Oceania Australia Under Attack

First it was the Sari nightclub.

Now QANTAS.

Its sad that Australians are now considered a target when we use to be the most welcomed people.

 

The details of the attack are very sketchy. Right now, it seems as if it was one lone person trying to hijack the plane, considering the crude and rather disorganised method used. I hold doubts that this could be linked in any way to a terrorist organisation, it looks more like a mentally ill passenger with copycat tendencies. It's a good thing a larger crisis was averted, though.

 

yea i think your right hawk... apparently it was some retarded guy.... aah well....

 

Terrorism and Hijacking aren't necesarily the same thing, despite the paranoia arising from September 11.

This was just some guy who for whatever reason got it into his head to hijack a plane. It's not some act of international terrorism.

 

Any details on what weapons?? Most likely knives hey?

 

I heard some sort of sharp wooden object, but I'm honestly not sure. The news sites would be the best sources for this sort of information.

 

They're saying wooden stakes. However, with the paranoia and spoon-fed ignorance about what terrorism actually is, you'll be waiting a few days for accurate, objective information. Until then, more BS about how we're in real danger.

E_S

 

What happened?

I haven't seen the news today... can someone plese tell me what happened?

 

Gath:

Some crazy bloke tried to force his way into the cockpit of a QANTAS plane. He was armed with a wooden stake as well as a can of aerosol and a match. He was tackled to the floor by cabin crew and passengers before he could do any real damage

 

Did the media delve into a description of the attempted hijacker... ie: nationality / ethnicity?

 

Only that he was wearing a lot of black, had dark shades, and kept saying I Am The One.

 

Gath: Why would that matter?

E_S

 

What a stupid media blowout. Honestly, there is no greater threat to us now than before S11. If this stops you from sleeping at night, look at your life and ponder whether it would be worth losing in a terrorist attack anyway.

 

Wooden knives. Might be the biggest threat the airline industry has faced since the guy who sued becuase he's allergic to the smell of peanuts.

I don't recall where, but somwhere a schizophrenic guy crawled through the baggage processing lines and ended up getting on an unlocked plane. Meanwhile, I have to wait three ***damn hours while a huge guy with an automatic rifle searches through my unmentionables. Someone is screwing up here. I want names.

 

Osama Bin Laden.
John Howard.
Every member of any conservative party ever.
Housewives with nothing better to do.

 

Its sad that Australians are now considered a target when we use to be the most welcomed people.

Yeah, I wonder how it could of happened?

At what stage during our invading other country's, treatment of south-east asia and the pacific, locking refugee's up in Concentration Camps and destroying both our own HealthCare system and Higher Education, did people begin to think we still weren't the happy Croc Dundee types?

I too, share your concern. I too, once remember an Australia where you'd give the shirt off your back to help a stranger in distress.

Now a days, you slug him in a concentration camp, and tell his kids to pay 100k for Uni.

"For we are young and free..."

 

Oh yeah, I mean, we really should have no security at airports. AFterall, wether some security guy knows whats in my bag or not is far more important than the threat some crazy poses when he boards a plane with a sharp object.

 

I hardly think that's what is being suggested. Frankly, I'll be happy to go through appropriate security measures the next time I go on a plane...as long as they don't involve full body searches. *Shudders*

 

The more pragmatic response would be, perhaps, to look at how many times we've had people threaten to hijack or actually hijack our planes (and Noel Gallagher doesn't count) and ask ourselves: is this a measured response or a knee-jerk reaction?

I say the latter, personally.

E_S

 

Don't we really have bigger issues which affect more Australians than this crud about security? What about drug use, poverty and the buggered health and education systems? Terrorism will happen regardless of the measures you take. Yes, it can be reduced, but not prevented (especially not by war). How much longer must this fad continue before people wake up and stop caring about the buzz term in politics: terrorism?

 

A while, mate. A while...

E_S

 

Terrorism will exist for as long as we act like absolute bastards to a subjecated strate of the world, who are slowly being assimilated by our shallow, hyperconsumerist culture at the grave expense of their own. I'd take their spiritual ethic and loyal familal society any day personally, but that is another matter entirely.

Domestically, the Howard government is failing. Lets stop pouring money into such whimsical crap as "border protection" from the "invading hordes" of sick and desperate asylum seekers, stop locking desperate and grief stricken people in concentration camps where they are beaten and humiliated, stop pouring money into defense so we can foot the bill for George's bombs and upgrade our 4 tanks to 5, and most of all, lets stop putting money into "anti-terrorism" measures and legislature which serves no real purpose except to deny Australians natural democratic rights owing to any citizen in a liberal-democracy, and to take this nation one step closer to a damned police state.

Perspective, common sense and compassion. Our nation and her government needs all three: in large, emergency doses.

I pray to Huggard, my God.

 

Pot, terrorists cannot be bargained with, they cannot be reasoned with. They have no pity or remorse, or fear.

And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until we are all dead!

I say we annihilate every terrorist with the space mega-death heat ray

 

PoT careful, you're starting to sound like the socialist alliance (except the whole liberal democracy bit). I do, however, agree with most of your ideas.

Nyder, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. How do you propose we single out who wants what? Do you really expect terrorists to kill everyone? This is possibly the most shallow argument I have heard thus far (no offense intended, but think about it). Terrorist organisations are those who are willing to kill or be killed for their cause, and are generally not sanctioned by the state. Granted, not all causes are considered acceptable to the majority of people, however they must be analysed to be solved. Whilst men may die, ideologies will live on, is it not better to try and solve the problems ideologically than to spill more blood? Would you be more proud of a nation which sent troops to quell an uprising, or a diplomat to cease the quarrel? An uprising will continue until it succeeds for as long as their are those willing to fight for the cause, without mass ethnic cleansing, there will always be people willing to fight for, fund and support terrorist organisations. There has to be a better way.

 

one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

The "other man" is an idiot. You'd call someone who directly targets and murders civilians a freedom fighter? Surely not.

And you seem to have missed the fact that 90% of Nyder's post was actually a quote from T1