PhotoDude.com

Thu. Jul 07, 2005

More Tragic Numbers

Our world suffers under a series of tragic dates. 9/11. 3/11. And now, 7/7.

After the bombing in Madrid, “I hoped no one would ever have to feel that gut-punched emotion again, not en masse like this. But I think we all knew it would happen again, sometime, somewhere. And if we didn’t before, we should now. Because it will happen again.”

And it has. And it will. Terrorists continue to make their pitifully cowardly “political statements” by once again targeting random innocent citizens on their way to work.

My heart goes out to the British people and the families affected today. But the truth is that the British people are historically better prepared for this than we were on 9/11, “thanks” in part to the Irish Republican Army: “According to Reuters, the IRA killed almost 1800 people, 1200 of whom were British soldiers, RUC officers or unionist paramilitaries. 600 civilians also died at the hands of the IRA, mostly Catholics. Many of the civilians were deliberately killed, for having aided the British army or the RUC [...] The IRA has been officially on ceasefire since 1997.”

One hesitates to compare the “logic” of terrorist acts, but it is notable to me that the IRA did attempt to target their “enemy” directly, as most killed were British soldiers, representing the government. And in Spain, prior to the attacks in Madrid, the previous terrorist bombings the country had endured by ETA were almost always preceded by an ample phone warning … so that innocents could be evacuated.

It does not excuse it, or make the victims of those attacks any “less dead.” It’s still terrorism. But we live in times when we unfortunately have such evidence to weigh.

While attempting to get the news this morning, it appeared that CNN’s Soledad O’Brien is obsessed with the 27 minutes between blasts, and how the Underground was not evacuated to “empty vacuum” status during that time. She’s also questioning their semantics about whether anyone was ever “trapped” in the subway.

Because this is obviously all the fault of British subway authorities.

Her fellow O’Brien, Miles, soon thereafter said that no one had claimed these attacks. Perhaps they’ve been too busy focusing on the responsibility of British authorities to read about this:

Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist Crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the Crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

This comes from a group calling itself the “Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda” (what does that mean, they’ve got special decoder rings other Al Qaeda members lack?), and this certainly has all the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda style attack.

Some say its timing is clearly tied to the G8 summit, while others point out that the trial of cleric Abu Hamza al-Mazri has just begun in London. Maybe so.

But I tend to go with the larger view of Amit Varma: “This isn’t just an attack on the UK, but, like the attacks of 9/11, they’re an attack on a way of life and a value-system, one that is dear not just to Western countries, but to millions in the developing world, like me. Concepts like personal freedom, equality of women and, in fact, human rights are alien to those behind the attack, and they must be defeated. In that sense, the battle that al-Qaeda — I am assuming they are behind this attack — is waging against the world is more significant than any other terrorist movement in history, both in its scope and in its final objective. It must not be allowed to succeed. And other grievances that one has against the USA or Britain should not become a reason to gloat at such attacks, as I have seen happening in the past.”

Because Al Qaeda doesn’t want to kill Bush or Blair, or the American or British government. They no longer even really try.

They want to kill you.

The fact you may stridently disagree with everything your government has done is entirely irrelevant to them. You are generic fodder for their Jihad, and your red-blue Bush-Blair divisions mean no more to them than the color of the hide of the cow from which your lunch-time burger was made means to you.

Those divisions are only important to us. Yet the war continues.

New York. Bali. Madrid. London. We can’t know what city will be next on that list, only that there will be one to add. Someday.

Because the cowards we face know they can’t really hurt our governments directly, as those governmental targets are now fairly hardened. But in the Western World, we are surrounded by soft targets. You pass a dozen every day. Shopping centers. Movie theaters. Concert and sporting venues. Schools. Buses. And mass transit stations.

There is no even partially free society that can eliminate or even substantially reduce all those risks. Not and remain even partially free. But this hardly means defeat. At their big press conference this morning, it was made clear that the buses and subways would be back in operation within hours (other than the affected crime scenes).

As much as possible, as rapidly as possible, you have to go on with normal life. With a renewed determination and vigilance, to be sure, but you have to show that these events will not disrupt society in the manner the terrorists hope. And if there was ever a city equipped to do that, it’s London.

The British have endured horrid bombings of many types over recent decades, from Nazi aircraft, Nazi missiles, and IRA devices. And endured them well. By comparison, these bombings are the acts of cowardly pikers.

They will merely strengthen the already legendary British resilience to such acts.