Rob Hirst of Aussey band Midnight Oil, has been talking to Aus music website Undercover about the Bali terrorist attack. "My own thought immediately was that this was a case of us being dragged into a war that we had no business in," he said. "As we have been in all of the 20th Century calamities, world wars and skirmishes we are the first to put our hands up to be involved in a war and suffer the consequences itself. It is a little bit to early to determine if that was the actual case in the Bali incident, I think. I guess we have a feeling now of what New Yorkers went through.”
“I guess 911 was a bit distant for most Aussies and Kiwis but now with our own being blown up in such a horrifying fashion you get a sense of what it is like to live under terror. We make New York a base on all of our tours. It has always been a big area for us and we know quite a few people who were directly involved or who lost loved ones. It was just horrifying".
But he concluded it was hard to claim this was actually an attack on Australia. "I was looking at the number of people from all of the countries. There were about 25 countries involved. In New York it certainly wasn't just New Yorkers and it certainly wasn't Anglo centred Christians. It was people from all nationalities and backgrounds. It was just this indiscriminate blowing up of people. There were just more Aussies because that is our closest holiday playground. I don't think we can extrapolate that it was an Aussie attack".