Good on ’em. Many readers may not know this, but Australia is a very good friend of the United States. While many countries claim this, the Australians have quietly demonstrated it for quite a while now. Now comes word that they stopped a critically dangerous attack against their army by (guess who!) Islamist terrorists right in Melbourne, of all places.

Read the details here. Incidentally, the link points to one of the incredibly rare AP news stories that does not support or promote an Obama agenda, so you may wish to bookmark it.

However, the Czar objects to this phrase: “Australia is still under threat from extremist groups enraged that the country sent troops to join the U.S.-led military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.” Wrong! And typically ignorant writing by Associated Press.

Australia has been under terrorist threat for two reasons: (a) Her long involvement in INTERFET, the Australian-led peacekeeping force, which defied Islamism in East Timor in favor of democracy, and (b) wealthy, comfortable, and friendly Australians in Indonesia are an embarassment to al-Qâ’ida recruitment there, who need to portray them as decadent and hedonistic. This is, after all, what triggered the Bali attacks: Australians were winning the hearts and minds of Balinese locals. Bad news for al-Qâ’ida, so they retaliated.

The fact is that Australia began taking action against al-Qâ’ida (specifically) in 1999, in preparation for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. So serious and credible a threat was al-Qâ’ida that they passed the ASIO Amendment Act in 1999, which makes Americans’ unwarranted fear of the Patriot Act look ludicrous by comparison. This was tough legislation in the name of national and internal security. Justified? There has not been a successful terrorist attack on Australian soil since 1986, although many near attacks, like today’s, have been thwarted.

The following is from a speech by former Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer. Ask yourself if this is sounds anything like the conciliatory language being uttered by the Obama administration today.

We are engaged in a war to protect the very civilisation we have worked so hard to create—a civilisation founded on democracy, personal liberty, the rule of law, religious freedom and tolerance. It is crucial that all of us understand the threat that confronts us and understand how we can—and must—overcome it….There are some who believe that the war against terror is something that we can avoid—that we can roll into a ball and, in the false security of an inward gaze, behave like we are a small target—and leave others to fight our battles. These people are wrong. We need to be ever-cognisant of the reality—terrorism is a threat today that knows no geographic boundaries and no moral boundaries. Its perpetrators pay no regard to the morality of the religion they purport to uphold. The targets and scale of their carnage are limited only by the weapons they can access and the opportunities they can identify. The terrorism challenge we face does have the dimensions of a war.

At the outset, we should be clear that this is a war that we did not choose. The terrorists have declared war on us because of who we are and what we value. Our only choice is whether or not we defend ourselves….It is not an easy task – defending ourselves will test our resolve, our courage, our patience and our resources. But it is, surely, our only chance for peace and security.

With it goes a conspiratorial explanation of a world dominated by Zionists and Christians – a mindset that thinks of the present in terms of the crusades; that regards the loss of Andalusia as a fresh wound, even though it happened more than 500 years ago. Al Qaeda embraces modern weapons technology, including weapons of mass destruction. But its aims are…pre-modern and fundamentalist. Its sense of geo-political reality is delusional; its intent genocidal and utterly uncoloured by reason, restraint, compassion or a notion of shared humanity….

The demands of the Islamo-fascists are absolute. There is no point in seeking to reduce the threat from these terrorists by offering concessions. There is no option but to understand this clearly and be resolute in our campaign to defeat them.

Half-hearted compromise or accommodation—or even (as we hear from some quarters) a sense that we are somehow accountable for the terrorists’ vague grievances—is delusionary.

Downer, by the way, is what passes for an Australian Liberal. if the Australian liberals talk this tough, why can’t ours?

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.