To make sense of Trump’s war on Iran, imagine a Russian
babushka doll. The outer layer is the story the Pentagon feeds
us. Inside it: petrodollar entanglements, Kharg Island
war-gaming, the strategic patience of Moscow and Beijing,
Netanyahu’s fantasy of the purifying blow. At the very centre,
smaller than it should be, is Australia. Urban Wronski opens
all six layers and does not like what he finds.
Lindsey Graham is evoking Iwo Jima. Iran is mining Kharg Island’s shoreline. Seven thousand five hundred US Marines are days away from the Persian Gulf. The war is 26 days old, has cost $18 billion, and the White House’s official position is that they need about a month to “get Iran by the balls.” Australia is calling for de-escalation. The crease in the trousers remains arrow-straight.
INTERVIEWER: Are we at war with Iran?
ALBANESE: No.
INTERVIEWER: Then why did they bomb our base?
ALBANESE: Because they’re Iran.
One interviewer. One Prime Minister. Forty-five satellite dishes, three submariners, one Wedgetail aircraft, a peace negotiation bombed flat, a hundred and seventy schoolgirls, and a pocket square without a mark on it. A political interview in the tradition of Clarke and Dawe.
On the eve of a diplomatic breakthrough, the bombs fell. What followed was not a war of necessity but a war of choice, lobbied into existence, launched in bad faith, and paid for in civilian lives.
The Albanese government gives us the mushroom treatment. Keeps us in the dark and feeds us BS. This week, while a US-Israeli war of questionable legality engulfs the Middle East and Pine Gap hums away in the desert night, Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong delivered a bravura homage to John Cage: all performance, all silence, no content whatsoever.
For thirty years, Australia’s most powerful construction union has served as a moral punching bag for the nation’s political and media establishment. Every few years another “reckoning” arrives: a Royal Commission, a regulator’s dawn raid, a media exposé discovering organised crime in high-vis. Each time, … Continue reading The Perennial Persecution of the CFMEU: Demonisation as a Defence of Power
On a pepper‑sprayed night in Sydney, Palestinian grief is kettled while Iranian protests are feted as “democratic awakening.” This article traces how Australia’s selective compassion, media framing and think‑tank spin conscript us into the US military‑industrial script for Iran and the region.
Bernard Keane says Albanese is a manager, not a leader. Urban Wronski says the rot runs deeper — into the Farrellised machinery of a captured Clayton’s Labor.
After the Bondi Beach massacre, Australia promised solidarity and reform. Instead, Labor delivered riot shields and silence. This essay traces the descent from empathy to enforcement—and asks whether the soul of Australian democracy can still be reclaimed.
As breastfeeding babies are torn from mothers and the American interior turns into a new Heart of Darkness, the Albanese government remains pathologically mute. It is time to stop playing the submissive junior partner and start acting like a sovereign nation that recalls what humanity looks like.
Once a week, I share one poem with commentary and insights.
Society, politics, economics, education, population, immigration and demography
Your source for what's trending in the news!
davidtylerpoet
Exclusives | Investigations | News
Sometimes Uncomfortable Reading but…
A topnotch WordPress.com site
An exploration of the hazardous objects and features found in the Victorian home
Psychology & Psychoanalysis in the 21st Century
Musings from home and hearth
Adding my voice to Australian Politics
New, fearless, fresh and original Australian political comment, satire and more.
Political Enthusiasts, Proud ALP & PM Julia Gillard supporters! Dislike media bias. Hate racism, injustice and lies.
Real News - New News - Independent News
This WordPress.com site is the bee's knees
The AIMN is an online platform that provides a space for citizen and public interest journalists to engage in and contribute to independent media, focusing on politics, democracy, environment, and identity.
A topnotch WordPress.com site
SIT DOWN, HAVE A DRINK, RELAX.
Urban Wronski Writes 