Terrorist attacks on London

The attacks on London yesterday were a sickening and terrifying event. Many would argue since 9/11 London has been at increased risk, but even more so since the monstrous attacks in Madrid which also served as a direct warning to London.

Yesterday's events are a tragedy for those affected and I can only imagine the horror and pain for those involved, that goes without saying.

I use the tube a lot myself, and I'll be honest it has been a concern in the back of my mind when do I use the Underground. I often pass through Kings Cross, but not usually at peak times.

Because of the UK's long familiarity with terrorism, the population don't go waving flags and jumping around in a big flapping panic, people just get on with life thankfully and that was reflected in a lot of coverage I saw.

But I have a real problem with other aspects of the media side. One or two things I saw on TV were just downright irresponsible, including what looked like (although I had the sound partially turned down) "How to help your kids deal with the trauma of seeing the news".
Good Grief.

Blair himself said:

"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 upon the world"

It would be nice to think then, it is starting to sink into him that the reality of terrorism, is completely unrelated to the extravaganza of spin, and that draconian new laws that will do nothing to fight terror but will greatly inhibit and tamper with the way regular people get on with their lives are best left in the closet.

Personally, my allergy to Blair and resistance to any proprosed ID card scheme remains exactly the same today if not even stronger than before.

And yes, absolutely, we can be extremely grateful for our emergency services and the police etc who are dealing with this but I won't be flying your flag Blair, not by a long shot. Sorry.

Now, I don't know about you but I have some difficulties swallowing a lot of what the so called 'War on Terror' is about, and I think it's high time the world had some better answers.

The way I see it, we are all being asked to accept this argument:

The terrorists hate the Western 'way of life' and want to destroy it. They only want to destroy it and have no political aims at all.

Well, I can understand polticians saying 'we won't give in to terrorists' and other stuff along those lines sure, and indeed one couldn't rule out the possibility that even if all of the problems in the Middle East were to vanish overnight that for one reason or another attacks might continue across the globe. Of course that tends to happen anyway, look at the IRA splinter groups that appeared.

But I have a more basic problem with this. The idea that terrorists hate McDonalds and Eastenders enough to see it as part of some Godless debauchery that has to be destroyed, is for me stretching reality. Additionally, in the end, history seems to suggest that terrorist groups tend to eventually strike some sort of a deal with the government of the day.

Now as you all know, there are lot of theories about what is really happening, lots of Orwellian scenarios about governments creating the terrorists, or letting attacks happen in an attempt to turn the World into one homogeneous police state ruled by a secret elite.

I'm not sure I'm saying that I totally feel that is the reality, but the fact that we are deeply in a situation where these theories are so abundant and commonplace shows that somewhere along the line the relationship between the public and the current crop of leaders has completely broken down. And well you to have to wonder if putting forward utter bullshit as reasons to invade another country has been a massive contributary factor in that.

But anyway, if any of you are into patriotism, the patriotic thing to do is to continute to resist knee-jerk laws that seek to constrict and destroy the basic freedoms people deserve in their day to day lives , and yesterday has convinced me of that more than ever. Otherwise the terrorists, if indeed they exist in the form we have been told, have won.