AUSTRALIA OUT OF PALESTINE NOW! I have neither the time for originality, nor the energy for clever sarcasm, when Perry de Havilland puts it so succinctly:

183 people at least are dead, probably more as 220 Australians and 20 or so British remain unaccounted for. All the victims were civilians, mostly young backpackers on holiday or the Indonesian staff serving them. Yet judging by what I seen written by John Pilger or Robert Fisk or Noam Chomsky since September 11th of last year, I thought the reason terrorists are attacking 'us' was something to do with injustice in Palestine? Is Bali part of Palestine? How many Palestinians have the Australian Army killed?

I recall hearing that the WTC was attacked because it was a symbol and centre of exploitive capitalism and the US military industrial complex. And what exactly was the Sari Club in Bali a symbol of? Will the people on WarbloggerWatch or at New Stateman tell us how the forces of US imperialism have been thwarted by the death of so many young Aussies and others in a holiday resort?

What was that you said? It is all about oil? Ah, silly me.

Correction: Turns out the Bali operation was engineered by Mossad Special Ops. So, apparently, by some manner of tortured logic, it's really about Palestine after all. Thanks, Indymedia, for setting us all straight.