Be Vigilant
As the citizens of the West become increasingly more wary of apparently-imminent terror attacks, due largely to the media's seeming insistence on emphasising practically every incidence of terrorism that occurs, the task of fearmongering effectively is proving to be more and more easy to pull off. Of course, given the recent instances of terrorists supposedly plotting to bomb the New York City subway "with bomb-laden baby carriages" and a recurrence of the Bali bombings that showed great similarities to those which took place three years ago, one cannot be surprised that people are now so locked into an international state of fear.
Australia's nerves are notably perched on the edge at present, as a result of the terrorist attacks in Bali last week which are widely perceived to have been targeted specifically at Australian citizens. In this case, I think that the sense of fear that the Australian government -- as well as many ordinary people -- are experiencing, stems from a genuine feeling of guilt. They are finding themselves uncomfortably conscious of the fact that their country's participation in the invasion of Iraq is generally disagreed with by the vast majority of "informed" human beings living on this planet, and as such that it is only sensible to expect for there to be some kind of sentiment against Australia.
This is where New Zealand's refusal to take part in the actual invasion comes into its own. The country may indeed have now lost sight of the prospect of receiving that highly lucrative free trade deal as a consequence of its abstinence from breaking international law. However, the trade-off (pun certainly not intended) is that New Zealand is now in a safer situation than its significantly larger schoolmates. A great degree of irony exists here when one considers that the destructive actions of "The Coalition of the Willing" are carried out with the core intention of making the world a safer place.
Not only is destroying an entire country a rather illogical way to go about achieving the apparent goal of world peace, but the "three most powerful men in the free world," in launching their righteous global anti-terror campaign, failed to take into account the real reasons as to why the events of 11 September 2001 occurred in the first place. The West's decidedly intrusive, and in a considerable number of cases militaristic presence in the Middle East has been to the detriment of a not-insignificant number of people's lives on both sides of the fray. Further enthusiastic and questionably-motivated intervention is likely not to be appreciated to a noticeable extent.
The United States had the World Trade Centre attacks. Britain had the Tube bombings. The possibilities as to what is going to happen to the third musketeer remain to be seen. Meanwhile, New Zealand are able to lie back on their deckchairs with justifiable feelings of comfort.
Australia's nerves are notably perched on the edge at present, as a result of the terrorist attacks in Bali last week which are widely perceived to have been targeted specifically at Australian citizens. In this case, I think that the sense of fear that the Australian government -- as well as many ordinary people -- are experiencing, stems from a genuine feeling of guilt. They are finding themselves uncomfortably conscious of the fact that their country's participation in the invasion of Iraq is generally disagreed with by the vast majority of "informed" human beings living on this planet, and as such that it is only sensible to expect for there to be some kind of sentiment against Australia.
This is where New Zealand's refusal to take part in the actual invasion comes into its own. The country may indeed have now lost sight of the prospect of receiving that highly lucrative free trade deal as a consequence of its abstinence from breaking international law. However, the trade-off (pun certainly not intended) is that New Zealand is now in a safer situation than its significantly larger schoolmates. A great degree of irony exists here when one considers that the destructive actions of "The Coalition of the Willing" are carried out with the core intention of making the world a safer place.
Not only is destroying an entire country a rather illogical way to go about achieving the apparent goal of world peace, but the "three most powerful men in the free world," in launching their righteous global anti-terror campaign, failed to take into account the real reasons as to why the events of 11 September 2001 occurred in the first place. The West's decidedly intrusive, and in a considerable number of cases militaristic presence in the Middle East has been to the detriment of a not-insignificant number of people's lives on both sides of the fray. Further enthusiastic and questionably-motivated intervention is likely not to be appreciated to a noticeable extent.
The United States had the World Trade Centre attacks. Britain had the Tube bombings. The possibilities as to what is going to happen to the third musketeer remain to be seen. Meanwhile, New Zealand are able to lie back on their deckchairs with justifiable feelings of comfort.
posted by Gary at 3:29 pm
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