The opportunity cost of the Iraq War

Posted on May 17, 2006 by jeremy


Image source: www.worldpress.org

Quite aside from the appalling human cost of the war in Iraq, according to a recent article, It’s only $300 billion, in the Washington Post, the economic cost will soon exceed the predicted cost of the Kyoto Protocol to the US economy. The irony is that this is what Dubya said at the G8 Meeting in March 2001: “I made it clear to our friends and allies that the methodology of the current protocol is one that, if implemented, would severely affect economic growth in America.”

So it’s not just blood for oil … it’s climate too.

Filed under: Climate | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

Anzac Day 2006

Posted on April 29, 2006 by jeremy

anzac 019.jpg
Kranji War Memorial Cemetery, Singapore

On Tuesday, before dawn, I made my way to Kranji cemetry once again to pay respects to the war dead. I always find this a very humbling and moving experience, but at the same time very annoying. I’ve blogged about this before, so I won’t go over old ground in detail, but it was a repeat performance of last year. The priest and the Australian High Commissioner seemed to go through the motions, while the Turkish Ambassador stole the show with his moving rendition of Kemal Ataturk’s poem now inscribed on a memorial at ANZAC Cove. Most surprising was the Australian High Commissioner’s failure to mention the Australians that have been killed in Iraq. The fact there is only a small number (two according to the latest Iraq Coalition Casualty count) is hardly an excuse. All the other conflicts in which Austalians have been involved since Gallipoli were mentioned except this one. Maybe it was too politically sensitive for him to mention. Anyway, I plan to write to him to ask why. Watch this space.

Filed under: Australian politics, International political economy | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

War hero

Posted on May 6, 2005 by jeremy

tony.bmp
Image source: The Guardian

The re-election of the Blair Government for a third term of office yesterday completes the trifector for the Iraq War leaders. First Howard, then Bush, and now Blair. Of the three, I think the re-election of Blair saddens me the most because here you have a Labour Prime Minister aligning himself with right-wingers like Howard and Bush and still getting re-elected. Admittedly, it was with only 36% of the vote, a much reduced majority and no serious opposition, but as a political refugee from Thatcherite Britain, I rejoiced at the election of Tony Blair the first time around. This time, I find it nauseating. The Mills and Boon cover picture above just about sums it up.

Filed under: International political economy, UK politics | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

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