ABSTRACT
This chapter explores four key events: Tampa; 11th September; the 2002 Bali bombings; and the Lets look out for Australia Campaign (LLOFA), each of which represents a key pillar in the structure of the discourse. It continues the genealogy of Australia's involvement in the US led War on Terrorism, focusing specifically on the period from just prior to the 11th September attacks until early 2003. The chapter outlines various phases that worked to reify a militaristic, exclusionary and statist response to the threat of terrorism by appealing to representations that resonated with the electorate. In doing so the specific foreign policy choices of the Howard Government were obscured so as to appear as the natural and inevitable nature of the provision of security by the state. A politics of realism permeated the LLOFA campaign. It was evident in references to threat, danger and a changed world, and in the representation of militarism as the best form of response.
