Is Australia Next?
Published April 05, 2004
Emboldened by Spain's cowardly retreat from Iraq in the face of terror, radical Muslims are now threatening Australia.
Chief lieutenant of ad-Sadr [a radical Shi'ite Muslim cleric], Imam Amer al Hussani, said on Monday the coalition forces should immediately withdraw and return Iraq to local control.
"The Saddam regime (is) gone and ... we know how to control our country," Imam al Hussani told ABC Radio through an interpreter.
"To be here as occupiers, they are not welcome here."
Imam al Hussani also had a message for Prime Minister John Howard.
"We hope that Australia will follow Spain in their decision to withdraw from Iraq," he said.
And if they don't? Is there an implied threat there? One suspects an attack on the Australian homeland is quite likely. Elections are coming soon in Australia, and the Leftist opposition Parties would be more than happy to take Spain's lead and attempt to win a seperate peace with the terrorists by withdrawing troops from Iraq.
The Madrid attacks have taught the terrorists a valuable lesson: Well-timed terrorist attacks can be the decisive factor in democratic elections in Western nations. Scare the populace into believing that being partners with the United States in confronting terror will lead to misery and death, and you will help elect appeasers to their governments.
It is also likely they will try this tactic against the US itself. But would a major attack in, say, October lead US voters to rally to Bush, or to run to Kerry? Their intent would clearly be to unseat Bush, but how would the voters respond?
There is also the prospect of conspiracy theories coming into play. Let's say an attack occurs close to the US election, and it ends up boosting Bush to a close victory. There will be those on the Left that will accuse Bush of letting this happen in order to politically benefit (much like those who accused FDR of allowing Pearl Harbor in order to get the US into WWII). This surely will not help unite the country, but it is inevitable in such an unfortunate situation.
RJ Elliott is a graduate student studying Criminal Justice at the University Of Central Florida. His likes include nature, sports, and pierced blondes. He dislikes daytime television, left-wing dictators, and lead-tainted Chinese imports. He is ambivalent about Angelina Jolie.
- Is Australia Next?
- Published: April 05, 2004
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- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Internet, Culture: Media
- Writer: RJ Elliott
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i lived in kuwait, kuwait is more civilized and modern than countries in europe.. i live in ireland atm and its nothing compared to kuwait in modernization, kuwait has amazing malls, 1 in every 460 kuwaiti citizens is a millionare according to life magazine and the cars there are out of this world, the girls are hot and they dont wear veils unless they want to, they drive sexy cars like ferraris and bmws and such, and cruise down the gulf road with the tops down.. its an amazing place and the people are civilized and extremely well educated unlike americans such as urself who talk bullshit before making sure of what their talking about, and europeans who r just plain disgusting..
The only reason you Kuwaitis have any money is because of the oil underneath your feet. And the only reason you have your freedom is because of American and European military might.
You buy your cars from other countries, because you are unable to manufacture them yourselves. The products you buy in your malls were made in other countries. Your oil fields were engineered by Westerners and are maintained by East Asians.
However, for an Arab Muslim country, you are probably the least shitty. :)
RJ: You're also forgetting that Australia has already been attacked ... the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002 targeted westerners, Bali being Australia's backyard tropical playground.
Most tourists there are Aussies, and the bombers knew exactly who they were hitting.
Read: Australians.
Of the 200 dead, 80 were Australians, by far the largest of any nationality group in that bombing. Then there were the subsequent bombings there, with the dead mostly Aussies.
And then there was the bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta.
However, these acts were comitted by Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaeda offshoot in Asia. These people are mass murdering mongrel bastards and we won't be bowing down to them any time soon. We don't like to be dictated to by scum - and we don't scare that easily.
Al Hussani is a Shi'ite cleric, not a Wahabbist Sunni, who seems to speak exclusively about what is going on in Iraq. I would not see his statement as a threat, rather a heartfelt wish for us to get out. For that reason, pulling troops out of Iraq might be a separate issue altogether, just as it is in the US.
Anyway, we'll see. And Americans shouldn't forget that even in a changing world, where the lines of expectation and loyalty can get blurred, and while it doesn't mean we'll do anything you ask, Australia still has a debt of gratitude to the United States.
We have long memories.
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(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/14400)
You're quoting very selectively.
I heard that interview with Al Hussani and he also went to some lengths to thank Australia for helping liberate Iraq from Saddam.
He just wants the foreigners out now.
It was pretty reasoned and polite (god knows what he says in private in arabic but thats not the point here).
And it wasn't threatening at all.