<p>People on the Underground are very aware about looking out for suspicious packages. Thats why I don’t believe a bag with a bomb could have just been left on a train, it would have been noticed very quickly.</p>
<p>I count myself very lucky to not have been in the train 30 seconds behind, that was much more severly affected. And where I believe the 7 deaths at Aldgate came from.</p>
<p>At first it was very difficult to make contact with anybody because phone networks were down, they were only open for emergency services.</p>
<p>The emergency services were excellent, very calm and very well prepared.
I was treated for minor cuts to my hands and we were also seen by councelers. </p>
<p>The more severly injured people were brought in by ambluances, and the walking wounded were brought to hospitals on busses.</p>
<p>At the hospital I was at, at one point 7 double decker busses full of walking wounded were brought in. Hospital staff were stretched but coped amazing well.</p>
<p>This is just so sad. My heart and prayers go out to the people of London today. I am supposed to go on a tennis trip to Amsterdam and Barcelona in only 2 weeks. Now I am very nervous. I’m sure my parents are nervous also, because they will not be going with me. I worry so much about terrorism. :-/</p>
<p>Just last night, I was working with a parent group planning a high school orchestra trip for next year. England/Scotland is one of the three options. I’m sure a lot of people will get very nervous about all of this. But then the same orchestra went to NYC the Spring after 9/11, so who knows.</p>
<p>What an awful way to demonstrate the bankrupt illogic of “We fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here.”</p>
<p>And this morning, H and I were rejoicing over the London Olympics selection and saying how wonderful it would be to spend our 25 anniversary there in '12. Londoners have gone from joy to sorrow in 24 hours. My heart and prayers go out to them.</p>
<p>Winston Churchill in 1943, has anything changed?:
“We do not war primarily with races as such. Tyranny is our foe, whatever trappings or disguise it wears, whatever language it speaks, be it external or internal, we must forever be on our guard, ever mobilised, ever vigilant, always ready to spring at its throat. In all this, we march together. Not only do we march and strive shoulder to shoulder at this moment under the fire of the enemy on the fields of war or in the air, but also in those realms of thought which are consecrated to the rights and the dignity of man.”</p>
<p>"What an awful way to demonstrate the bankrupt illogic of “We fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them here.”</p>
<p>It’s worked so far…have the terrorists been able to attack the United States (whose security is might tighter than the UKs, might I add) again? </p>
<p>That’s all you people want…another attack so more Americans die and you’re able to say see we were right. You’re a great human being, cheers.</p>
<p>I’d like to see you have the same feeling if your own family died.</p>
<p>Actually this attack scares me…and I’m not thinking great, glad it’s them and not us! I’m of the opinion that London in particular is better prepared for terrorist attacks than major U.S. cities. And if they can carry out co-ordinated strikes there, then I am very concerned for how secure is our transit system!?</p>
<p>Quite frankly the whole free world is vulnerable to this sort of thing and will continue to be so. The only tactical way to defend against such attacks is improved intelligence (i.e. Patriot Act) and mitigation of potential damage (i.e., prevent terrorists from gaining access to chemical, biological and radiation weapons).</p>
<p>Bern700 - where are you coming from? Did Cheers respond here? It looked like The Dad to me - or does he have an alias? Am I missing something (I do tend to spend far too much time these days at Sinner’s Alley…)</p>
<p>Natoar23 - Thanks so much for the immediate up-date on the calamity. I am thankful that you got out safely and were able to share with all of us the details of the tragedy as everyone on this side of the Ocean is indeed concerned.</p>
<p>It is despicable, but that is what terrorists are as well. Hopefully this will focus the world’s attention on one of the biggest problems facing the free world: terrorism. The English should realize now that terrorism isn’t an American fabrication and start supporting their government’s (well, Tony Blair’s) support of the worldwide war on terrorism.</p>
