is a Moderate chance of success.

Read it and weep. Your tears might help. If they're not too saline.

anniversary of Timor Lorosae
The Democratic Republic of East Timor celebrated the first year of independence today. At the other end of the Indonesian archipelago:

Separatist rebels in the Indonesian province of Aceh will "fight forever", their leader said as government troops deployed in force.

"We have been fighting Indonesia for 27 years... we are confident that we will be able to resist them," Mahmood Malik said from exile in Sweden.

The Indonesian army launched a major offensive this week aimed at destroying the rebels within six months after peace talks in Japan collapsed over a demand for them to surrender their arms.

Empires have such bad memories. The Indonesian empire cannot remember what the people of Timor Lorosae said at the start of their quarter-century struggle for independence. The Indonesian military is going to destroy the rebel movement within 'six months'. Evidently they cannot remember saying that before, either.

Backyard

The God of Smoke listens idly in the heat
���� to the barbecue sausages
speaking the language of rain deceitfully
���� as their fat dances.

Azure, hazed, the huge drifting sky shelters
���� its threatening weather.
A screen door slams, and the kids come tumbling
���� out of their arguments,

and the barrage of shouting begins, concerning
���� young Sandra and Scott
and the broken badminton racquet and net
���� and the burning meat.

Is that a fifties home movie, or the real
���� thing? Heavens, how
a child and a beach ball in natural colour
���� can break your heart.

And the brown dog worries the khaki grass
���� to stop it from growing
in place of his worship, the burying bone.
���� The bone that stinks.

Turn now to the God of this tattered arena
���� watching over the rites of passage -
marriage, separation; adolescence
���� and troubled maturity:

having served under that bright sky you may look up
���� but don't ask too much:
some cold beer, a few old friends in the afternoon,
����� a Southerly Buster at dusk.

John Tranter

The Winds
(from the Arabic)

At fifty, the Khamsin can ruin your day
and the foul Simoon poison
a week of revelry. When you were young,
your garments loose, with a curved sword
and a town girl in a swirl of perfume
hanging on each arm, you?d laugh at the wind.
Now, rising from the arms of the rosy-fingered
Goddess of the Egg, the Sirocco
reminds you that here under the dusty sun
in the tent of one you despise
you?re missing out on the F�hn.
�
Oh, that the Bora, Master of Migraine,
might sweep down from the north
and clear the air. The Mistral is the master here
on this bitter coast, and speaks of yachts
as fodder. But when the sky holds its breath
and a French eucalypt drowsing in the heat
decorates the surf with a fringe of scent
a young man, too long expatriate, dreams
of a Southerly Buster and a cold Australian beer.

John Tranter

Murray-Darling thoughts
Last December my friend David and I were at Kinchega national park in the Western division of NSW. Driving in from Broken Hill, you pass the Menindee sailing club. The Menindee lakes, part natural and part constructed, are big enough for sailing but the drought has left the club house about a kilometre from the water. David and I stopped beside the Darling river to look at a wrecked boiler tank.

In 1872 the paddle steamer SS Providence tied up at the town of Menindee. The river failed during the night and they were forced to stay in Menindee until the river rose enough to float them. They waited a year. When the Darling flowed again they had a drink or two at the Menindee pub and set off. Sadly (it may have been the drink) they fired up their furnace but forgot to refill their boiler. When their boiler exploded it obliterated both the boat and its crew, except for the cook who was thrown clear but died within hours of appalling injuries. All that's left is a rusting boiler which lies where it fell, about 40 metres from the river.

David (an admirably unreconstructed hippie) clapped three times to recognise the dead. It would be a good thing for a few members of parliament to go and look at that chunk of rusted iron because its story tells us a great deal about living in Australia. Our inland rivers are all deeply unstable and they were deeply unstable long before European settlement. Managing them by benign neglect, or worse, by rhetoric without action, does not work. The Murray-Darling basin is dying and, until yesterday, no-one much in parliament seemed worried by that.

Opposition Leader Simon Crean made his speech replying to the budget last night. There was nothing in the budget providing any vision or any resources to keep the Murray and Darling rivers flowing. Crean said:

The Murray River is dying. If we don't restore the health of the Murray, there will not be a river system capable of supporting farmers into the future. It's time for action - not passing the buck.

