A Touch of Tarzan

How's this for breast-beating, imperial techno-hubris:

"A clearer picture is beginning to emerge of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden - an operation described as the 'zenith' of US special operations and intelligence work... Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Williams, a former commander of the British Army's Special Air Service said the operation was 'as challenging as flying to the moon'. 'What has been demonstrated is a world-beating, truly information-age capability that the US has developed relentlessly since the Tehran embassy failure in 1980', Colonel Williams said. 'This is really the zenith, the pinnacle of capabilities... It is what (former US defence secretary) Donald Rumsfeld intended in 2001 when he said publicly that he wanted to be able for an American boot or bomb to be anywhere in the world within 2 hours of identifying a threat to the United States'." ('World-beating technology followed failure in Tehran, Haines & Hussein, The Times/ The Australian, 5/5/11)

And here's an Israeli variation on the theme from the same edition:

"A Greens ban on imports from Israel would target the very products the party claims are at the forefront of its environmental agenda. It would stop the import of the revolutionary combined solar electricity and hot water system that Qiryat Gat-based Zenith Solar has agreed to install at a Port Melbourne ambulance station... A Greens ban would also target the ultra-efficient drip irrigation system developed by Israeli company Netafim, which is at the leading edge of water conservation around the world, including Australia." (Greens Israel boycott bad for environment, Lloyd & Aikman, The Australian, 5/5/11)

But what have we here? After The Australian's witch hunt against NSW Greens 'watermelons'* last month, in particular Lee Rhiannon, a one time member of the long defunct Socialist Party of Australia, we get this little gem of Netafim history in the ad's, sorry report's, next paragraph:

"Netafim chief sustainability officer Igal Aisenberg helped develop the drip irrigation technology on the Hatzerim Kibbutz where he lives under the socialist principles of 'from each according to their capacity and to each according to their need'." (ibid)

OMG! Wouldn't that make Igal Aisenberg a watermelon too?

[*See my 2/4/11 post Watermelons Under the Bed]