Our Orwellian present

Keith Binns writes: Re. “Recruitment, arms, motivation: what the West is doing for terrorism” (yesterday).  Never forget George Orwell: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

Jordan and terrorism

Julian McCrann writes: Re. “‘The end of the Middle East’: with IS closing in, Jordan on the brink” (yesterday). One could suggest that maybe Jordan should stop letting itself be used as a training ground for the likes of Al-Nusra to which it is supplying men and armaments to fight against Assad. Clearly, what often happens is that once possessed of this weaponry these men cross the border into Syria and join Islamic State/ Daesh instead. So who is supporting Jordan in prosecuting such stupid self-defeating behaviour? Well, it would be none other than the likes of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, UAE, US, UK, France — in other words, the usual suspects. Well hang on: it seems that even a year ago it was well known that the US was training Islamic Jihadis in Jordan that were in fact ISIS. The media silence on this is frankly deafening. If only the symptoms of a problem are tackled the problem itself will never be fixed.

On the Liberal Party

John Richardson writes: Re. “Liberal Party in name only” (yesterday). Whilst Crikey rightly lambasts Peter Dutton, George Brandis and the rest of the gang of fascists lurking inside Tony Abbott’s excuse for a cabinet for their public & dishonest vilification of Human Rights Commissioner, Gillian Triggs, it is easy to ignore the fact that, with a few notable exceptions, there has been a deafening silence on the part of our so-called “leaders” in calling-out the government over its behaviour.

The simple but sad truth is that Triggs has been rendered a brave but lonely voice by the cowardly failure of those in so-called “leadership” positions in the judiciary, the church, academia, the media, civil liberties groups and business to speak-out against the systemic attack on our democratic freedoms by both major political parties. That the Abbott government would so casually seek to ignore the human rights of any person, not just Australians, including their right to confront their accuser; their right to a fair trial and most importantly, their right not to be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile, says everything about that criminal gang’s willingness to embrace totalitarianism at the expense of the western liberal democratic tradition.