Can We All be Australians Now?

Ed. Note: Australian PM John Howard, a steadfast ally of the United States in missile defense, Asia/Pacific security policy, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ed. Note: Australian PM John Howard, a steadfast ally of the United States in missile defense, Asia/Pacific security policy, Iraq and Afghanistan. When he spoke in London last week, we wanted to jump up and vote for him – or at least say, “thank you.” The following comments came in response to the all-time stupid question, “Do you feel in any sense that you have put people in this position, do you feel that in a sense your policies may have put people in this position?” British PM Tony Blair replied, “Well, I think the people who are responsible for doing these things are the people who do them.” PM Howard then elaborated.

“Terrorism is not just about individual circumstances and individual events. Terrorism is about the perverted use of an ideology for evil intent and for evil objectives. And those who think that terrorism is incident-specific misunderstand the mind and the workings of the minds of terrorists …

“The first point of reference is that once a country allows its foreign policy to be determined by terrorism, it has given the game away, to use the 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 could I remind you that the 11 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 that we shouldn’t have done that? When a group claimed responsibility on the website for the attacks on 7 July, they talked about British policy, not just in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan. Are people suggesting we shouldn’t be in Afghanistan? When Sergio de Melo was murdered in Iraq, a brave man, a distinguished international diplomat, immensely respected for his work in the United Nations, when al Qaeda gloated about that they referred specifically to the role that de Melo 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, and the objective facts are as I have cited. The objective evidence is that Australia was a terrorist target long before the operation in Iraq.

“Indeed all the evidence, as distinct from the suppositions, suggest 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.”

To which PM Blair replied, “I agree 100 percent with that.” To which we say, “Amen.”