SYDNEY -- In the wake of the Bali bombing, Australia's relations with Indonesia, never much better than guardedly cordial at the best of times, have sunk to a new low.
It's not so much that Australian corpses lie rotting in primitive Bali morgues, awaiting identification while families back home grieve. Rather, it's the Indonesian government's apparent inability to do anything worthwhile to catch and punish the bombers or, for that matter, to admit that homegrown Islamic extremists can strike again.
Outrage is a rare Australian reaction, but outrage on a national scale is the only way to describe the current mood Down Under. People accustomed to feeling safe are suddenly overwhelmed by the fear of being blown up while vacationing overseas. And now, there's the fear that an emergent homegrown Islamic extremism may be emboldened enough to strike here.