Is there a connection?

I was interested if anyone else in the Blogosphere was making connections between WoT and what's been happening in Sydney over the last few days. The answer seems to be 'yes.' A quick look on Google Blog search found more than one or two entries about what's going. Of course, John Howard wants to paint the rioters as simple law breakers. "Don't complicate things" is his plea.

Which is rich, considering the track record of the Liberal government involvement in WoT. If Tampa was the beginning, WoT was the "gift from heaven", then Cronulla is a predictable result.

Like Gahan wrote this on his blog:

It is no surprise that this weekends race riots in Sydney occurred when the Australian Prime Minister John Howard enacts Xenophobic legislation such as the August 13 2004 Marriage Equality Ban, sends Afghan refugees to Concentration Camps and joins the US in an illegal invasion of Iraq.

There is more to this, of course. It's not a simple one-to-one connection: Socio-economic, gender and other factors play a part. But maybe the "Aussies" involved are just following the example set by the man-in-charge. I guess its better than just "following orders."