Why I love Australia, part MCMLVII

And it's not just because of the serene wisdom of Pixy Misa, benevolent Meister Burger Burger Meister of the domain of Moo-Knew.

It's because, along with the Brits, they are our true allies in the world.

Case in point, the editorial in today's Australian about last week's attack This is not a war of our own making:

But there will be more attacks. That is beyond debate or doubt. And the brutal truth is there is nothing the West could or can do to appease the terrorists. They will strike wherever they can, whenever they can. And any rag-bag argument in support of slaughter will do them. If the allies fled in fear from Iraq tomorrow attacks around the world would continue, only the excuse would alter – to revenge for past wrongs. Bin Laden has denounced Australia for helping East Timor win independence from Indonesia – another foreign policy blunder we have "paid the price" for. His allies threaten France for its ban on head scarves in public schools. And the Islamists talk of punishing crusader states, as if Australians, of all ethnicities and religions, are to blame for wars fought a thousand years ago. And it is false comfort to assume that the bombers are interested in improving the lot of ordinary Muslims. As with the appeasers who urged Australia to bow before the Nazi or Soviet empires, commentators who say we can cut a deal with evil, that Islamic terrorists will leave us alone if we only give them a little of what they want, do not understand what we confront. This is a war with people who believe murder is not a means to an end, but is an end in itself.

Read the whole thing, for a concise statement of what this is all about.

UPDATE: Here's the Sydney Morning Herald echoing the theme.