What Australian newspapers say on Friday, August 25, 2006

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2006
What Australian newspapers say on Friday, August 25, 2006

SYDNEY, Aug 25 AAP - For those who love peace, appeasement can be an appealing concept:
give the bad guys what they want, and they'll leave you alone, The Australian says today
in an editorial.

In a comment on the issue of whether Australia's support for Israel is a liability,
it says the only trouble is, as history repeatedly demonstrates, whatever peace it purchases
is impermanent at best.

Such was the case when Europe offered up Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany in 1938, hoping
to quell Hitler's ambitions.

It didn't work then and it won't work now, the paper says.

France's paltry contribution to a United Nations interim force in Lebanon of an additional
200 troops is disappointing, The Australian Financial Review says.

It was France, the traditional guardian of Lebanon's interests internationally, which
undertook to lead a UN stabilisation force to stop war breaking out again between Israel
and Hizbollah.

Now it seems the French have got cold feet, it says.

France's reservations about an imprecise UN mandate for such a force are understandable
but it has itself partly to blame. French diplomacy was instrumental in building a consensus
for Security Council Resolution 1701 which brought about a ceasefire on August 14.

Given the prospect of larger Budget surpluses ahead, boosting the Australian Army to
30,000, the size it was when conscription ended in 1972, is relatively easy, The Courier-Mail
says.

Less easy the tasks of recruiting additional soldiers and retaining serving members.

This year's Budget provided additional funds for both recruiting and retention; these
have yet to be spent and therefore have had no effect.

Several factors are at work here, the paper says. One is simple demographics.

When the post-World War II army peaked at nine infantry battalions - there are now
six, including one specialist commando battalion - it had the baby boomer generation and
conscription on which to call.

The 18-25 demographic cohort is now smaller than it has been since the days of conscription.

Despite calls for conscription to be reintroduced, most recently from former defence chief
Rear-Admiral Chris Barrie, the government has ruled it out. Not only is the demographic
smaller, it is also more culturally diverse.

The army simply does not reflect Australia's cultural diversity. Australians of Middle
Eastern and Asian extraction, despite several generals - exceptions that tend to prove
the rule - are under-represented in the army.

So, too, are young Australians from the big cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

Those who doubt the risk of home-grown terrorists should think again following the
conviction of Faheem Khalid Lodhi, says The Herald Sun.

A jury found the Pakistani-born architect planned to blow up Australia's electricity
grid and launch violent jihad, today's editorial reads.

When Lodhi was jailed for 20 years the sentencing judge said he had "no meaningful
insight" into what had transformed him from a respectable community member into a terrorist.

Lodhi came from a country with few freedoms and a poor human rights record to one where
he could freely practise his religion, where his rights were legally protected, and where
he could build a secure and peaceful future for his family, the paper says.

Sometimes the world is shaped by forces so big we hardly notice them, The Sydney Morning
Herald says.

BHP Billiton's mammoth $13.7 billion annual profit is a reminder of the extraordinary
good fortune Australia is now experiencing, and some of the main reasons behind it. We
should celebrate this, while reflecting that nothing lasts forever.

Good news for BHP Billiton is good news for Australia, the paper says. The company
is paying $3.4 billion in company tax and royalties to the government for the 2005-2006
financial year, and $2.9 billion in dividends, mostly to Australians.

When the story first came to light of errant former judge Marcus Einfeld's convoluted
attempts to have a speeding charge against him dismissed in court, the details made for
troubling reading, The Daily Telegraph says.

It was too much to believe that such a man - a "National Living Treasure" no less -
could risk his reputation, even his very liberty, for so trifling a matter. Surely, like
Superman, he would free himself in a single bound. Surely the truth would emerge and he
would be vindicated.

But it is no longer possible to suppress the sickening sense that things are otherwise,
the paper says.

The Victorian government's fast rail project has cost $750 million and its time-saving
benefits for passengers are negligeable, says The Age.

The fast rail project was a pre-election promise by the then Labor opposition in 1999
that it would reduce travel times along four rail corridors, it says.

The initial cost is nowhere near the final total, but this project's overrun is staggering.

The newspaper also says it would have been better to label it the "more services project"

rather than fast rail, because that is one benefit it had delivered.

AAP cmc

KEYWORD: EDITORIALS

) 2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.