<p>“Queen Elizabeth II issued an official statement, saying she was ‘deeply delighted’ and had ‘nothing but admiration for the terrorists who planned the attack’.”</p>
<p>Very surreal sight across London the usually bustling Kings Cross and Liverpool Street stations are empty. </p>
<p>But around other parts of london tens of thousands of people are walking for hours across the city as only over ground trains are starting to run again. And a skeletal bus service is running. The underground is completely suspended still.</p>
<p>The reason why the death toll is still relatively low compared to other similar attacks like Madrid is because of the locations of the attacks.</p>
<p>The bus exploded right outside a medical centre and 20 doctors were meeting in there, heard the blast outside and rushed to help and brought all critically injured people inside the building, with police fearing a second blast. Without this immediate medical care I’m sure many more on the bus would have died.</p>
<p>The biggest death toll is at Kings Cross, mainly because its on the Piccadilly line which is the deepest line on the underground, it was very difficult to get medical care down thier quick enough, and reports were that surgery was being provided on platforms.</p>
<p>Aldgate, where I was at, which is the Circle Line isn’t very deep underground at all it just skims the surface so everyone here was able to get help much quicker.</p>
<p>Hopefully the tube will be open in some form tomorrow. I think the best thing after a terrorist attack like this which wants to make people afriad to travel is to try and get back to normal as possible. </p>
<p>Tomorrow I’ll get back on the tube, just like many other Londoners and head into work.</p>
<p>When will these terrorists work out what their trying to do won’t work?</p>
<p>Bern, you’re contemptible. Nobody wants to see anyone fall victim to the terrorists but go ahead and play that odious game if it makes you happy. </p>
<p>The tragedy isn’t just London today. The tragedy is also that we botched Afghanistan and the pursuit of Osama bin Laden. The tragedy is also that for one cowboy’s swaggering charade we equated Iraq with the war on terror and have, in fact, created a cesspool of terror in the process. [N.B. One should remember that terrorism is tactic, not an ideology. We are fighting Islamists who perceive they are particpating in an epic struggle of Islam vs. the West. Of course, we play into their hands by adopting exactly the postures that convince them they aer right and give them an undisturbed pipeline of recruits.] The tragedy is that is that in a rush for “security” people shut their eyes and cling to the war in Iraq or the so-called Patriot Act as if it really made us safer. I’m sure that the True Believers will volunteer to start wearing GPS implants so that the government can track everyone in the name of national security. Feh.</p>
<p>BigGreen, to a carpenter with only a hammer, every problem is a nail.
We figure out the military component beautfully. It is necessary but insufficient. And that’s why things are going to hell in both Afghanistan and Iraq…the straight-forward military component is the only one we’ve been paying attention to.</p>
<p>Like the wingnuts, you seem to confuse “we’re doing this wrong, we’ve effed it up” with “hating America.”</p>
<p>Londoners have such a long history of carrying on no matter what the circumstances. God Bless their bloody-mindedness. It is inspirational.</p>
<p>As for packages on trains, I can only relate this small story. In the spring of 2004, my S1 was in London, riding a packed underground train during morning rush hour when a man got on the train with a breadbox sized box wrapped in brown paper. During one of the stops, the doors opened and after a few seconds delay the man jumped up and ran off the train–without the box.</p>
<p>My S1 said the commuters were frozen, staring at the box. They quickly glanced at one another with dread. My S1 thought, “This is it.” Certainly there were warnings and tube disruptions nearly every day.</p>
<p>Suddenly, the fellow rushed back from the platform and picked up the box and dashed off again.</p>
<p>It was all over in seconds.</p>
<p>S1 wondered if it was some sort of dry run or a genuine forgetful moment.</p>
<p>The killing in London is horrible. Truly! Why it is more horrible than the killings in Iraq, of our friends the Iraqi people who have always been our allies, just subject to the rule of a desperate despot who could only be overthrown by concocting wild stories about WMD, is a mystery to me. </p>
<p>I have friends in both places. And in Afghanistan as well.</p>