Scott Burchill

Dr Scott Burchill taught the theory of International Relations for over 30 years and analyses international politics. Honorary Fellow of Deakin University.

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

US officials said repeated strikes by Tehran have ratcheted up pressure on President Trump and cast doubt over the long-term viability of the ceasefire https://t.co/no6IcnMZkp

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

One of the many things that the horrors of Gaza has revealed for those previously allergic to self-reflection is ...

... the cleavage between how ageing Western elites perceive their own history and behaviour around the world, and how interconnected young people and much of the rest of the world see it.

These images are now in stark relief.

This is why Murdoch media, the Howards and Abbotts of the world need to prosecute the history and culture wars so fervently.

It's much more than mere nostalgia for the 1950s when migrants, indigenous people and women knew their proper place in the hierarchy and sexual minorities were forced to hide from public view. Or when the Catholic Church instructed parishioners how to vote following a confected anticommunist scare.

Naked Western savagery in Gaza, Iran, Lebanon and outside the Middle East is now too vivid and horrifying to assume that popular commitments to the US alliance and the idea of beneficent liberal democracy will survive.

For Millennials, Gen Z and Generations Alpha and Beta to follow, World War 2, the Holocaust and the Cold War are ancient history with few, if any personal reference points.

Unlike their predecessors, and for reasons displayed to them every day on screens, they consider Western civilisation - something their parents and grandparents celebrated as an unquestionable and desirable blessing - to be both highly problematic and a threat to the future of life on earth.

Today, state capitalism and socialist measures constitute over a quarter of the Australian economy, and thanks to Medicare, the PBS, public transport and government subsidies of private schooling and private health insurance, neither is seen by young Australians as heavy-handed or discredited by 20th century communist failures. They are just taken for granted, a part of their lives.

Smarter conservatives, regardless of their ideological commitments to Hayek and Friedman, know these policies cannot be rolled back to some mythical free market nirvana.

For those accustomed to considerable private wealth and power - much of it inherited not earnt - governments are expected to protect their privileges and not share them via progressive taxation with those below them on the ladder, a sin now defined in Orwellian terms as class warfare.

Emulating their counterparts in the US, billionaires may seek to buy themselves elections or bankroll useful idiots in the party system as stalking horses for their commercial interests. But these are more sighs of despondency and failure than opportunity.

As Gramsci wrote, the "old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born: in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear." The good old picket-fence salad days that conservatives pine for and valourise aren't coming back.

This is a full-blown panic.

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

A useful corrective to the propaganda spouted by @AlexRyvchin and it is worth noting that Morris is no dove. He has repeatedly argued that Israel should use nuclear weapons against Iran.

[Voluntaryist Keith @an_capitalist]

Benny Morris, professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University, on the "Arab leaders asked Palestinians to leave their homes" argument:

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Was an intolerance of opposing views part of Charlie's conversion?

[Mike Carlton @MikeCarlton01]

It’s a podcast on autism. But still the Jewish lobby demands to cancel Grace Tame… or anyone they don’t like. The arrogance is next level.

https://t.co/7rU8MzXjmT

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

AUKUS submarines

Second hand vessels for a second rate vassal

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Benjamin Netanyahu faces backlash after Donald Trump call https://t.co/D0K3iUYPjX

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war against Iran with an unprecedented level of coordination. Now, they are fighting over how to bring the conflict to a close https://t.co/twADZ4uoQK

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Reflexive censorship.

Instead of recognising the mistake of avoiding public consultation and scrutiny of AUKUS subs, Cameron Stewart recommends critics be silenced

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Almost inevitable when you try and hide the details from those paying for it: deserves to sink

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

This is well documented and seems definitive.

Although Klaus Barbie was smuggled out of Germany after the war by US intelligence, and later claimed to have located Che when working for Bolivia, he's not even mentioned in the book.

I suspect the interrogation of Régis Debray yielded a lot of useful information which was passed on to the CIA.

Also worth a look: https://t.co/0S9IW6SUbA

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Why not spend a fraction of the AUKUS subs budget on diplomacy instead of transferring billions of taxpayer dollars to US and UK arms manufacturers to contain and confront our most important economic partner?

A ridiculous proposal I know, still ...

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

The commitment to AUKUS nuke subs is like a religious cult, a blind faith in baroque technology.

No matter how bad the deal keeps getting, no matter how many arguments against their purchase arise, no matter the expense, no matter the lack of public consultation, regardless of superior conventional alternatives ... no opposition will be considered or even tolerated: none

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Not sure if the silence from @LindseyGrahamSC is good or bad, but it is certainly out of character

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

@DavidShoebridge Keep up the great work at Senate Estimates David

[Kenneth Roth @KenRoth]

Trump to Netanyahu for sabotaging Iran negotiations by bombing Lebanon: "You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this." https://t.co/DZ5K54r8I1

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Difficult to overestimate what a victory this is for Iran and Hezbollah.

Trump has no choice. He needs a deal with Tehran and this is the price he and the Israelis have to pay for it.

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Iran calling the shots: President claims Hezbollah agreement and halt to Israeli attacks on Beirut https://t.co/2XuFnQDPcy

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Norman Finkelstein on the insane racism of Israeli society https://t.co/5FZdZlxei2

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

The commitment to AUKUS nuke subs is like a religious cult, a blind faith in baroque technology.

No matter how bad the deal keeps getting, no matter how many arguments against their purchase arise, no matter the expense, no matter the lack of public consultation, regardless of superior conventional alternatives ... no opposition will be considered or even tolerated: none

[The Lowy Institute @LowyInstitute]

The @LowyInstitute's @JAParker29 tells the @smh that acquiring a third second-hand Virginia class submarine reduces the risk and complexity of an already ambitious program under AUKUS.
https://t.co/P8fcDkXoPs

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

From 3 years ago https://t.co/ckFZF2jvKa “As the weeks and months pass by, the mirage of Australian nuclear-powered submarines will stay as alluring as ever, and as out of reach as ever, with the Labor government persisting, however absurd and expensive this theatre becomes.”

[Scott Burchill @IRanalyst]

Even the @australian got it right

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

Notice how they say “incursion” instead of invasion. It’s no accident.

Israel is a BELLIGERENT OCCUPIER in Lebanon, destroying homes and FORCIBLY DISPLACING civilians, as its INVASION deepens—all illegal under international law—and the whole of Western media is normalizing it.