Melbourne: an al-Qaeda target?

So there's a video-tape supposedly from al-Quaeda, threatening Melbourne and Los Angeles.

"Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne..."

My first thought was one of anger and fear. Australia, while having lost many to terrorism, has not seemed to be an immediate target. Even the Barli bombing, while Australians were the largest group of Western nationals killed, well, it wasn't on our soil. More Indonesians died than anyone else, anyway. It was an attack on Indonesia, then. Indonesian security failed, and Australians died, just as they did in London, in Madrid, in Washington, in Israel, and in Iraq. But Melbourne as a target? That's a threat to Australia.

My second thought, though, is disbelief. Melbourne? Why Melbourne? An American terrorism expert, Bernard Reich is quoted in the article as saying the following:

"And to put it bluntly, while I find Los Angeles an appealing target, I haven't figured out what Melbourne is."

That's my feelings right now in a nutshell - and no offense to any Melbournites. I'm not trying to say that Melbourne is insignificant. I just don't see what it offers as a terrorist target. Of course, Los Angeles isn't a capital either, but it is in America, which seems to be a big thing to al-Qaeda, and it also has 3.8 million people to Melbourne's - wait, no, Melbourne also has 3.8 million people! And that's 3.8 out of 20 million in Australia, and 3.8 out of 295 million in the US. Why should Los Angeles be more of a target than Melbourne? It's a state capital, but so is Melbourne. It's American. That's what it comes down to.

It isn't that Melbourne is insignificant, it's that Australia is insignificant - but what it represents is not. Australia is an international ally (though what we offer the US, given our population difference, I'm not too sure), and this tape is saying that they will attack not only the US, but US allies - even the seemingly insignificant ones. Watch out, Westerners. Don't get complacent.

There's a poll on NineMSN news, asking whether you believe that Australia faces an imminent terror attack. Almost two thirds do. But I'm not sure I do. Am I being complacent? Perhaps. Isn't that exactly what this tape is saying? Don't be complacent in your insignificance? Perhaps.

That is if the tape actually came from al-Qaeda. I don't know enough to presume to make a guess on this point.

But I keep coming back to the point, why Melbourne? Whether it's real, whether it's a stunt, whether it's a piece of al-Qaeda propaganda - we're obviously meant to think it's real. And why Melbourne? Am I too self-centred as a Sydney-sider? But Canberra is the capital city. Why not Canberra? True, it's one of the smallest cities of Australia – three hundred thousand to Melbourne’s four million, and Sydney’s six million – but it is the capital. Or Sydney? Why not Sydney? It is the biggest city in Australia. It’s bigger than Melbourne, than Los Angeles – it’s almost as big as Washington. Why should they threaten Melbourne? I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.