* Most commentators are still in a state of shock. I suspect that they will become more belingerent when hoisting the black flag and slitting throats doesn't seem too insensitive on the victims.
* Most commentators have no idea what is going on. Guesses and speculation abound. The latest punt is that the C4 explosive was packe into gas cylinders, a tactic used in Yemen against the USS Cole and in Jakarta in an attempted assassination of the Phillipines ambassator. This is interpreted as evidence of an Al-Qaeda link. (I smell a rat)
* Some conservatives are saying that these attacks vindicate the strategy of attacking Iraq. Most of the press seems opposed to this. I didn't read a single letter supporting this idea. Parliament did not debate this. (Mercifully)
* More conservatives are forwarding the following analysis: Indonesia is breaking up. There are lots of 'terrorist' movements in places like Papua, the Molluccas, Ache and Borneo. These groups must be repressed so that Indonesia doesn't fall into more turmoil. (I think this is nuts)
* One suggestion is to defund APHEDA, the Australian peak NGO funding organisation, which is 75% gov. funded, on the grounds that they support the Molluccans, Achenese, Dayak and Papuans...
* A substantial number of op-eds have posited the view countering this: that it is the army which is the main terrorist, that it is in cahoots with Islamist elements, and that the catastrophes in Ache, Papua etc, are fanned by elements in the armed forces. More instability, more power to the army. (I happen to agree strongly with this view)
* Two op eds in the Sydney Morning Herald made the point that this sort of atrocity is unacceptable whether it takes place "in New York, Israel, Palestine, Bali or Iraq", and another suggested that now we know what it is like to be at the receiving end of pointless violence. (My feeling is that these people are trying to hedge their bets.)
* Few people in the mass media have pointed out that the likely effect of strengthening the Indonesian state will be massive state terror; everything in the Indonesian experience points towards this (this is my view and the view of people on the far left)
* As of about four hours ago, the Australian Government wouldn't be drawn on any elements of the crime itself. They refuse to confirm or deny if leaders from Jemaah Islamiya are being interrogated; they refuse to confirm or deny if Semtex was used in the blast, or if the Air Force colonel confessed (as reported in the Washington Times).
* Nevertheless, the Australian Government has moved to outlaw JI.
* The tabloid press and the junk TV news and current affairs is loaded with efforts to bring Arabs and Islam into the equation. Some of it is pretty scurrilous. Police presences around mosques has been stepped up. (I should mention that here in Sydney we have recently had a bit of mass hysteria over Lebanese youth gangs and "ethnic rapists")
* The press, high and low brow, left and right, is replete with more or less sacharine effusions of well-positioned emotion. Much of it seems surprisingly forced.
Thiago
------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through IMP: www-mail.usyd.edu.au