Monthly Archives: October 2004

The Osama tape

Posted on October 31, 2004 by Sophie Masson

I never believed the hopeful myth that Osama bin Laden was just a smear of DNA in a cave in Tora Bora. I mean, this was a guy who’d survived the war with the Soviets and then years of being … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Halloween..

Posted on October 30, 2004 by Sophie Masson

Just a very quick post, to draw attention to Julia Baird’s op-ed column in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, which quotes yours truly a couple of times, one from my book In Hollow Lands, once from my controversial piece the other … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments

“I am twenty-four and I lost my leg and I don’t know why”

Posted on October 30, 2004 by Mark Bahnisch

Or so said Second Lieutenant Melissa Stockwell on her return to the States after a routine trip in a Humvee from the Green Zone in Baghdad to the morass of Mosul outside Iraq’s sanitised Western occupied zone led to an … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics - international, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

A Cute Kitten Story

Posted on October 30, 2004 by Don Arthur

"Cute kittens grow up to be cute cats" writes Arthur Chenkoff. They sure do! Take Private Hammer for example. Hammer is a brave tabby cat who provided some much appreciated support to American soldiers in Iraq: "He was born at … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments

Elite performance

Posted on October 29, 2004 by Ken Parish

Troppo is gaining a decidedly genteel, cerebral flavour of late. Nothing wrong with that, but for this Scots-Irish member of the oz trailer-trash class there’s a need for an occasional leavening of down-market physicality. And what better way to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Life | 14 Comments

Two very different reads..

Posted on October 29, 2004 by Sophie Masson

I’ve been reading two very different, but equally extraordinary books recently. One’s a huge, sprawling novel–the amazing first novel of English author Susanna Clarke–‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.’ The other’s a huge, sprawling combination of history and intelligence investigation, anti-terrorism … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

The trailer-trash factor

Posted on October 29, 2004 by Ken Parish

Peter Hartcher hypothesises in this morning’s SMH that Bush will win next week’s US Presidential election despite his poor economic stewardship and a botched occupation of Iraq that may yet turn into a Vietnam-style quagmire. The reason? Scots-Irish “trailer trash” … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics - international | 25 Comments