Robert Fisk: Bali shows US allies are target in terrifying age

WHY? Last weekend's crime against humanity in the Indonesian island of Bali provoked an almost identical reaction to the atrocities of 11 September 2001.

Everyone wanted to know who had planted the bombs - almost certainly a satellite of Al Qaeda - and everyone wanted to know how the killers planned their massacre.

But no one - neither the Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, nor Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair nor Foreign Secretary Jack Straw - wanted to talk about motives. 'Terrorism' was the all-important word (an accurate one too), which was used to smother any discussion about what lay behind the crime.

Australians were the principal victims and their murderers must have known that they would be. So why were the Australians targeted? And who is next?

John Howard has been among US President George Bush's toughest supporters. Australia lined up to join the 'war on terror' within 24 hours of the attacks on New York and Washington last year.

More to the point, however, is Australia's military contribution to the American adventure in Afghanistan. Australian Special Forces have been operating with American troops in the Afghan mountains against Al Qaeda. It's a fair bet that the Bali bombs were was Al Qaeda hitting back.

The French have already paid a price for their initial support for Mr Bush. The killing of 11 French submarine technicians in Karachi has been followed by the suicide attack on the French oil tanker Limburg off the coast of Yemen.

Now, it seems, it is the turn of Australia.

If the group that set off the three bombs in Bali is one of the 'Islamist' movements on the edge of Al Qaeda, the choice of target was familiar: a nightclub, a place associated in the mind of violent Muslim purists with sex, alcohol and immorality - the very same target which Palestinian suicide bombers have struck in Israel.

If millions of Muslims are revolted at the Bali massacre, few will approve of nightclubs or discotheques. The usual moral slippage can be employed; the bombing was terrible, but... Or so the murderers will have hoped.

The Australian continent would have been a harder target for Al Qaeda. But an island in a literal sea of Muslims - a place that was known to be a magnet for Australians - was much easier.

The victims were largely young civilians, men and women together truly innocent; just as innocent as the thousands who died in the World Trade Centre. Civilians get no quarter in this war, whether they are investment brokers in New York, Afghan families or Australian honeymooners.

Even the most conservative calculations would mean that Saturday's slaughter took the total of innocent dead since the September 11, 2001 to well over 6,000.

So who is next? When is Britain's turn? Where are Britons most at risk? Alas, they are scattered across the globe in embassies, on holidays, on every airline of the world - in many case crewing the planes - and in every trade. Our support for the United States - an infinitely closer alliance than any initial support from France - makes Britain the most likely candidate for attack after the US.

Then there are the small, more vulnerable nations, the ones that give quiet assistance to the American military; Belgium, which hosts Nato headquarters; Canada, whose own special forces have been operating with the Americans in Afghanistan; Ireland, which allows American military aircraft to land and refuel at Shannon where 51 US military planes alone touched down in the two months before the bombardment of Afghanistan last year.

Bali only emphasises what the last year should have taught us; individual innocence no longer protects us, and that we are living - whether we know it or not - in a terrifying new age.

Bali messages

New Zealand travellers in Bali, and their families in New Zealand, can post messages on our Bali Messages page.

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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