A Crean Labor Government will:

* Deliver 450 gigalitres of environmental flows within the first term of a Crean Labor Government - enough to keep the mouth of the Murray open;

* Deliver 1500 gigalitres in environmental flows within 10 years - the minimum required to restore the health of the river;

* Create Riverbank to fund the river's restoration and make an initial capital injection of $150 million; and

* Establish the Environmental Flow Trust to manage environmental flows.

Australia is by far the driest continent on the planet. The average annual rainfall is 472 millimetres (18.5 inches). Falls concentrate on the coast leaving the arid interior with even less rain than the average expresses.

Rainfall effects politics. There's no need to start hunting through sources on hydraulic despotism. Robert Kaplan argued in 1995 that any region with an annual average rainfall of less than 20 inches (500 millimetres) 'will sustain a human population only with difficulty.' That's the whole of this nation.

Kaplan wrote in The Atlantic Monthly that:

Indeed, had the United States been settled from west to east rather than the other way around, the big government agencies necessitated by scarce water would have preceded the freeman tradition that took root on the well-watered eastern slopes of the Appalachians in the eighteenth century, and a mild form of hydraulic civilization -- highly centralized and authoritarian regimes, like those that built the great water and earth works in India, China, and Mexico -- might have arisen here.

Treating water as a free resource has been a disaster for inland Australia. The basin is governed by the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement which sets up a joint authority comprising the Commonwealth, NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT. Federalism may be a good thing but dividing the basin between 6 different governments is not. The upstream states want the water for irrigation. South Australia draws 52% of all its water from the Murray. According to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission: 'irrigation in the Basin accounts for 52.4 per cent of all water used in Australia, and 75.0 per cent of all irrigation water is used in the MDB'. So there are many competing interests all dipping into the same finite supply.

The basin does need investment and Riverbank (if it's ever enacted) could be a good start. The basin also needs serious thinking about water rights. We need to throw money at the problem. We also need to make sure that the mix between public authority and private property is right. Ideally, the basin states should refer their powers to the Commonwealth so that a single agency can fix policy for the whole catchment. We cannot let these rivers die.

When David and I left the rusty boiler with its sad interpretation plaque we moved onto the river itself. Thousands of kilometres from the ocean, a flock of pelicans flying overhead surprised us. There was no river. The Darling was a string of standing pools gone gangrenous with agricultural runoff. On the other side a dying sheep staggered down the steep bank to try and reach the water.

We must learn to understand that this river dries up and ceases to flow as part of its natural cycle. 'Dry' politics - the market is the only way to allocate resources - will not work in this environment. We must stop drawing water from the Darling and its daughter the Murray as if there was no end to the supply. The river is not infinite.

Imperial temptations

Astute strategists learn to anticipate such cooperation and try to use it to their advantage. For example, one of the most successful diplomats in European history, Otto von Bismarck, achieved the unification of Germany by always putting the other side in the wrong and, whenever possible, maneuvering the opponent into attacking first. As a result, Prussia expanded its control over the German lands without provoking excessive fears or resistance. Pressed by his generals on several occasions to authorize preventive attacks, Bismarck said that preventive war is like committing suicide from fear of death; it would "put the full weight of the imponderables . . . on the side of the enemies we have attacked."6 Instead, he demanded patience: "I have often had to stand for long periods of time in the hunting blind and let myself be covered and stung by insects before the moment came to shoot."7 Germany fared poorly under Bismarck's less-able successors, who shared his ruthlessness but lacked his understanding of the balance of power.

A must-read, especially for the blood-and-iron nincompoops in the White House trying to solve 21st century problems by 19th century methods. If these people can't run a garbage collection service in Baghdad what makes them think they can rule the world?

Riverbank and Medicare
The Crean speech was well-delivered. The policies were less well-thought out.

The conventional wisdom is that saving the Murray-Darling basin will cost $600 million. Launching a $150 million initiative on the basis that it's a start will not save the rivers. Opposing land clearing is going to be rough when we clear more land than any other nation and it's being done under the aegis of ALP premiers like Beattie. Land clearing in Queensland effects the basin all the way downstream to the Coorong. Irrigation systems upstream effect what happens when you turn on a tap in Adelaide.

We need those rivers. So really, while we have lots of enthusiasm merely because a federal politician has noticed the state of the basin we actually need a lot more done very soon. A lot of money needs to be thrown at this problem and it will be a brave federal leader who takes on the destructive neglect of the states.

Medicare is a universal health system based on access to the Medicare rebate. Crean should have bitten the bullet on universalism and defended the principle instead of (as with the Riverbank plan) promoting incremental change that will ultimately fail. The most infuriating aspect of the Medicare situation is that the crisis is entirely artificial.

