There's been calls in this thread for a British point of view so here's one from the Mayor of London:
http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/mayor...ent_070705.jsp
The last paragraph is quite powerful.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ken Livingstone
They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don't want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.
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So the only way we can lose to terrorism is if we allow our freedoms to be restricted in the face of these atrocities. Let's hope the British government doesn't push us down the route taken in the US and that the media will continue to do its job of asking questions and reporting facts.
But is there a way to win? The War on Terror in Afghanistan has obviously failed so far and the War in Iraq was also stated as a reason for these bombings. Powerclown asked on page 1, "Is blowing up civilians a justifiable response to anything?" Well no it's not, and look where it got us. After our own governments' actions we should expect exactly this form of retaliation.
http://www.informationclearinghouse....rticle9422.htm
Maybe we shouldn't be trying to win but to reach a middle ground. The US, surprisingly considering the personalities who run it, has conceeded some ground already - nearly all troops were withdrawn from Saudi Arabia after the invasion of Iraq (one of Bin Laden's goals) and recently Condi Rice has changed the foreign policy to one of promoting democracy over stability. Remember, it's the persuit of stability which created Bin Laden in the first place. The next moves should be to give Iraq full sovereignty (ie let it own the oil), get the troops out (I know people will say there will be bloodshed if that happens, but that's no change from the current situation), end the trade restrictions which keep hard working people across the world in poverty and offer aid where it's needed, chanelled through locally based organisations.
On the point of whether al Qaida exists. Yes it does - it was created in a New York attourney's office in early 2001 (IIRC). That's according to the Power of Nightmares documentary which
the land of the free and home of the brave is unlikely to see. The name was required because a foreign national could only be prosecuted if he belonged to an outlawed organisation. Bin Laden only used the name after the US government made it popular.