London Attacks

[kiwipc]

Just before 9:00am, London was attacked by a group of terrorists on the tube and a bus. This is a sad evnt for England and all the world. We at the Kiwi PC as do all New Zealanders, express our sympathy to all those who are affected by these terrible events and we pray that the world can have peace.

Swifty and The Kiwi PC Crew

[Charles]

Distinguished Middle East Scholar Juan Cole has a very informative blog with a lot of accurate insightful information. In addition to his teaching duties he has appeared on PBS(us public television network), several other US TV networks, radio networks and writing for publications like salon.com & beliefnet.

Check his recent postings at his blog - http://juancole.com/ including this:

"My article at Salon.com, "The Time of Revenge Has Come, discusses the way Bush's incompetent crusade in Iraq has made us all less safe. Short excerpt:

"The United Kingdom had not been a target for al-Qaida in the late 1990s. But in October 2001, bin Laden threatened the United Kingdom with suicide aircraft attacks if it joined in the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan. In November of 2002, bin Laden said in an audiotape, "What do your governments want from their alliance with America in attacking us in Afghanistan? I mention in particular Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia." In February of 2003, as Bush and Blair marched to war in Iraq, bin Laden warned that the U.K. as well as the U.S. would be made to pay. In October of 2003, bin Laden said of the Iraq war, "Let it be known to you that this war is a new campaign against the Muslim world," and named Britain as a target for reprisals. A month later, an al-Qaida-linked group detonated bombs in Istanbul, targeting British sites and killing the British vice-consul. Although bin Laden offered several European countries, including Britain, a truce in April of 2004 if they would withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq, the deadline for the end of the truce ended in mid-July of that year . . .

The global anti-insurgency battle against al-Qaida must be fought smarter if the West is to win. To criminal investigations and surveillance must be added a wiser set of foreign policies. Long-term Western military occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq is simply not going to be acceptable to many in the Muslim world. U.S. actions at Abu Ghraib and Fallujah created powerful new symbols of Muslim humiliation that the jihadis who sympathize with al-Qaida can use to recruit a new generation of terrorists. The U.S. must act as an honest broker in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And Bush and Blair must urgently find a credible exit strategy from Iraq that can extricate the West from bin Laden's fly trap.

Chicago political scientist Robert Pape argues in his new book, "Dying to Win," that the vast majority of suicide bombers are protesting foreign military occupation undertaken by democratic societies where public opinion matters. He points out that there is no recorded instance of a suicide attack in Iraq in all of history until the Anglo-American conquest of that country in 2003. He might have added that neither had any bombings been undertaken elsewhere in the name of Iraq.

George Bush is sure to try to use the London bombings to rally the American people to support his policies. If Americans look closer, however, they will realize that Bush's incompetent crusade has made the world more dangerous, not less. "

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/07/08/blowback/index_np.html


There is so much more in depth information from a variety of sources over the last few days by Professor Cole that I suggest you scroll down all his postings at:

http://juancole.com/

amazing factual material for those that like to be informed...

[notyourusualbollocks]

Right on the money.

2 million Londoners marched against the Iraq War in February 2003. I was one of them.

MK