The Parliamentary Library Research Note, Is medicare universal? says:

While bulk billing may not be universally available, it is a key plank of the Medicare system. Certainly it could be argued that one of the primary aims of Medicare was to promote bulk billing by doctors and thus promote the de-commodification of health services. That is, the take up of bulk billing by GPs was seen as a way of breaking the nexus between access to health services and capacity to pay. The steady increase in the percentage of Medicare services bulk billed from the introduction of Medicare in 1984 until 1996 provides some evidence that bulk billing was seen as a central and important component of the Medicare system. Other evidence of bulk billing's importance for the national health insurance system, Medicare, is provided in various statements and speeches made by the Labor government during the 1980s.

Gee whiz, what happened in 1996? And what was the Medicare rebate when Howard took the reins and what is it now? I suspect that spending a lot less money on ideologically-driven subsidies to the well-off such as the health insurance rebate and redirecting that money into raising the Medicare rebate might achieve a lot more than a scheme of special payments to doctors. More later.

And just a quiet word. Medicare is and always has been a Labor project. When suddenly the likes of John Howard and Peter Costello are allowed to lecture the ALP on the 'original intent' of Labor's own program it might be best to start arguing rather than wait for the axe. An energetic opposition might even have kept the falling Medicare rebate before the parliament and the people from the time it started - when Howard and Costello came to power.

unrealpolitik
From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Hassam Hamoud, a waiter at a local restaurant, said the American advance party's interpreter asked him where the hospital was. "He asked: 'Are there any Fedayeen over there?' and I said, 'No'." All the same, the next day "America's finest warriors" descended.

Dr Anmar Uday says they must have known there would be no resistance.

"It was like a Hollywood film. They cried, 'Go, go, go', with guns and blanks and the sound of explosions. They made a show - an action movie . . ." All the time with the camera rolling.

There was one more twist. Two days before the snatch squad arrived, Dr Houssona had arranged to deliver Jessica to the Americans in an ambulance. But when its driver approached the US checkpoint, the soldiers opened fire. They fled back to the hospital.

This is an outrage. The UN Security Council must insist that Iraqis appearing as involuntary extras in US action/fantasy productions get paid properly in future.

still $50 million to pay for the inquiry
From media release on the Keep Hollingwood Early Childhood initiative:

Today's announcement is not a one-off. The government has already made a substantial contribution to protecting young children and promoting their interests. The $10 million commitment will be used to build on initiatives that the government has already developed, as part of the Stronger Families and Communities Strategy (SFCS).

The $10 million commitment announced today includes $1.2 million for a range of new projects to support children and families under the SFCS. These include:
Support for young Vietnamese parents, sponsored by the Wesley Uniting Mission in South Australia.
Parent groups and individual support for families at the Cooloon Children's Centre in NSW.
Playgroups for infants and children aged 0-3 with developmental disabilities, providing early intervention, parent education support and networking for families in Queensland.
Working with grandparents and young children right around Australia.
Funds for Professor Fiona Stanley's Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY), to improve collaboration in child-related research, policy and practice.

I'm glad the money is being spent on kids. I am forced to ask why this initiative was not included in the budget 3 days ago. Anyone know of a dramatic development in children's policy in the last 3 days? A development so dramatic it could change the government's previous philosophy of leaving it to the states?

The governor-general is on administrative leave, long live the governor-general
From Howard's interview with Ray Martin:

MARTIN:

Do you think that he's had a fair go, that the public debate has been fair?

PRIME MINISTER:

Some aspects of the public debate have been very unfair. Some people appear to pick on him quite unnecessarily, I mean he was attacked for not going to Bali within the first few days of that tragedy. He really couldn't, decisions had to be made and the person who had to go to Bali was the Prime Minister and he had commitments in another part of the world which were important in celebrating a battle 60 years ago in which Australia had been involved and I think that was very unfair. He obviously made a big error of judgment in relation to that case in Queensland, he knows that. But beyond that I really don't want to get into further discussion. He stood aside, the administrator, Sir Guy Green, is being sworn in tomorrow morning, I called on him as a matter of courtesy at Government House this afternoon, life goes on, he'll be picking up Dr Hollingworth's programme and the show goes on.

1. If Hollingworth did make a 'big error of judgment' (Howard's own words) then what is the problem with the church inquiry that found Hollingworth made a 'serious error of judgment'?

