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Islamist Cleric Declared War On Britain Six Months Ago:
THE London bombings occurred exactly six months after an extremist cleric based in the capital declared that Islam was at war with Britain.
Terrorists exist because the society in which they live is crying out for people to rise up and go and kill the women and children of others. As I recently posted:
The terrorists are people, after all. And that’s what people do—they try to do something that their friends and families, and the civilian society in which they live, want. You can raise kids to be good, as usually happens in nations of the Judeo-Christian tradition, or to be evil, as often happens in nations which give birth to terrorist killers of women and children.
In the case of 7-7, England had permitted just such societies to spring up in the heart of London: societies who were literally calling out for people to kill the women and children of the non-Muslims in their own city.
Two conclusions are evident:
For thoughts on what to do about the existence of these societies in London, tune back in to this weblog later today.
Update: Click here for the follow-up post.
From SkyNews:
LONDON BOMBERS TRACED
Personal documents of four suspected bombers were found near the bomb scenes of the London terror attacks - at least one of them may have died in the strikes, police say.
The men travelled down from west Yorkshire and arrived at Kings Cross station shortly before the attacks were launched on Thursday morning.
Their images were captured by CCTV cameras.
This is fast. After the 9-11 attacks in the U.S. it was a much longer time before we started to track down who did it.
(Hat tip to commenter A.)
PRECISE DESIGN OF LONDON BOMBS COULD HELP TRACK DOWN THE PERPETRATORS:
On Monday, a senior European-based counterterrorism official with access to intelligence reports said the new information on the material indicated that the bombs were “technically advanced.” The official added: “There seems to be a mastery of the method of doing explosions. This was not rudimentary. It required great organization and was well put together.”
...Investigators say determining the physical origin of the explosives is crucial to helping them determine the origin of the bombs that tore apart three trains in the London Underground and the No. 30 bus in central London during the morning rush hour last Thursday.
The Senate Is Having Second Thoughts About Cutting Mass-Transit Security Funding After Last Week’s London Bombings. Seems like a good idea.
Victor David Hanson analyzes U.S. action in Iraq as four wars:
For all the pundits’ talk of “clearly defined objectives” and “exit strategies,” in the first three wars we articulated concrete methods and achieved limited aims. Saddam got out of Kuwait (I); Saddam was not able subsequently to attack his neighbors (II); and Saddam was removed (III).
The fourth war is not over, so we are not sure of the eventual outcome of its most ambitious goal, the establishment of democracy. Still, contrary to popular opinion, there have always been clear-cut intentions in these wars, which have been spelled out in advance and until now have been met.
...Just as there was no third war with Germany or second war with Vietnam, there will probably be no fifth war with Iraq. We have finally learned our lesson: Victory or defeat and a change of circumstances — not breathing spells with dictators, U.N. resolutions, realpolitik truces, no-fly zones, or cruise missiles — finally end most wars.
...If War IV is now the costliest for the U.S. and the most controversial of the series, it is because it is for all the marbles and offers a lasting and humane solution — and every enemy of the United States in the Middle East seems to grasp that far better than we do.
The appearance to me is that the country learned the lesson of Vietnam: we’re not leaving Iraq until the job is done and the mission is accomplished.
