AusS2000

The news aren't reporting it yet, but rumour has it there were 4 bomb blasts in Bali last night. The bombs at the US Consulate and the Sari club are common knowledge, but there were apparently also blasts at a nightclub called Padi's and another at the Phillipines Consulate.

The death toll is also way out. Apparently workers are pulling out a body a minute at the Sari club.

Austblue

This is unbelievable. I went over in 1998 and even then there was some sketchy things that almost caused me to pull out on the holiday. When I was there I went on a tour into the mountains and there was all sorts of rumours that there were mass murders going on around the place and after the scare tactics from the locals which include regular threats on your life you start to believe the stories.
I spent just about every night in Bali at the Sari club its completely focussed at australian tourists and is full of them every night. From memory there is only one way in and one way out and its a total bottle neck so any survivors of the initial blast would't have stood much of a chance unfortunately. As you would appreciate there isn't quite the same standard of safety that is enforced in australia with this sought of issue.
This attack just goes to show how much we expose ourselves by visiting third world countries especially around times of unsettlement.
It appears that these atacks have been focussed at particular groups but is there a link to any current issues? I'm a little behind on the latest problems.
And to add insult to injury I imagine that any justice will be misaligned and far from satisfying. The amount of desperate people in Bali would ensure that scape goats are as common as cheap wooden sculptures.
Lets hope that I'm proven wrong.

AusS2000

I expect it is muslim extremists. The attacks were based on western clubs and the Phillipines and US consulates. Also, my information comes from a native businessman in Bali who has contacts with organised crime figures (as do all big businessmen in Bali) and he says it wasn't them.

Iggy_Type_R

Yikes... death toll appears to be well over 150

AusS2000

They haven't finished counting yet. I won't be surprised when it goes above 200.

Iggy_Type_R

I disagree with you there. I think the biggest danger comes from not doing anything about it. Minority groups are holding the world at ransom at the moment, and no one is doing sh*t all about it. And so clubs will continue being blown up and civilians all over the world will keep dying for nothing.

suit36

went to that night club in Kuta just 2 years ago!

interesting to see Aust govt response...

AusS2000

Interesting, but let's not turn this into a debate about the war on Iraq.

AusS2000

Buffy goes there everytime she goes to Bali. As she works for a Bali-only travel wholesaler that's quite frequent.

Sunder

I just re-read a book series that I read when I was in high school. An interesting one called the "Tomorrow Series" by John Marsden. It's about a South East Asian Country invading Australia, and a handful of teenagers who went bush at the time manages to keep free of the enemy's clutches for some time. At one point, they discuss what went wrong with Australian politics to allow this to happen. There were two points of view represented.

1) That the Australian defence policy was too lax. We were too comfortable in our luxury, and too complacent that we were not a target to any country.

2) That we should have been more sensitive to the politics of the developing nations near us and assisted their development to prevent them becoming volatile, thus preventing the invasion.

I'm of the second view, sometimes referred to by the US government as "regime building". Discouraged in many people's eyes because it can often disregard local customs and cultures and install an almost "Colony" state to the supporting country.

Unfortunately, it's harder to change a regime, when that regime is religious, not political. Depending on which parts of the Qu'ran you read, and how literally you interpret it, Islam can be a very peaceful religion, or can be fundamentally an arrogant religion with an attitude of "with us, or die". In the later case no negotiation is possible - at least no more possible than with Lion that wants to eat a Deer. There is no settlement short of turning everyone into Muslims, or genocide.

Most of South East Asia has strong Islamic populations (including in this case, Indonesia), should we be interfering with their local government policy to ensure that militant Islam doesn't get a foot hold? Is fundamentalist/militant Islam a legitimate religion, or is it nothing more than an terrorist expression of an otherwise peaceful religion? It is interesting to note, that when Mohomad the Prophet was still alive, their conquering didn't put to death all those who refused to believe. Jews and Christians of the area were told to submit to the Islamic STATE, but not to the Islamic religion. They merely had to pay their taxes and not rock the boat, so to speak.

So back to the quoted topic. What do we do? If we seek to eliminate all militant activity by fundamentalist Islamic groups, are we doing nothing more than starting a Holy War? As many analysts have said, engaging in a war on extremist Islamic groups is going to polarise many otherwise peaceful Muslims. Will it come down to Islam vs the Infidels?

By the way, what has this got to do with my S2000?