The spectre of terrorism!
What, this is not actually happening, but is just a spectre, that then engenders a hysterical response. WTF! ARE YOU SERIOUS!
Were those severed heads just a figment of overworked imaginations, as were the crucifixions, the buried alive events; and women and children captured and used as sex slaves, just very imaginative or diabolically disingenuous reporting!?
There is another spectre on the horizon, the spectre of Ebola, which is nearly as dangerous and capable of the same mindless extermination, of whole peoples!
Both of which must be confronted and eliminated with extreme prejudice; with as little loss of "Human life" as is possible.
The do nothing approach, as seems advocated by the Author? Is just not an option, in either case.
One being just as dangerous and demanding an immediate extermination response, with extreme urgent alacrity, as the other!
There's nothing wrong with moving into dream castles in the clouds, always providing, you don't take up permanent residency!
Rhrosty.

It is refreshing to read an article from someone who clearly does not get his ideas from the photo-shopped nonsense that that passes for news in the MSM.
We have been presented with the ludicrous spectacle of our PM telling us he likes our 'rights' so much he is taking them away for safe keeping. The laws his government is passing go further in encroaching on our liberties than the laws passed in any other country in the West. As the author says, this will alter our relationship with ASIO. They will no longer be thought to be acting for us, but rather against us.
It's so easy to scare people. Create a spectre, currently one of terrorists, and those with more impressionable imagination than common sense will shiver in their socks. They miss the larger agenda, which is one of control. By allowing the terror to enter, the terrorist wins, and our liberties, those nebulous things that make our life so special, go out the window.
Or into the PM's back pocket for safe keeping - and without debate. It is telling, if just a bit of hysteria-free time is taken to think about it, that all these news laws are being rushed. What's the hurry? Once surrendered, it will be a hard and long task getting those rights back.

Hi there Mr CALCUTT...

I've read your topic twice in order that I had a clearer understanding what it is you're trying to convey ? I still don't actually ? It would appear prima facie, that you engage in language of a kind that attempts to illustrate your academic ability, rather than clearly enunciating your position on this vague topic 'The spectre of terrorism'. I would hardly think this current 'terrorism' incident to be a spectre, a mere apparition, just a fictional shadow ? There again, I've never been employed in ASIO or the NCA, so I guess I'd have no idea ?

So can I take it then, that you believe our politicians are, exaggerating or embellishing upon this current terrorist threat, in order to convey further powers to ASIO ? Or is it to reinforce existing dominance on your former employer's at ONA ? Or is it just a simple political strategy, employed by the LNP to deflect criticism from Mr HOCKEY's budget ?

How can you explain then, these recent public decapitations, if this is all but a spectre ? A matter for the local police service ? Also, if it was, just a political strategy by the conservatives, why then has the Labor Party backed the LNP in this entire issue ?

Hi Bill

Yours is one of the more important and balanced security commentaries to be published on OLO for a good while.

In your 4th paragraph I assume the "we" is society implying we are all simultaneously hit with the fear of a renewed terrorist threat.

I would say that there is a bit more of a hiearchy of information flow with the US and UK Governments formulating a worldview of assessed threat. This view is then adopted by our own Government. Then the word is spread to the MSM and community through media statements and Press Releases. In parallel Islamic State (IS) has used modern social media technology to itself boost fears of its terrorism.

This hiarchy model may be a crude explanation for our terrorism fears in our Five Eye countries.

However if one were a Sunni living in Syria or Iraq things may be totally different - with the threats of Iraqi and Syrian armies and especially Shiite militias being greater worries than IS. See Amnesty International's Shiite Militia In Iraq Killing Sunnis With "Absolute Impunity" impunityhttp://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE14/015/2014/en/17cbb7ef-7ca4-4b5a-963e-661f256fddb0/mde140152014en.pdf?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=%2ASituation%20Report&utm_campaign=SitRep1015

Still its the defence of Australia against terrorism (of any faith) that is most important.

So yours is an excellent article worth far more attention from OLO commenters.

Regards

Pete

As usual, Bill Calcutt has authored an extremely well written article which is pure BS.

Bill thinks that war is just awful, and it can always be avoided by simply respecting human rights, being diplomatic, and trying to figure out what you have done wrong to make the people who want to kill you mad. Just count how many times Bill uses "we" in the context that everything is our fault. Nowhere does Bill investigate the motivations of people like ISIS. No, to people like Bill, ISIS must exist because it is our fault that the Muslims are mad at us.

The funny thing is, that Bill mentions how human beings can learn by their mistakes to avoid war. He must have forgotten the role of the "appeasers" prior to WW2 who shared some responsibility for the rise of Nazi Germany. The "appeasers" could not bring themselves to understand that it was a lot better to invade Germany in 1933 in a small war, than to let Hitler and his crew become almost unstoppable and get into a very big and bad war.

Thank whatever God you pray to that Hitler thought that the atomic bomb was just the result of "Jewish influence" on scientific research or we would all be singing "Deutschland uber Alles." as our national anthem. And you can bet that if Hitler had been smart enough to realise the potential of the atomic bomb, and begun an atomic weapons program, the 1933 versions of Bill Calcutt would have opposed war on Germany to stop Hitler from developing a bomb.

Bill is whining about the new anti terrorism laws and saying that it is all unnecessary. I am sure that the politically correct in New York said the same thing prior to 9/11 but one presumes they changed their minds very quickly with the reality of bits of skyscrapers raining down on their heads

Rhrosty

Well over 5 million people were killed in the DRC by the darling of the West, Paul Kagami and his Rwandan Patriotic Front, without any overwhelming need for the West to do anything about it.

Ditto hundreds of thousands of Tamils murdered in Sri Lanka by the Western-backed Singhalese government. Ditto 2000+ Gazens murdered every couple of years by the Western-backed Israeli government. Ditto the ongoing slaughter of Tibetans and Muslim nationalists by the Chinese government, whose economic interests are inextricably linked with the West's.

Ditto thousands of Ukrainians killed at the hands of the Kiev neo-Nazi Western-backed junta. (Have you checked out the torture porn videos on YouTube of what was done to the young people in Odessa who were simply gathering signatures for an election referendum? Their heads were charred to a crisp, while the rest of their bodies and clothing were left largely intact. Go figure.)

Ditto the 500,000 children who died as a result of the West's sanctions against Iraq before their country was invaded and bombed back to the stone age.

Ditto the hundreds of thousands who were tortured and killed by the West's invasion and bombing of Libya, despite the fact that Gaddafi was a popular leader who brought his country out of abject poverty to become the most prosperous nation in Africa.

However, because a few white Caucasian Western hostages are beheaded on video, we are told that we must 'do something' (a euphemism for bombing the crap out of yet another non-Western country). Don't bother to notice that the Ninja guy doing the beheading said clearly and plainly that it was a protest against the West's bombing of Middle Eastern countries.

So what did the West do? Of course, the only thing it does best. Invade and bomb yet another Middle Eastern country - again ... still.

I give up