With three of the four

With three of the four Gillett women overseas I fret about their safety and wonder where it’s all heading. Come October they will all be home but the cause of my concern, Muslim terrorism, will still be rampant across the world. From the Australian perspective we need to look long and hard at our near northern neighbour. Long a thorn in our side and the basis of our defence posture, Indonesia appear incapable of handling the Jemaah Islamiah problem and I think that Australia’s intervention, requested or not, needs to be considered. I notice this morning that the Australian Federal Police have been invited to help with the latest atrocity but we will need to do more for self-preservation reasons. The Indonesian Army, well known for winning battles against unarmed civilians and poorly trained militia (the ones they didn’t support) are not helping. While Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahatir Mohommed attacks the West and the Phillipines President Gloria Arroyo dabbles in anti-corruption progammes and fights a rear guard action with young turks in her Army, I can’t really see a coordinated assault against the dark forces of terrorism. It’s going to get worse and what are we going to do? Produce more White Papers based on pre 911 thinking or issue some warning that starts with; If you don’t start sorting out the problem then we will!