The concerted explosions across central London, ripping apart trains, a bus and the people who were in them should focus us all on realising that the people who do this are not like us. They are snivelling, crawling, anti-life scum that have nothing to offer the world and the people in it except violence, destruction and death. Let's take them at their word, and not accept any part of what they stand for.
Some random thoughts:
- Like all of us, I'm sure, I'm still waiting to hear back from friends in London that they're okay. When I lived in London and IRA bombs went off, I would laugh at calls to see how I was; now I'm being laughed at in turn. I'm glad they're laughing.
- What a great performance by the authorities -- by medical staff, transport staff, police and other services that have clearly had a response to this sort of outrage planned, and well-planned.
- Londoners are so wonderfully calm under this sort of pressure. Grace under pressure.
- 37 people killed. 700 injured. I hope some of those killed were the perpetrators. [UPDATED: Now 52 confirmed dead, 700 injured. ref Times]
- London stock exchange down, and then straight back up again. Business as usual.
- Given the planning that this attack displays, the good news is the relatively low loss of life. Despite the easy, soft targets they chose to rip apart with their explosives, it seems the cowardly, destructive fuckers were unable to acquire the materiel to kill and destroy at the level of Madrid, New York or Bali, or the coordination to kill on an even greater scale. Is that some sort of blessing? Are these people weaker in their destructive powere than we give them credit for?
- At such times as these, isn't it a reminder that despite their mixed premises and many political differences between us -- and with significant low-life exceptions such as George Galloway and Keith Locke -- western people and politicians actually share more than we differ. Tony Blair's words at midday London time could not be bettered: "It is important, however, that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world. Whatever they do, it is our determination they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations around the world.”
- The solidarity shown by western leaders at Gleneagles was something to see. Thirteen leaders including Jacques Chirac, George Bush, Kofi Annan and Vladimir Putin stood shoulder-to-shoulder on stage behind Tony Blair has he decried the outrage, and promised to defend our values. I hope they mean it.
- Once again we see the lesson that you can not kill terrorism, you can only choke off its means of supply by hunting down those who support them and give them succour. At times such as these it becomes even more important that those who value human life and the ideas that support life do make a stand for the values of liberty and freedom.
- Those people that commit these atrocities and those who support them have exactly nothing to offer us except bloodshed , tears and death. Nothing.
3 comments:
I see the cretinous George Galloway has chimed in, advocating appeasement and withdrawal from Iraq. I wouldn't hold my breath about solidarity and so forth. I'll paste this here - it's from somewhere in The Corner on National Review, and I can't be bothered looking for it. This is what he said:
"We extend our condolences to those who have lost their lives today and our heartfelt sympathy to all those who have been injured by the bombs in London.
No one can condone acts of violence aimed at working people going about their daily lives. They have not been a party to, nor are they responsible for, the decisions of their government. They are entirely innocent and we condemn those who have killed or injured them.
The loss of innocent lives, whether in this country or Iraq, is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years.
We have worked without rest to remove the causes of such violence from our world. We argued, as did the Security Services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the government ignoring such warnings.
We urge the government to remove people in this country from harms way, as the Spanish government acted to remove its people from harm, by ending the occupation of Iraq and by turning its full attention to the development of a real solution to the wider conflicts in the Middle East.
Only then will the innocents here and abroad be able to enjoy a life free of the threat of needless violence"
Galloway is a short-sighted appeasement whore.
What did Locke say that you're unhappy with? I saw the Greens press release where they condemned the attacks, and Locke said they were "designed to divert the G8 away from its work on poverty and climate change", which seems a bit stupid (though the attacks were surely timed to coincide with G8). Was that it?
But the Greens were at least clearly condemning the attacks. What disappointed me was the Maori Party response - extending sympathy, but notice they didn't condemn the attacks, and Stephen Franks, somehow comparing moves to stop the Zimbabwe cricket tour with the London bombings.
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