Attack on Australia? Please.
Oct. 20th, 2002 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changelingSpeaking as an Australian, I was outraged that there was blatant emotional manipulation to get the people of Australia to support a war on Iraq/Terrorism/Al Qaeda/whoever Bush doesn't like by claiming that the attack on Bali was an attack on Australia. Um, hello? Last I checked, Bali wasn't an Australian state or territory. I can support it as an attack on Western civilisation/people who support Bush, but an attack on Australia alone? No. There are a lot of people who dislike Westerners for reasons not related to the US's current president (although that isn't winning them any favours either). Western civilisation has been seen as a corrupting influence in many places, but SE Asia is definitely one of them (I knew that article sPacific nOceans would come in handy one day...).
I don't want to deny the terror of the attacks, but we need to look at them in a more rational way. I don't know about you, but when I saw the first news broadcast whinging about what the attacks did to Australia, I raged into the kitchen screaming "What about Bali? Last I checked, tourism was a primary source of their economy, and that's sure as hell going to go down the toilet!" Several news broadcasts later, the potential problem for the Bali economy was mentioned.
I have never supported a "War against Terrorism", nor have I supported a war against Iraq. I have no desire to see school friends disappear in any conflict that may arise. I have no desire to see my hard-earned money frittered away via a War Tax on the massacre of a foreign people simply because one extremist group within that country decided that didn't want to put up with the US any longer.
When I was in high school, we examined emotive language by looking at a vocab listing of words used to describe the US and Iraq, to show how the media manipulated public opinion. Exactly the same thing is being done today.
What's worse is the way that everyone assumes that bin Laden is behind it. Where's your proof? Couldn't it have been some psycho whose mother ran off with a tourist one day leaving him stranded, so he's decided to get some revenge?
I am increasingly of the opinion that people are stupid.
I don't want to deny the terror of the attacks, but we need to look at them in a more rational way. I don't know about you, but when I saw the first news broadcast whinging about what the attacks did to Australia, I raged into the kitchen screaming "What about Bali? Last I checked, tourism was a primary source of their economy, and that's sure as hell going to go down the toilet!" Several news broadcasts later, the potential problem for the Bali economy was mentioned.
I have never supported a "War against Terrorism", nor have I supported a war against Iraq. I have no desire to see school friends disappear in any conflict that may arise. I have no desire to see my hard-earned money frittered away via a War Tax on the massacre of a foreign people simply because one extremist group within that country decided that didn't want to put up with the US any longer.
When I was in high school, we examined emotive language by looking at a vocab listing of words used to describe the US and Iraq, to show how the media manipulated public opinion. Exactly the same thing is being done today.
What's worse is the way that everyone assumes that bin Laden is behind it. Where's your proof? Couldn't it have been some psycho whose mother ran off with a tourist one day leaving him stranded, so he's decided to get some revenge?
I am increasingly of the opinion that people are stupid.
