peas_and_corn
I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I cannot mash that
OK, I will add my two cents because... well, I want to.
Joel- you mention that Aceh has no good natural resources; actually the province has a large amount of natural gas- one of Indonesia's biggest; providing the government with a lot of revenue- thus providing another reason to keep it. That plus Indonesia's constant fear that the state will fall apart- and let's face it, if that was to happen it would be a catastrophe that must be avoided at all costs. That was one of may reasons why the Australian government sent them aid for the tsunami appeal; since the damage happened in quite depressed areas, a lack of reconstruction would result in many headaches.
Now, about the bombings themselves... well, I'm not surprised. In fact, when I saw the newspapers I really wasn't that affected. All the commentators, and me too, said that there would be another attack, since Jemaah Islamiyah has considerable presence in the country.
When considering what to do, the issue must be considered at length. Australia has much to lose in its standing in the region, and since Indonesia does a lot of dirty work for us (intercepting boats) and the fact we rely on using their shipping lanes/air space to export just about everything, upsetting them would not be in Australia's interest. Howard's dangerous announcement that he would launch a pre-emptive strike against terrorists in other countries (which everyone read as Indonesia) was just stupid.
Ultimately, we're dealing with the 1% of the Islamic community that's extremist, and that is all. Such extremism exists in every religion; witnessed in Northern Ireland, Haiti, Sudan, and throughout history. The only problem is that extremist Islam has more room and more credibility within certain groups. However, merely getting the leaders in a room and shooting them (as several people have suggested) is not the solution. With many terrorist organisaitons, the theory has been that if you kill the head, the body will die. However, this is not the case with JI and other terrorist groups. They organise in cells that are all totally independent of each other; and even within each cell, leaders are easily replaced. Not only that, but clamping down will only cause the movement to grow stronger, not weaker- Indonesia is the perfect example, as it detains, tortures etc suspected terrorists and nothing has been achieved. Thus is the reason why the government's policy on detaining suspects without trial is rubbish.
Joel- you mention that Aceh has no good natural resources; actually the province has a large amount of natural gas- one of Indonesia's biggest; providing the government with a lot of revenue- thus providing another reason to keep it. That plus Indonesia's constant fear that the state will fall apart- and let's face it, if that was to happen it would be a catastrophe that must be avoided at all costs. That was one of may reasons why the Australian government sent them aid for the tsunami appeal; since the damage happened in quite depressed areas, a lack of reconstruction would result in many headaches.
Now, about the bombings themselves... well, I'm not surprised. In fact, when I saw the newspapers I really wasn't that affected. All the commentators, and me too, said that there would be another attack, since Jemaah Islamiyah has considerable presence in the country.
When considering what to do, the issue must be considered at length. Australia has much to lose in its standing in the region, and since Indonesia does a lot of dirty work for us (intercepting boats) and the fact we rely on using their shipping lanes/air space to export just about everything, upsetting them would not be in Australia's interest. Howard's dangerous announcement that he would launch a pre-emptive strike against terrorists in other countries (which everyone read as Indonesia) was just stupid.
Ultimately, we're dealing with the 1% of the Islamic community that's extremist, and that is all. Such extremism exists in every religion; witnessed in Northern Ireland, Haiti, Sudan, and throughout history. The only problem is that extremist Islam has more room and more credibility within certain groups. However, merely getting the leaders in a room and shooting them (as several people have suggested) is not the solution. With many terrorist organisaitons, the theory has been that if you kill the head, the body will die. However, this is not the case with JI and other terrorist groups. They organise in cells that are all totally independent of each other; and even within each cell, leaders are easily replaced. Not only that, but clamping down will only cause the movement to grow stronger, not weaker- Indonesia is the perfect example, as it detains, tortures etc suspected terrorists and nothing has been achieved. Thus is the reason why the government's policy on detaining suspects without trial is rubbish.
