Jim Hopkins: Only soldiers and bullets can reason with tainted faith

It was a little bronze Toyota, a car like a thousand others, sitting at an intersection waiting for the green. There was nothing unusual about the moment. And nothing unusual about the car, either. It wasn't new but it wasn't old. It was just another neat and tidy runabout, rust-free, reliable and completely unexceptional.

Except for the eye-catching sticker on the back window, with a cute cartoon on its left-hand side.

The cartoon showed a little smiley-faced man and a little smiley-faced woman enjoying a tender hug.

It was nice - that's the word - innocent and asexual, a drawing that reflected the safe, warm world we've painstakingly constructed over the past 30 or 40 years.

Part saccharine, part wishful thinking, this is the world of peace, love and waterbeds, a place of sweet reason and benign emotion where a hug makes everything right.

The message on the sticker reflected that view. It might have obscured the driver's head, but it made her opinion abundantly clear.

Printed right beside the cuddly couple, the words simply said: "These are the only arms we need".

Well, sorry, Ma'am. You're wrong. We don't only need arms to hug with. Like it or not, and we obviously don't, we also need arms that can kill people.

There's no cuddly way to say that. And no winsome picture to put alongside the slogan. It is too ugly for that.

But not as ugly as the murders in Bali. Not as ugly as the conscious and wilful decision to detonate a bomb in order to end the lives of anyone who chanced to be near, regardless of their faith, politics, nationality, age or sex.

The people who exploded those bombs didn't care who their victims were, or where they came from. And they came from many places: Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Ecuador, the United States, Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand.

It is now thought that five New Zealanders were killed by those who made the bombs and set the timers and, quite possibly, watched the devastation. It is also thought most likely that those unseen watchers were waging a holy war of their own creation.

On Wednesday, this newspaper wrote of a man called Hambali, who has been linked to robberies and bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines, and a political assassination in Malaysia.

This man Hambali apparently wants to establish an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia and to that end has been building a terror network with al Qaeda assistance. He is said to be the linchpin of a group that is the prime suspect for the weekend's atrocity in Bali.

A letter has also been published this week that bears the signature of Osama bin Laden. Maybe he wrote it. Maybe someone else is exploiting his name. It really doesn't matter.

The content is what counts. This letter congratulates "our brave sons" for their "daring and heroic jihad operations ... conducted in Yemen against the Christian oil tanker and in Kuwait against the American occupation and aggression forces".

It also warns that "the youths of God are preparing for you things that will fill your hearts with terror..."

We must take the author at his word. We must believe that he plans to turn the whole world into Northern Ireland. That is now murderously clear.

There is no front line, no haven, and anyone who takes oil from a Christian tanker is a target. Because men like bin Laden and Hambali have decided they have a divine right to kill whenever and wherever they choose.

Well, they don't. No injustice justifies their actions. No cause entitles them to be judge, jury and executioner. No principle permits them to cross borders and steal lives, then claim the status of victims.

But no hug will stop them.

The fact is, we are at war. Not with another state but with another state of mind. Which is not open to persuasion or argument or the kind of flawed compromise that must inevitably emerge in Palestine.

Sooner or later we will come to understand this. We will realise it is impossible to reason with a tainted faith or to disarm fanatics with common sense.

Right now, many people in this country do not seem willing to accept this. Despite the fact that we've been attacked intentionally or indiscriminately.

It's the baby boomers, the generation born after World War II, the generation that dominates Parliament and the media and much of the rest of this country, who seem most reluctant to review their opinions. For many of us our only enemies have been LBJ and Tricky Dicky with their war in Vietnam.

We wanted a Woodstock world then and we still want one now. But we can't have it. The "youths of God" have made that decision for us.

So we must, eventually, embrace and rely on hard and efficient soldiers who know how to use arms and how to stop those who have chosen to wage war.

With luck, our soldiers will succeed. They will kill the next band of bombers before they reach their target. And that will be a good thing. It cannot be otherwise.

Bali messages and latest information on New Zealanders
New Zealand travellers in Bali, and their families around the world, can exchange news via our Bali Messages page. The page also contains lists of New Zealanders in Bali and their condition.

Foreign Affairs advice to New Zealanders

* Travellers should defer travel to Bali

* NZers in Bali should keep a low profile and remain calm

* Foreign Affairs Hotline: 0800 432 111

Feature: Bali bomb blast

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