Robert Fisk, predictably enough, recommends dhimmitude in the face of the London bombings. “The reality of this barbaric bombing,” from The Independent, with thanks to The One Who Must Not Be Named:
If we are fighting insurgency in Iraq, what makes us think insurgency won’t come to us?
“If you bomb our cities,” Osama bin Laden said in one of his recent video tapes, “we will bomb yours.” There you go, as they say. It was crystal clear Britain would be a target ever since Tony Blair decided to join George Bush’s “war on terror” and his invasion of Iraq. We had, as they say, been warned. The G8 summit was obviously chosen, well in advance, as Attack Day.
And it’s no use Mr Blair telling us yesterday that “they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear”. “They” are not trying to destroy “what we hold dear”. They are trying to get public opinion to force Blair to withdraw from Iraq, from his alliance with the United States, and from his adherence to Bush’s policies in the Middle East. The Spanish paid the price for their support for Bush – and Spain’s subsequent retreat from Iraq proved that the Madrid bombings achieved their objectives – while the Australians were made to suffer in Bali….
But here’s the problem. To go on pretending that Britain’s enemies want to destroy “what we hold dear” encourages racism; what we are confronting here is a specific, direct, centralised attack on London as a result of a “war on terror” which Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara has locked us into. Just before the US presidential elections, Bin Laden asked: “Why do we not attack Sweden?”
Lucky Sweden. No Osama bin Laden there. And no Tony Blair.