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| Stretching the untruth | |
It is a sad reflection on human nature that all politicians lie. Every
skilled seducer knows that telling well thought out lies will get better
results, and honest politicians just won't get elected by a population who
wants to be wooed by a vision prosperity and freedom which somehow always
falls short of expectations. That's why it is so satisfying to watch when sometimes, just sometimes, they
suffer the humiliation of being caught out by their own lies. This seems to
have happened to the Spanish government after some psychos killed over 200
unwitting Spanish taxpayers on
their way to earn some more money for their tax-greedy rulers three days before
an election. Whether the psychos were recruited by Al Qaeda or by the separatist ETA
movement was a hard call at the time. Most terrorist attacks in Spain
are works of ETA, but this one seemed to be on a larger scale than most, and
had the organizational feel of an Al Qaeda operation. This caught the center-right Spanish government off guard. They had supported
the US in their recent forays into Afghanistan and Iraq against popular opinion. An
ETA attack would win them votes, an Al Qaeda attack would lose them votes, so
they directed their officials to blame ETA, hoping they could stretch the
untruth until after the election, and go into damage control later. Oops! The ref has not yet made the call, but Al Qaeda is the odds-on favorite
based on the arrests and other evidence so far - ETA denied responsibility
while Al Qaeda claimed responsibility via confused and ranting tapes about the
viper of Western imperialism being drowned in the blood of the infidels after
their deadly crusade into the heartland of Allah's chosen people .. or
whatever. The Spanish people went to the polls knowing that their government sexed up
the evidence against ETA, and the voter's wrath was swift and decisive. The result? Al Qaeda have now realized that they can force regime change in democratic
countries. Terrorism has achieved a desired political outcome. Their murdering of 200 innocent
civilians has been vindicated. And this has left Australia's Johnny ("just-coincidence") Howard a little
concerned. Little Johnny has gotten a lot of mileage talking up (he's not
capable of 'sexing' up anything) the risk that Australia faces from
terrorism. He now has to talk up the danger of terrorism, while talking down
the possibility that it might be caused by Australia's support of the US. Non
elected officials are stating the obvious - that Australia's military
involvement in Iraq popped up on the radar of Islamic psychosis. Johnny is
taking the philosophical view - que sera, sera, whatever happens would
have happened anyway. So what lessons are in this for Australia? A country that has never been invaded (if
one discounts European colonization); which has never been attacked from her own
shores and whose only real experience with civil unrest is a pack of drunken
welfare recipients throwing Molotov cocktails in Redfern. With Australians going to the polls late in the year, three days before the
election would be an ideal time to strike. With the outcome looking quite
close, enough Australians would cower to terrorists and change their vote to a
more 'multiculturally
friendly' government in the hope that they wouldn't be targeted further. Little Johnny may have a big problem. This may be Tampa in reverse. Australia's big heart may be impaled on the psychotic sword of fundamentalist
extremism and Australian
cities may become awash in the blood of an ideological war between the infidels
who wish to take The Great Satan's path to economic domination and
those who are the True
Believers .. or whatever.
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