CQ has summarized my thoughts on this morning’s attacks very well:
Captain’s Quarters
We are all Britons today.
When we say that, we don’t mean it to imply that this is conditional on Britain engaging in self-flagellation to maintain our sympathy. We don’t mean that we expect our friends to simply remain victims to retain our friendship and support. We don’t mean that the people who have been attacked should withdraw into a corner in order to somehow earn our tears.
We mean that we support our friends — and that support means that we plan on standing shoulder to shoulder with them when they decide to take the necessary action to ensure that our enemies can never do something like this again. In other words, we are all Britons in the sense that Britons stood with America after 9/11.
When I first heard news of this attack, I was convinced it was not al-Qaeda because of the proximity of the G-8 summit. The anarchist demonstrators who usually frequent these conferences were the first to spring to my mind - especially since the British elections were very recent. I would have expected al-Qaeda to try to influence the elections much as they did in Spain. However, there has since been an initial claim of responsibility from them. That tells me that they did not think they could influence the outcome of British elections any more than the OBL tape released before the US elections did.
Britain and the United States - probably more than any other countries - are willing to take the fight with the Islamists to them, not wait and be attacked again. We will not be bullied by thugs who reject Western values of pluralism to enforce Islamic extremism as the one and only way of life. Nor should we hesitate in the face of constant cries of the moral relativists that seek to understand the Islamists grievances as somehow legitimate.
My thoughts, prayers and condolences to all who are suffering in these latest assaults.
