Catching up

Well so far I have spent the whole weekend doing exactly what I had planned on doing....nothing...and it was everything that i thought it would be. For the first time in over a month I got to sit around...catch up on all that has been happening all over the world. Read some ESPN.com and try to keep up with the twins. One thing that I did catch that is really the cause of this whole post was a quote by the Prime Minister of Australia. He has made some brilliant observations upon the terrorist problem that is plaguing the world. And i quote...

PRIME MINISTER HOWARD: On the issue of the policies of my government and indeed the policies of the British and American governments on Iraq that the first point of reference is, once a country allows its foreign policy to be determined by terrorism, it's given the game away to use a vernacular. And no Australian government that I lead will ever have policies determined by terrorism or terrorist threats. And no self-respecting government of any political stripe in Australia would allow that to happen. Can I remind you that the murder of 88 Australians in Bali took place before the operation in Iraq.
And can I remind you that the 11th of September occurred before the operation in Iraq.
Can I also remind you that the very first occasion that bin Laden specifically referred to Australia was in the context of Australia's involvement in liberating the people of East Timor. Are people, by implication, suggesting we shouldn't have done that? When a group claimed responsibility on the website for the attacks on the 7th of July, they talked about British policy, not just in Iraq, but Afghanistan. Are people suggesting we shouldn't be in Afghanistan? When Sergio de Mello was murdered in Iraq, a brave man, a distinguished international diplomat, a person immensely respected for his work in the United Nations, when Al-Qaeda gloated about that, they referred specifically to the role that de Mello had carried out in East Timor because he was the United Nations administrator in East Timor. Now, I don't know the mind of the terrorist. By definition, you can't put yourself in the mind of a successful suicide bomber. I can only look at objective facts are, and the objective facts are as I've cited, the objective evidence is that Australia was a terrorist target long before the operation in Iraq. And, indeed, all the evidence, as distinct from the suppositions, suggests to me that this is about hatred of a way of life; this is about the perverted use of the principles of a great world religion that, at its root, preaches peace and cooperation. And I think we lose sight of the challenge we have if we allow ourselves to see these attacks in the context of particular circumstances rather than the abuse, through a perverted ideology, of people and their murder.

Now, whether or not you agree with my ideology or any of my beliefs is a matter for another time, but it would be incredibly difficult to a degree of impossibility to disagree with any of the statements that John Howard just made. Many people of the press place the blame of these insane terrorists upon the victim country's leaders. How can one blame Bush or Tony Blair for some idiot suicide butchers. A reporter asked Blair if he believed that his policies have put these people in the position they are in to carry out such murders.

BLAIR ANSWERS SIMPLY: Well, I think I said to you before, that I feel that people who are responsible for doing these things are the people who do them.

It is as simple as that. I do not believe, as many do, that we have been the cause of many of these attacks. Is it not obvious that these people have hated us for much longer than we have been in Iraq or Afganistan? Was the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, not correct that there were bombings and threats long before we took any action? What did we do to provoke the bombings on the towers? The first or second ones? The bombings of our African embassies? There was no cause for any of these attacks except for the fact that we live in the most prosperous country in the world...and I refuse to believe that this is a good enough reason to kill thousands of inocent people. I think that before anybody even begins to blame either Bush or Blair for any of these tragedies they need to read again what John Howard and Tony Blair have said.

blake