Mission Impossible: the Sheiks, the US and the Future of IraqBy Paul McGeoughQuarterly Essay 14, 2004Black Inc117 pages, $13.95 (pb)
REVIEW BY ALEX MILLER
There can be no doubt that Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul McGeough has got bottle.
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Eva Cheng
In January 1994, China's State Council announced a plan to lift 80 million households in 592 rural counties out of poverty within seven years. Dubbed the "Eight-seven plan", the scheme targeted counties with an annual per capita income of
Zoe Kenny, Melbourne
The "Punish Howard" student rally in Melbourne on August 19 was lively and upbeat and there were a number of contingents from places that haven't attended rallies in a while, including Victoria University and several high
Max Lane
On August 21, Chuzaini, the radical left-wing Peoples Democratic Party's chairperson in the Javanese provincial town of Pekalongan, died in the local prison. PRD national chairperson Yusuf Lakaseng told the Indonesian National Human Rights
Trade union leaders on August 27 expressed their total disgust at the jailing of their colleague, former Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) Victorian branch leader Craig Johnston, by the Court of Appeal. The sentence showed just how far
Dave Andrews, Fremantle
Power maintenance workers based in Collie, near Bunbury in Western Australia's south-west, are continuing their strike for better working conditions. The strike by 110 workers, now entering its eighth week, has provoked a
QuidamCirque du SoleilSydney until October 10, Brisbane from November 4, Melbourne from March 4, Adelaide from May 12 and Perth from June 30.
Another one of Cirque du Soleil's delightful displays of acrobatic virtuosity and human harmony has
After being held incommunicado and in solitary confinement at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly three years, Australian citizen David Hicks was brought before a five-member US military tribunal on August 26 and charged with
Graham Matthews, Melbourne
Prime Minister John Howard's Coalition government has "worked to dehumanise asylum seekers, to use them as a tool in wedge politics", David Ristrom, the lead Victorian Senate candidate for the Australian Greens, told an
Rohan Pearce
"The smell of burnt flesh filled the air and blood smeared the deserted streets of Najaf's Old City after heavy US air strikes on Shiite militia positions around Iraq's revered Imam Ali shrine", reported Agence France-Presse on August