1. Coalition ‘Cannot Win’ in Iraq or Afghanistan
2. Coroner Finds Balibo Five Deliberately Killed
3. Labor Military Bid to Save Whales
4. Losing Afghanistan, One Civilian at a Time
5. Jakarta Merits Mid-East Role
6. Poll Spotlight on Climate
7. Blind to the Greatest Threats

1. Coalition ‘Cannot Win’ in Iraq or Afghanistan, Graeme Dobell, ABC News, 2007-11-18

   One of Australia’s top defence experts says the United States-led coalition cannot win the conflicts in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Professor Hugh White, the head of Canberra’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, has told the ABC’s Correspondents Report the coalition will eventually abandon Afghanistan. He says the US cannot succeed in Iraq, but has no escape from the tragedy its invasion has created in the strategically important Gulf region.

   • Australian policy – Afghanistan – Analysis, Australian in Afghanistan, Nautilus Institute

2. Coroner Finds Balibo Five Deliberately Killed, Hamish McDonald, Age, 2007-11-16

   A NSW coroner has referred the case of the Balibo Five to federal authorities for possible war crime prosecutions, finding the journalists were deliberately killed by Indonesian forces who had invaded East Timor.

   • Coronial Findings and Recommendations, Coroner’s Court New South Wales
   • Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra, Desmond Ball and Hamish McDonald, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2000
   • Shoal Bay Receiving Station, Australian Defence Facilities, Nautilus Institute
   • Australian intelligence organisations, Australian Forces Abroad, Nautilus Institute
   • Shackleton, Gregory John (1946 – 1975), Peter Gifford, Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2002

3. Labor Military Bid to Save Whales, Age, 2007-11-15

   A Labor Government would ramp up Australian efforts against Japanese whaling and use the military to monitor ships killing the mammals in the Southern Ocean. As Japanese whalers prepare to set sail for southern waters for their annual whale cull, Labor today indicated it was ready to take strong action to convince the international community that whaling had to stop.

   • About Operation Resolute, Department of Defence
   • Sub-Output 2.2, Foreign Fisheries Compliance, Report on performance – Annual Report 2005-2006, Australian Fisheries Management Authority, pp.73-80. [PDF, 1.6 Mb]

4. Losing Afghanistan, One Civilian at a Time, Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, Washington Post, 2007-11-18

   Why on Earth are the NATO and U.S. forces and their Afghan allies killing more civilians than the Taliban? One explanation can be found in the relatively low number of Western boots on the ground. So the West has to rely far more heavily on airstrikes in Afghanistan, which inevitably exact a higher toll in civilian casualties. Indeed, the Associated Press found that U.S. and NATO forces launched more than 1,000 airstrikes in Afghanistan in the first six months of 2007 alone — four times as many airstrikes as U.S. forces carried out in Iraq during that period.

5. Jakarta Merits Mid-East Role, Greg Sheridan, Australian, 2007-11-17

   Indonesia is set to play a significant role in Middle East diplomacy, claiming its status as the world’s largest Muslim nation and third largest democracy. Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono indicated that Indonesia is expecting an invitation from US President George W. Bush to attend the forthcoming Annapolis conference to chart a new course for the stalled Middle East peace process. It shows Indonesian foreign policy beginning to mature in such a way that Indonesia can take its place in world councils commensurate with its size and importance.

   • If only Pervez were more like Suharto, Greg Sheridan, Australian, 2007-11-08

6. Poll Spotlight on Climate, Adam Morton and Jewel Topsfield, Age, 2007-11-19

   A stark United Nations report painting a picture of rising hardship and species extinction has undermined the Coalition and Labor’s credibility on climate change as the election campaign enters its final week. While the parties seized on the report by the UN’s Nobel-winning panel of scientists, claiming it backed their environment policies, climate scientists said it demonstrated both were failing the planet by refusing to commit to immediate cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

   • Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, Draft Copy, International Panel on Climate Change, 2007-11-16. [PDF, 6.4 Mb]

7. Blind to the Greatest Threats, Cameron Stewart, Australian, 2007-11-17

   With the war against Islamist terrorists in trouble on many levels, AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty has invited Chris Abbott to Australia, believing his alternative views are worth hearing. The central premise of Abbott, a researcher with independent British think tank the Oxford Research Group, is that terrorism is not the greatest threat to world security and that it is distracting the West from other, much greater, threats to security. These include climate change, competition for scarce resources, marginalised populations and the trend towards militarisation.

   • Beyond Terror: The Truth About the Real Threats to Our World, Chris Abbott, Paul Rogers and John Sloboda, Oxford Research Group, April 2007

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