Throwing good money after bad

Paul McGeough The pussyfoot President is off to the Middle East and you won't believe the nonsense going on over where he can and can't go in Israel and, for a matter of minutes, the Palestinian Occupied...

US war for oil lacks a punchline

Paul McGeough 'What's the difference between a duck,'' my father would ask us as kids.

Alexander leaves us on a downer

Paul McGeough A great week for huffin'-'n'-puffin', what? First, Alexander Downer takes an airbrush to history. And then, more gobsmackery by our top soldier, on what he ''always knew'' was a raw deal for the...

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OPINION

UN fails to get its hands clean in Haiti

Paul McGeough And they wonder why people throw bombs. The United Nations rejects any guilt or responsibility for an outbreak of cholera in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake that flattened Haiti, despite...

Sex trumps torture and corruption

Paul McGeough This is about carnal relations, not global security - got it? We're talking sex, so if you're looking for heavy breathing about ethics and morality, move on, turn the page.

Paul McGeough

Still waiting for Western civilisation

Paul McGeough Murder is disturbing - whether the victim is a secular political leader in the fraught, post-revolutionary chaos of Tunisia or a kid at school in the sensible and stable, we-know-how-to-do-it US.

Paul McGeough

The NRA-style potshot is alive and well

Paul McGeough If just a single bully works the neighbourhood, there's a good chance that his protection racket can hold up.

Paul McGeough

It's time for action to halt obscenities

Paul McGeough Tears don't cut it, Mr President. After another school massacre on Friday, a tearful Barack Obama declared ''our hearts are broken'', before promising ''meaningful action to prevent more tragedies...

Paul McGeough

Karzai's cabal steals the national capital

Paul McGeough The Kabul Bank fiasco is as much Canberra's legacy as it is Washington's.

So many secrets, not enough intelligence

Paul McGeough Does this jolt to the massive combine that is the US intelligence system, by the unseemly departure of the head of the CIA in what we know as the Petraeus affair, require a pause to look at the house...

Paul McGeough

Obama changes course between courses

Paul McGeough For a time there, it looked like business as usual in the Middle East.

Paul McGeough

Rash Israel lights Arab Spring powder keg

Paul McGeough The Middle East this week? Think Colorado in July and the movie megaplex massacre.

Paul McGeough

Obama has to factor Arab Spring into reaction to Israeli-Hamas crisis

Paul McGeough WASHINGTON: We have yet to see the mettle of Barack Obama in his second term as US President, but it will be intriguing to watch how he sustains Washington's support for Israel in the coming four...

Paul McGeough

Sandy strike timely reminder to deniers

Paul McGeough Can you imagine how events might have unfolded had hurricane Sandy struck a few weeks earlier?

Paul McGeough

Bibi the fall guy as Barack wins the lot

Paul McGeough Moscow's thinking on the new Obama line-up comes discreetly, deniably.

Paul McGeough

Pull the plug on Murdoch's modem

Paul McGeough Many families reach a point at which they need to confront the antics of the oldies - it appears to have arrived for the Murdochs.

Paul McGeough

US talks reform from comfort of fence

Paul McGeough Amid historic hoopla, something often happens that comes back to bite someone on the bum.

Paul McGeough

Nobel cause writes China into corner

Paul McGeough There are idiots - and then there's the Chinese government.

Paul McGeough

Light the touch paper and stand back

Paul McGeough What the hell was that? In a perfect global storm: massive over-reach by crackpot Christian fundamentalists in California collided with what may have been a lucky break for the remnants of al-Qaeda's...

Paul McGeough

The military adviser left out in the cold

Paul McGeough The lost pages of Catch-22 have turned up: they are the real-life career notes of Gwenyth Todd.