Welcome to my first blog! In my weekly analysis, I will be looking into Australian politics, with an occasional update on important developments in the field of archaeology.

The prompt for my entry this week was, interestingly, a newspaper photograph that caught my eye over the weekend. It was on page 12 of the Australian, and depicted 20 coffins draped in American flags in the hold of a US military transport aircraft.

The coffins were flanked by a row of servicemen and women standing reverently to attention, waiting to unload their sad cargo. The bright shiny steel flooring, the angular lines of the aircraft interior and orderly nature of the scene was oddly jarring against the personal tragedy contained in each of those caskets.
This photo was remarkable because such images have been censored by the US government, until now.
We have almost forgotten that people are still dying in Iraq on an almost daily basis, in a conflict that, with the passage of time, seems more and more futile as the epicenter of 'the war on terror' more correctly focuses on Waziristan and the mountains of Afghanistan. Although some 4200 US service men and women have died in Iraq since 2003, this pales against the many thousands of Iraqis who have also perished.
In Australia, we have been insulated from this daily toll as so few Australians have died. Yet we were willing participants in this war, even if our disengagement is nearly complete.
Few mourn the passing of Saddam Hussein and his regime. During his rule, thousands of Iraqis were unjustly imprisoned, tortured, raped and murdered by an evil and corrupt family and their acolytes. Human Rights Watch report that over 290,000 people died at the hands of the government and numerous mass graves were discovered after the war began in 2003. Such unspeakable horror and the grief of so many families seems little appeased by the execution of Iraq's former leader for war crimes. In the face of such unbridled arrogance, diplomatic solutions were never going to work with Saddam.
It is hard to justify any conflict in which so many have died, yet the reality of Saddam’s Iraq was unjust and wrong. As the country moves uneasily towards a new phase of its governance, we can only hope and pray that a more stable future emerges, and that the gospel of reconciliation can be heard in a re-built Iraq.

The Australian Government must continue to be part of the solution to this shattered country, through on-going aid for agriculture, infrastructure support, engagement with democratic solutions and a compassionate approach to those who seek to leave its shores.