Here is a link to Getty Images photographs of the immediate aftermath. WARNING: There are some graphic images, particularly Image 55835075, but I mention it specifically because I believe it is necessary to look at evil if we are to recognise it for what it is.
Until we wake up to the fact that Islamic terrorism is not banning toy pigs but leaving the headless blasted-naked corpse of your mother, your sister, your best friend and your neighbour sprawled across a table in what was seconds ago a restaurant, we will continue to lack the necessary fortitude needed to tackle the issue.
Or you could just ignore it until it's the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden during Schoolies Week.
-- Nick
(Images Hat-tip: Kilgore Trout posting at Little Green Footballs)
UPDATE: From Tim Blair's site and Percypup in comments comes the link to Melbourne's Sunday Age column by Terry Lane.
The upshot of Lane's piece is that our politicians are getting a tad too hysterical about a mythical terrorist threat to Australia in order to get more power and to cower the Australian people into submission:
What are the chances of Adelaide or Perth being the sites of the next al-Qaeda attack? Zero? You would rate it as highly as that?
Can you picture Osama in his cave, poring over his school atlas and landing a bony finger on Adelaide and saying: "There! And after Adelaide, Wagga Wagga!"
Although, he says magnanimously:
We must assume - just to be fair - that no one, not even the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General, wants a terror attack.
This is the voice of Australian mainstream media that we must assume sympathises with terrorism and terrorists as well as being actively complicit in a deadly game of telling the Australian people that there is no terrorism, but if there is it is the fault of John Howard and George W Bush.
Note the derision in Lane's comment about Adelaide and Wagga Wagga. His choice of the most unlikely targets is a deliberate effort to ridicule those who recognise that there are very likely targets on the Australian mainland. However, these targets are more likely to be Sydney and Melbourne or high profile tourist centres such as Cairns and the Gold Coast.
How must Lane be feeling today? Sheepish and embarassed by his column in the light of this most recent horror? Or will he find some contortion of logic that will make him right all along? Just to be fair, I think we should all tell Lane what we think of his ignorant and ill-conceived piece. You can reach him through letters to the editor or if you would like to try the more direct approach, his work e-mail address should be lanet@theage.com.au.
-- Nora
UPDATE II:
Also getting it fatally wrong is Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister under Labor's Hawke-Keating Government.
On Wednesday he said:
"Jemaah Islamiah itself has been significantly decimated in terms of its effective operation in Indonesia."
and
Mr Evans also warned yesterday that people in government should be sceptical of the quality of the information produced by intelligence and security agencies.
Perhaps he should use some of his intelligence and speak to someone who ought to know like Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono:
Western and Indonesian intelligence agencies have warned repeatedly that Jemaah Islamiyah was plotting more attacks. Last month, Yudhoyono said he was especially worried the extremist network was about to strike.
"I received information at the time that terrorists were planning an action in Jakarta and that explosives were ready," he said Saturday.
-- Nick and Nora
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