'Several mass graves with more than 5,000 bodies have been discovered. ExxonMobil paid the military to provide security for its operations, and reports allege that the company provided equipment to dig the mass graves and allowed its facilities for torture and other activities.'
Not to belittle the bombing; it was, of course, an unpardonable outrage, and not any form of legitimate political discourse. The backpackers and holidaymakers there didn't volunteer to be sacrificial lambs in someone's game any more than the working stiffs in the World Trade Center did. But the word terrorism could be just as easily applied to ExxonMobil-backed torture and murder in the region.
Terrorism begins at home. If we (as nations) want peace, we should make sure that we're not complicit in acts of terrorism.
Mind you, it's rather unlikely that we'll see ExxonMobil outlawed and its assets frozen under anti-terrorism laws any time soon. But maybe if more people stood up against such things being done in their name (and if you're American or Western, these things are done to an extent in your name), our governments would be more careful about whom they whore themselves to, and ordinary people would cop rather less bad karma for it.
(Philosophical question: how many Acehnese or Afghani lives is one Australian or American life worth? Show reasoning.) (via Luke/Graham)
...y has affected me much more than 9/11. When I feel very little about death's in the Middle East. And when I feel almost nothing at all about genocide in Africa or Asia. Is it worth being ashamed of feeling this way, or is it only natural to be affected more by something that's
...close to home. I'll shut up now.
gjw: no, it's not. I think it's hardly uncommon for people to feel worse about things that affect them more directly (like the Bali bomb) than things that don't.
It's not necessarily an either/or thing, I should think, tho' the MO doesn't seem to fit with that interpretation. If you're protesting against ExxonMobil, why blow up a whole heap of Australians? Why completely snooker the economy of an island that's known for its religious tolerance? Some kind of "Australia Had It Coming" retaliation for East Timor? Who knows... The hot theory about groups afilliated with Al-Qaeda does hold water for me, as uncool as it is.
But you know the WoT is a machine for leveraging legitimate concerns into support for dubious ends.
True; though the point is that by tolerating and supporting profit-driven terrorism in the third world, the west gives Al-Qaeda as many recruits as it wants. It doesn't matter if they're used for some other goal, such as setting up Bin Laden's caliphate. And if our governments back corporate hiring and supplying of death squads to eliminate obstructions to the flow of profits, they justify the means of terrorism as a legitimate means to an end by example. And it comes back and bites us on the arse. (Not Bush or Howard or the ExxonMobil board but ordinary people who have nothing to do with it.)
Or as someone else said, if we want peace, we should work for justice.
Not that those whose loved ones died don't have a right to be angry; they have every right, and should be. Though some of that anger should go to those who are responsible for this fucked-up situation. I just hope that this motivates people to strive for justice rather than vengeance.
do you wonder why no americans died in the bali blast?
The thing about links between terrorist groups is that they don't neccessarily mean the groups share the same goals.
For instance, the IRA has links with ETA and FARC; (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/colombia/story/0,11502,630731,00.html); but that doesn't mean they're plotting together to create a new world order.
It just means it's in their temporary best interests to cooperate.
Personally I don't consider a bar full of drunken footballers, drug smugglers and would-be paedophiles on the make any great loss.
Actually, it's a fairly middle-class holiday spot. Shithead.
Is the IRA actually Marxist/Maoist in ideology, or just simple nationalist? (I heard that some faction had Maoist leanings during the cold war, though if they were Communists it might piss off Catholic elements in the republican movement.)
More importantly, how many Australian Footballers = other Australians = Anglo/American = Europeans = Acehnese = Afghans. Expect this angle to be played to the hilt in upcoming AusGov propaganda/Ray Martin telethons and imagine Lil' Johnnies reaction if Don Bradman was sipping Mai Tai's at the bar before the boom.
Phil Economou mentioned it on 3RRR this morning; apparently it looks set to strengthen support for Howard/Bush and decimate the anti-war movement. (A country under attack generally doesn't have much of an anti-war movement; look at Israel these days, for example.) I wonder if it'll lead to the Greens being decimated in the next elections, and Bob Brown going the way of Jim Cairns, or whether the sorts of people who'd be roused to warlike patriotism would be Labor/Liberal voters anyway. I guess it depends on how many swinging Green voters are shamed out of their "cowardly" "pro-appeasement" beliefs by Murdoch editorials and public sentiment.
I think there's a growing realization that the War on Iraq is a competely separate and unrelated entity to the War on Terrorism, in the media and in the public mind. Everyone I've spoken to about the topic, including some conservative old fogies like my dad can see the distinction, and are pretty much wondering how bombing Baghdad is going to top terrorism in SE Asia. Unless Howard can draw some kind of link between the Bali Bombing and Saddam Hussein, I don't know how much this will strengthen public support for Gulf War: Attack of the Clones.
