All the way with an un-Christian USA

For those who thought that fighting factionalism belonged to the Labor Party spare a thought for the beleaguered left in the NSW Liberal Party. At a recent party meeting of about 200 young Liberals in Sydney's south-west, a dozen police were called in to break up a brawl between the left and right factions. One of the people at the centre of factional tensions is NSW Liberal politician David Clarke, a crusading Catholic who would like to see more of his right-wing views in public policy. A fierce opponent of abortion, same sex marriages, drug law reform and the republic,

Clarke wants to shift his party to his point of view. In a recent interview he told The Financial Review: "There's been a great upsurge in religious faith in the United States which has flowed into public life there and I think the process is starting in Australia." People behind this process have been described as compassionate conservatives. That would have to be the father of all contradictions given their track record in the US. These "compassionate conservatives" mainly from the deep south have been the driving force behind the US support for Israel's oppression of the Palestinians and their wars against Islamic countries. However, as their record shows their campaign is more crusade than Christian and their conservatism overshadows any compassion.

All is not possible-even in the USA

Not even the richest and most powerful nation on Earth can have it all. Prompted by the strength of the Iraqi resistance, senior Republican senator John McCain, who challenged George W. for the 2000 presidential nomination, has called for a reassessment of priorities: "We simply cannot have it all-tax cuts, pork for the special interests-and war in Iraq." However, this was not a plea for withdrawing from Iraq which was now costing them $US4.7 billion a month. McCain believes at least another division of about 10,000 troops is needed to top up the 135,000 already in Iraq, and that this jeopardises George W.'s promised tax cuts as part of his re-election campaign.

"Congress cannot demand discipline and sacrifice only of the men and women fighting in the desert. We need it at home as well." This provides a clever closure to the war rationale by McCain, a former navy pilot who fought in Vietnam. The war is needed overseas and because of it, domestically, sacrifices need to be made.

War deserters in the force farce

Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have announced they will desert the US-led so called coalition army in Iraq. However, there are still other nations who are staying. The Philippines, for example, with all of their 100 soldiers and police. A small force but instrumental in supporting a big farce. The ultimate travesty will be when the US can no longer control Iraq, because of financial or domestic cost, and contrives a pseudo-UN intervention which will open the way for more nations to support the occupation.

The US-Land of the Free?

A new Bureau of Justice Statistics' report on the US prison population sheds light on the brutal reality that underlies the supposed blessings of contemporary democracy in capitalist America for broad sections of the US working class. The report shows that currently a record 2.1 million prisoners are incarcerated in American state and federal gaols.

The US has a higher percentage of its citizenry in prison than any other country in history, and accounts for an astonishing 25 percent of the world's prison population.

More than a quarter of US inmates (600,000)-are black males between the ages of 20 and 39. This means 12 percent of all black men in their 20s and early 30s-more than one in ten-are in prison.

While the overall number of prisoners in Australia's gaols at 23,555 is only a third of the US rate we share one shameful statistic with the US. Indigenous prisoners in Australia total 4,818 or 20% of the total prisoners for a people who comprise only 2% of the population.