(New York Times) LONDON, July 7 – London was struck by a series of four apparently coordinated terrorist explosions in subways and buses during the morning rush hour today, which killed at least 33 people and wounded as many as 1,000 others. The explosions ripped apart several subway trains and at least one double-decker bus and caused officials to close and evacuate the entire subway system.
Despicable, deplorable, heinous, criminal, disgusting… by timing this to coincide with the G-8 summit, al Qaeda makes a huge statement that it’s not just the United States, it’s the whole West that it opposes. That’s why George W. Bush wants to fight “them” over in Iraq, so he won’t have to fight them at home.
Well, unfortunately George, to millions of Britons, London is home. Last month in response to his “Stay the course” speech, I had noted…
General John Vines… said: “We either deal with terrorism and this extremism abroad, or we deal with it when it comes to us.”
Why is this an either/or proposition? Terrorists struck (as you said) in “Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, Casablanca, Riyadh, Bali, and elsewhere” even after we invaded Iraq. Seems like they can still perform international operations even as we engage “them” in Iraq. My non-existent-Supreme-deity-forbid that we suffer another domestic terrorist attack again, but if we do (and Chimpy’s lack of attention to securing ports, chemical plants, cargo holds, etc., make that a realistic possibility), what does that mean for the Iraq-as-terrorist-flypaper doctrine?
This war on terror is so much self-fulfilling prophecy. “They hate us for our freedoms” Bush says, so we invade their countries, kill their countrymen, and convert them to Christianity. Then when they retaliate, Bush can say “see, they do hate us for our freedoms” and he’s justified to continue on this deadly path.
Meanwhile, back in flypaper-land, the insurgency escalates its tactic of kidnapping and execution of foreign dignitaries who support our war on terror:
(BBC News)Egypt has confirmed its ambassador to Iraq has been killed, five days after he was kidnapped in Baghdad.
An internet message purportedly from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s militant group was released on Thursday, claiming Ihab al-Sherif had been killed.
A video on the website showed a blindfolded man who identified himself as Mr Sherif saying he had worked at Egyptian embassies in Iraq and Israel.
See what barbaric cruelty we’re up against? These are people who will decapitate a man on video in the name of their religion! They hate us for our freedom and for our embrace of human rights, tolerance, and religious freedom. That’s why God has chosen us to drop depleted uranium cluster bombs on them.
1,751 dead servicemembers and counting. We can leave now or we can leave later. Rumsfeld says maybe twelve years later. In this no-limit game of Iraqi Hold’Em, are we really ready to go “all in”? The insurgency is definitely the short stack at the table; they’ve got to go “all in”. Just how many American lives is it going to take — 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 — to bomb and shoot “them” into a non-violent democracy?
UPDATE (CNN 2:41PM GMT-8): At least 37 dead, 700 wounded.
