TERRORISM PLOT UNDERSTANDABLE

Antony Loewenstein quotes academic Scott Burchill:

Wissam Mahmoud Fattal, one of the men charged this week [in Australia] with preparing a terrorist act, told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday he was not a terrorist and accused Australian troops of killing innocent people overseas. “You call me a terrorist but I’ve never killed anyone in my life,” Fattal told magistrate Peter Reardon. “You send troops to Iraq to kill innocent people.”

He’s right, in part. Australian troops do not intentionally kill innocent people, but the result is almost exactly the same. So are the effects. The CIA calls it “blowback” – the unintended consequences of our interventions in other peoples’ countries. Until Australians understand how our military’s behaviour, previously in Iraq (eg Fallujah) and currently in Afghanistan, is perceived by others these threats will continue.

So it's understandable, and acceptable, that Australians who disapprove of overseas military operations are plotting military-style attacks here at home. Fattal and his mates aren't nascent terrorists foiled in the planning, they're budding freedom-fighters. Lefties will bend over backwards to justify violence perpetrated in a "good cause".

By the way, Australians weren't involved, at least not as far as I know, in military operations in Fallujah.