2. If we should be spending $60 million on children's services instead of a federal inquiry into child abuse why is that Howard's own budget, like its predecessors, kept such low federal outlays for children's services? Where is the $60 million?

3. I am glad that the prime minister now believes in fair public debate. All he needs to do to prove his conversion is tell us just a little more about the children in the water in the Truth Overboard incident.

4. Is this issue about to become a wedgie for the master of wedge politics?

spare the gun and spoil the child
Tim, over at the Road to Surfdom, blogs:

Well, a euphemism is a wonderful thing, but apart from the use of them ("agressively targetting") the only specific denial given here is that children won't be shot. Those old softies. Other than that, there doesn't really sound like there is a much of a change at all.

I'm appalled. How could Tim accuse that nice Mr Rumsfeld of being an old softie. Next he'll accuse him of being a pointy-headed, panty-waisted, knock-kneed, lily-livered liberal. Secretary Rumsfeld may say that he's not going to shoot children but he obviously means non-threatening children. If any of those dangerous Guant�namo-style children are around they'll be filled full of lead as fast as the secretary can whip out his six-shooter.

Just so we can all sleep safely in our beds, we are told:

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has defended the detention of the boys - aged between 13 and 15 - at Camp Delta, saying they are "enemy combatants", captured while fighting for the Taleban or al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

General Richard Myers, chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the boys were being held "for a very good reason - for our safety".

"They may be juveniles - but they're not on a Little League team anywhere," he said at a news conference along with Mr Rumsfeld at the Pentagon on Friday.

"They're on a major league team, and it's a terrorist team. Some have killed. Some have stated they're going to kill again.

Shame on Tim for misrepresenting the new policy in this way.

The Southerly Buster
Henry Lawson

THERE'S a wind that blows out of the South in the drought,
����And we pray for the touch of his breath
When siroccos come forth from the North-West and North,
����Or in dead calms of fever and death.
With eyes glad and dim we should sing him a hymn,
����For depression and death are his foes,
And he gives us new life for the bread-winning strife?
����When the glorious Old Southerly blows.

Old Southerly Buster! your forces you muster
����Where seldom a wind bloweth twice,
And your - white-caps - have hint of the snow caps, and glint of
����The far-away barriers of ice.
No wind the wide sea on can sing such a poean
����Or do the great work that you do;
Our own wind and only, from seas wild and lonely?
����Old Southerly Buster! To you!

Oh, the city is baked, and its thirst is unslaked,
����Though it swallows iced drinks by the score,
And the blurred sky is low and the air seems aglow
����As if breezes would cool it no more.
We are watching all hands where the Post Office stands?
����We are watching out hopefully too?
For a red light shall glower from the Post Office tower
����When the Southerly Buster is due.

The yachts run away at the end of the day
����From the breakers commencing to comb,
For a few he may swamp in the health-giving romp
����With the friendly Old Southerly home.
But he never drowns one, for the drowning is done
����By the fools, or the reckless in sport;
And the alleys and slums shall be cooled when he comes
����With the weary wind-jammers to port.

Oh softly he plays through the city's hot ways
����To the beds where they're calling 'Come quick!'
He is gentle and mild round the feverish child,
����And he cools the hot brow of the sick.
Clearing drought-hazy skies, up the North Coast he hies
����Till the mouths of our rivers are fair?
And along the sea, too, he has good work to do,
����For he takes the old timber-tubs there.

- Tis a glorious mission, Old Sydney's Physician!
����Broom, Bucket, and Cloth of the East,
- Tis a breeze and a sprayer that answers our prayer,
����And it?s free to the greatest and least.
The red-lamp?s a warning to drought and its scorning?
����A sign to the city at large?
Hence! Headache and Worry! Despondency hurry!
����Old Southerly Buster's in charge

Old Southerly Buster! your forces you muster
����Where seldom a wind bloweth twice,
And your - white-caps - have hint of the snow caps, and glint of
����The far-away barriers of ice.
No wind the wide sea on can sing such a poean
����Or do the great work that you do;
Our own wind and only, from seas wild and lonely?
����Old Southerly Buster! - To you!

weird little bit of history

By the way, a little bit of history here and just a touch of irony regarding those Abrams tanks on Baghdad streets. Tanks were invented by the British, and originally called "land ships." But in an effort to keep their development secret from German spies, they were said to be mobile water tanks for use in Mesopotamia. The name "tank" stuck and, heh, heh, the name Mesopotamia didn't. In the postwar partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, it became Iraq.