SHIT SHIT SHIT, I was wondering why there were so many cops patrolling the Brooklyn Bridge this morning.
The Counterterrorism Blog has all the info you need, they're updating links all day and have a bunch of other related posts on the main page, check back often -
My prayers are with my friends and family out there - I love you guys and hope that everyone is OK - and my thoughts are with the whole city. And if the "Secret Organization of Al-Qaeda in Europe" or whoever did this thinks that this is going to cause the coalition troops to abandon Afghanistan or Iraq, they are wrong wrong wrong. FUCK
ALSO: London chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks -
[Terrorism] is not the weapon of the weak against the strong but the rage of the angry against the defenceless and innocent. It is an evil means to an evil end.
That link also includes a quote from the piece of human shit George Galloway, for those with a particularly scatological interest in this.
ALSO: In response to Stevee's commentage, as well as to others who may be thinking the same thing - 'hey, Galloway's kind of right, isn't this kind of our/UK's fault?'
The history of jihadist groups operating in Londonistan predates Bush, 9/11, and the invasions/liberations of Afghanistan and Iraq. See this report from the Jamestown Foundation, via Liberals Against Terrorism, with more links, for some background on that. Taking the comments of terrorists and political parasites like Galloway at face value, that this is something the Blair government has suddenly brought upon the citizens of London because of their conduct in the War on Terror, is not only inaccurate but it gives the illusion of legitimacy to their twisted causality and their hatred and advances their frankly despicable careers. No thanks.
Also note the inclusion of Afghanistan in both the terrorists and Galloway's statements - while I respect the fact that the invasion/liberation of Iraq was controversial for a variety of reasons, who is ready to call our removal of the Taliban an 'attack' on 'Afghanistan', who is ready to say we shouldn't have gone there after 9/11? And should we have adhered to the 'warnings' of Galloway and acceded to the demands of the jihadis by abandoning Afghanistan and Iraq to the jihadis, Talibans, and Baathists who are terrorizing those populations?
Steve is right that civilians in Iraq (and Afghanistan) have suffered much more from this nihilistic violence than we have (yet), and nothing I can say about that could mean anything compared to the horror those countries have experienced over the past few decades - but NO legitimate voices in either country are calling for a return of Saddam/Mullah Omar (who for years terrorized their entire captive population while we turned a blind eye and starved them), and none wish for coalition forces to leave yet. Our choice is to continue working to alleviate (and occasionally share in) their horror, and do a better job of it, or to plunge them straight into hell, with our own countries to follow, which is no choice at all as far as I see it.