It seems that Obama is going to send more troops to Afghanistan. I used to think that Afghanistan was a just war, especially in comparison to Iraq which was more a made up war, but these days I think Afghanistan is another open ended commitment with no real goals and a languishing presence because no-one is certain what the absence of American and NATO forces there would mean.
Kevin Rudd is Washington DC at the moment meeting with Obama when the opportunity arises; and since Australia has approximately 1,000 troops in Afghanistan it seems a given that Rudd will commit those to the American presence in Afghanistan since the Great and Powerful Friends doctrine is based upon how much Australia loves America as an ally, friend and foreign policy kissing mate.
Rudd was quoted:
Australia takes its alliance with the United States very seriously, that's why we've been with America for a long time in Afghanistan and will be with America for the long haul
Then again I consider the
GAPF policy lame and lacking in imagination. For all the rhetoric Australia is only committing one thousand servicemen there.
So where are we left with Afghanistan? It was considered a just war as the Taliban was hiding Osama Bin Laden. But we never found Osama Bin Laden and were not able to bring him to justice. The Taliban are neither here nor there, and the Afghanistan government is corrupt and propped upon American money and power.
There is no long term policy to speak of. Just an increasing commitment of troops and resources as politics dictates. I suspect America is going to be in Afghanistan forever, in the same way the US will be in Iraq forever. And even if things clean up and right themselves, American will still be stuck in those places as arbiters of local power anyway.
It is easy to think in idealistic terms, of bringing democracy, liberalism, free markets and all the other basic things that make for a prosperous 21stC nation. However, none of those things are easy, and while we may consider them the end of history, or inevitable, they are incredibly difficult to get started, and even harder to keep going in that form. Modern liberal democracies have to deal with executive exceptions, protectionism, nativism and the abrogation of individual rights. These are not easy things to maintain.
I think we should leave Afghanistan. I don't see it going anywhere, and instead see it as an open ended commitment, without policy, without goals, and potentially an increasing consumption of American resources, money and power.
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