Support for the War on Terrorism is not driven by reason, but by emotion, marshalled by the Murdoch press and such. And it's starting to look a lot like Starship Troopers. And right now is Not The Time for criticism, it's the time for unity. Which means getting behind Howard, which means giving our 100% support to whatever Uncle George wants, to the last man and the last peso. And questioning the Bush Doctrine is tantamount to appeasement.
I've got no problem with being called unpatriotic. It's not a crime (yet) and I've never held sway with the "my country, right or wrong" philosophy. Geez, once again, everyone I talk to keeps making comments about leaving the ship before it sinks and heading to New Zealand or Maritius or somewhere.
Could be good.
I was thinking of sewing an Australian flag to my backpack whilst overseas so I don't get shot as an American, but now I think that'd be a bad idea. Can you get New Zealand flags in Australia? Or Sealand/Port Watson/your TAZ of choice flags?
A little off-topic, but: I've just made a first draft of an article for a local student newspaper, briefly reviewing the evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda, and between September 11 and the anthrax letters. It was meant to cover Enemy-Is-Within conspiracy theories as well, but space restrictions made me decide to go with the Iraq emphasis.
... The previous URL links to it, in case that wasn't clear.
Go the Canadian flag, I think.
Events may have changed things, but it seems to me that community attitude towards a war with Iraq is lukewarm at best. And just about everyone thinks George Bush is a fuckwit.
The other difference is that Howard has been there a long time, (whereas Bush had been in less than a year) has a pretty hopeless record regarding our relations with Asia, and might yet cop the flak for this. It depends.
For my part, I think I might to start belting Sophie Panopolous (Member for Indi i.e. Wodonga, rank conservative scumbag) over the head in the local paper.
I find this "bailing out and heading for NZ etc." talk pretty galling. If you do that, you've let the bastards win.
Is the IRA actually Marxist/Maoist in ideology, or just simple nationalist?
That depends which IRA you're talking about... I'd have to ask around, but I believe one of the many splits in the IRA was over this very issue.
They certainly use plenty of neo-Marxist language in their propaganda, but then, doesn't everybody?
What if it's not me _personally_ who's let the bastards win, but the actions of people claiming to represent my interests? I wouldn't ever leave Australia because of fear of terrorists or anything else; I'd leave because I've just about had it up to here with the attitude of our federal government and I'm ashamed to have them represent me at times. In any case, I ain't leaving, it's all pretty academic.
You're thinking of the INLA, the primary Marxist Irish revolutionary group. The IRA shares many socialist positions and policies but wouldn't necessarily be classed as socialist. <br><br> And it was a good thing that that bar in Bali was a whites-only establishment, otherwise more of the locals might have gotten blown to bits.
Um, I have an Indian-Indonesian friend who was in the Sari Club two weeks before it was blown up. She's not white.
What are Sinn Fein's politics other than reuniting the North and South in a republic? How is their relationship with the Vatican?
They're officially secular, although if you believe Lyndon LaRouche (among others) many of their units are directly controlled by phone calls from the Vatican.
Look at it this way: If someone had blown up the entire casts of Big Brother I through IV (?) and all those Temptation Isle halfwits, would the world be a better place?
I heard something about the Provisional IRA or some other group modelling their tactics (abductions, secret trials and releasing condemned foes "free as a bird" before hunting them down) on the Holy Vehm, a German religious inquisition of the 13th century.
another possibility:
*cue conspiracy theories*
the explosives used where of a military background, the military (TNI) since the reforms of Habibe have had their power reduced considrably, which hasn't settled well especially considering they where instrumental in the pre-97 dictatorship. Could this be the lead up to a coup by the military on the government of Megawatti Sukarnoputri (just like the coup lead against her father?).
another possibility:
*cue conspiracy theories*
the explosives used where of a military background, the military (TNI) since the reforms of Habibe have had their power reduced considrably, which hasn't settled well especially considering they where instrumental in the pre-97 dictatorship. Could this be the lead up to a coup by the military on the government of Megawatti Sukarnoputri (just like the coup lead against her father?).
I think the whole sorry affair can be summed up in 3 words....No Great Loss.
I'm currently supporting the view that it was the work of a millitant Islamic group (they've been talking about a few today...somethingorother Jihad) who wants to create a single Muslim state that encompasses Indonesia, Malaysia and the Phillipines (according to the 7:30 report). They've been responsible for a number of nightclub bombings elsewhere in Indonesia in recent months. But, hey, if you're going to try to wipe out terrorism (a noble enough cause) you've also got to wipe of the roots of terrorism (something you don't hear much about, I think it's considered unpatriotic to think along those lines or something.)
But if you want to start comparing death tolls and the value of life, here's a good place to start: http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstatx.htm ... I don't know, work out the economic impact of a tragedy divided by the number of American lives lost. Repeat with some third world population...Sudan? Rwanda? Angola?
Personally I'm feeling pretty shitty as a human being when this traged