<p>Blair is not too popular with the Leftwing of his party and there is strong anti-war sentiment. It may be stiff upper lip time now but the recriminations will come - especially since this is probably just the begiining of a bombing campaign.</p>
<p>Also these will doubtless turn out to be home grown Islamic terrorists. Then the questioning of what the government has been doing to protect the Queen’s loyal subjects will start and I am afraid the honest answer is not much.</p>
<p>The identities of the 4 bombers have been revealed.</p>
<p>They are British born and are from the Leeds area. They were possibly trained in Pakistan. Evidence has been siezed from thier homes. A car connected to them was also found at a train station packed with more explosives.</p>
<p>The family of one of the bombers had actually phoned the incident report line and reported their son missing saying he had travelled to london with friends and they haven’t heard from him since.</p>
<p>The bombers were aged between 19 and 30. The 30 year old was married with a child and was a primary school teacher.</p>
<p>Police are now working to find the mastermind behind the attacks.</p>
<p>These four men are Europes first suicide bombers</p>
<p>I believe there were a couple of British Islamofacists involved in suicide attacks in Israel not to mention the incompetent shoe bomber Richard Reid. It is not like everybody didn’t already know that Britain’s Mosques are a cesspool of depravity. Western society should be no more tolerant of radical Islamist than they are of the KKK, skin heads, or neo-nazis. The thin veneer of religion should not protect these barbarians from the scrutiny society must exercise to ensure security.</p>
<p>Some of Britain’s Mosques are places with good decent people…not all are depraved cesspools…</p>
<p>I have taught my Ds that there are no absolutes, no all or nothing, and we should be careful when claims are made that creates that feeling,</p>
<p>Yes no doubt most Muslims in Britain are good folks but SOME Mosques are certainly cesspools of hatred and depravity. The UK government cannot allow religious tolerance to act as a shield for the preaching of jihad and the planning of mass murder. These bombers were young men not much different from our own children but twisted by exposure to hateful ideas. It should be no more acceptable in a civilized for an ignorant semi-literate Mullah to preach war against the infidel than it is for Ian Paisley to try to reignite 17th Century religious wars.</p>
<p>And no doubt, citygirlsmom is more concerned with the Graduates of Patrick Henry College than she is about any would-be suicide bombers coming out of Mosques in either Britain or America…certainly her response to the latter is far more “PC” than that of the former.</p>
<p>these “suicide bombers” are NOT committing suicide.
These bombers are “martyrs” and “soldiers”
Big difference and most of us can’t see it.</p>
<p>
Yeah, they are soldiers in the same context that those who ran the Nazi death camps were soldiers. I don’t like the term suicide bomber either - “homicidal bomber” is more appropriate.</p>
<p>FF. That is the point , Isn’t it? But that is what soldiers are paid to do when necessary, “destroy the enemy force” or at a minimum make him/her/country “ineffective”</p>
<p>No, that is not the point. Being a “soldier” does not imply the willingness/desire to commit random acts of violence against innocent civilians. Even though soldiers on opposing sides will try to kill each other, if it is done within the generally acceptable rules of warfare there can be a sense of respect for each other. </p>
<p>That is why former Iraqi soldiers who a few years ago were trying to kill Americans can now work with the American military. It is why former Japanese and American soldiers can come together now and jointly celebrate/commemorate battles like Iwo Jima. </p>
<p>There will never be a day when Nazi storm troopers from Auschwitz and allied soldiers get together to celebrate their respective conflict. Likewise there will never be a day when we will get together with al Qaeda members and celebrate the London bombings or the events of 9/11.</p>
<p>After a while people started recognizing members of the IRA as hoodlums and thugs. I see these young bombers as the same. I think we need to go after the mullahs who preach violence and also to better understand what life is like for young Muslims living in the UK, Europe, and the U.S. today and why some are receptive to such preaching.</p>
<p>Well said, FF (re: post #90).</p>
<p>I echo ariesathena, fundingfather, well said!</p>
<p>The results of the investigation should be no surprise. We have been hearing about sleeper cells for a while. Those people are taught to make themselves look like they are part of the mainstream, and not surface until called to do their “duty.” The one thing that concerns me is how much of the media keeps reporting about the mullahs in the middle east who are speaking out against the terrorists. Interestingly, only a few have been reporting (even the middle eastern CNN DC chief, who speaks Arabic) that this is said for the sake of the media, but that many of them speak in support of the terrorists when speaking to their people in arabic, when media is not present. This makes it very difficult to ascertain who is or who isn’t against the terrorists. And I noticed that today CNN and Fox both used the term homicide bombers, not suicide bombers.</p>
<p>“And I noticed that today CNN and Fox both used the term homicide bombers, not suicide bombers.”</p>
<p>Yes, bizarre. Aren’t all bombers “homicide bombers”? The whole point is that these people are not concerned with self-preservation.</p>
<p>The US and the West need to wake up to the fact that terrorism is not a thing. It is a means. You cannot have a war on terrorism. Terrorism is simply the enemies method of conduct not his driving force or goal.</p>
<p>From the Phillipines to Indonnesia to Thailand to Kashmire to Xinjiang to Chechnya to the Balkans to Palestine to Spain to the Sudan to Nigeria to wherever Dar Al-Islam confronts Dar al-Harb (the abode of war) Muslims are at war with their neighbors. Bombs are exploding, heads are being cut off, women are being raped, and non-Muslims are being literally sold into slavery.</p>
<p>Until we develope the moral courage to denounce aspects of Muslim culture and religion that are antithetical to the values civilized people hold we will continue to have 911’s and 77’s and Balis. Right now the biggest impediment to winning the so called war on terrorism is our own timidity to call this war what it is - a war Islam. This “religion” has been hijacked by the worst elements of the Islamic world.</p>
<p>A longish but prescient Foreign Affairs article…titled Europe’s Angry Muslims</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050701faessay84409/robert-s-leiken/europe-s-angry-muslims.html[/url]”>http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050701faessay84409/robert-s-leiken/europe-s-angry-muslims.html</a></p>
<p>I’ll give Patuxent 3/4 credit on the question of Islamic terrorism. Where the demogogues of the West run off the rails is in falling into the terrorist trap of framing the conflict as the West against Islam. The Wahabi-oriented Sunni jihadists are no more representative of Islam as a whole than James Dobson and Focus on the Family represent Christianity. The fundamentalist streak in boht religions is loathsome and leads in some ugly directions.</p>
<p>How fringe the Islamis jihadists are is a matter yet to be determined TheDad. I hope you are correct they are not representative of Islam as a whole but then again I do not see a lot of condemnation in the Arab street or the rest of the Islamic world.</p>
<p>On the other hand to compare Christian fundamentalists with these Islamfacists is more than a little over the top. I haven’t seen James Dobson hack off anyones head or Focus on the Family organize homicide bombings.</p>