or "Dude, where's my car bomb?"
One of the funniest remarks made by FishHead was: “man, that attack was directed at us. We have to make it clear we aren't intimidated"
It’s not just the way FishHead always talks about foreign relations with the preface of “man” or "dude". Or the image of Alexander Downer being on Lateline and saying in that snobby voice of his “Dude, we can’t let terrorists intimidate us. They’re like totally spastic and they could do some serious shit to us if we don’t blast the shit through them like A.S.A.P.”.
It’s the fact that conservatives look at the fact that terrorism directed at the West has increased under Bush and Howard’s leadership, and their response is “we’d better stick with these guys, they’re doing such a sterling job.”
Yeah, when Downer forgot to tell anyone Bali could happen, I thought, boy I’m glad he’s foreign minister instead of Kevin Rudd.
But more importantly, conservatives just don’t seem to notice the fact that they are pissing everyone off. Osama bin Laden and some other terrorists are actually trying to make a partially valid point (I know I’m not saying anything new there, but the message still hasn’t got through it seems). I don’t condone their methods in any way. It makes them worse than the people they have a problem with. But I can understand their frustration with the West’s arrogance and hopeless international relations and the way they exploit countries like Afghanistan and China for their own gain. They have a right to be pissed off at us. JUst not a right to do what they did. But Howard and Bush just ignore the fact that their policies and self-appointed deputy Sheriffness might be in some way responsible for the root causes of these attacks and they plough on. And then they get all surprised when our embassies and the nightclubs we like get attacked. And they ask “why did they hate that we were free?”. Dude, that’s not the problem!"