When I posted my off the cuff remark about the bomb blast in Jakarta I had at the back of my mind the pasting Mick Keelty, the Federal Police Commissioner received at the hand of the government when he voiced much the same sentiment.
Mike Carlton sums it up:
I wonder what Downer and the Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, chatted about on their flight to Indonesia on Thursday evening. When Keelty suggested a few months ago that our part in Iraq had heightened the danger to Australia, Downer grossly shouted him down and accused him of toeing the terrorist line.Perhaps his lordship has had the grace to admit now that Keelty was right, and to apologise. But somehow I doubt it.
Tony, Howard and Downer don't ever seem to have asked themselves why some of these awful events are happening on their watch!
I am very cynical about the use of terrorism to govern everything, specially when coming from America. Where were they in condemning the IRA and plugging their funding flow when living in London was quite scarey for lots of us?
The Americans obviously didn't see the Irish troubles as their problem.
What we really have to watch out for is the tendency for conservative governments to take away our freedoms while trying to control terrorism.