Terrorists Target Australians - Again

The bomb went off outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, just before I left work. Now, as I'm getting ready for dinner a few hours later, it's still not clear how many have died. Somewhere between 4 and 7, it seems. None appear to be Australians. For the latest news, check out Google News, Reuters and Australia's own ABC Online.

A few random thoughts at this early stage:

1. What are these idiots hoping to achieve? The attack will no doubt give Australian PM John Howard a boost in the polls, just a month before the Australian elections, which will help ensure that Aussie troops stay in Iraq, that the Australian government continues to kow-tow to the Bush cabal, and so forth. As a strategic move, this bombing is just stupid. It says a lot about the mentality of people who embrace violence as a political tool.

2. The bomb was in the same part of Jakarta as previous terrorists attacks, and presumably set off by the same people (Jemaah Islamiah) who were responsible for the Bali blast. This will cause a serious criticism of the Indonesian government, who have recently been criticised for letting those involved with the Bali bombings off the hook. They also failed to capture a key figure in JI, Malaysian Azahari Husin, now believed responsible for building both bombs. The Indonesian government will be criticized for not doing enough in the "war on ... (sigh)". And such criticism is probably valid, given that there appear to be strong political forces in Indonesia which support Islamic extremism. Again, the bombing is likely to further alienate these groups from the political process - what are they hoping to achieve?

3. Total speculation here, but not without basis in history: if the CIA were going to detonate a bomb in order to swing the Australian election, where would they do it and when? Just asking... (a landslide defeat for John Howard, just three weeks and three days before the US elections, would be quite a serious political blow to El Busho Loco's re-election chances).

More tomorrow...