London Hit by Al Qaida, Egyptian Ambassador to Egypt Assasinated, I Still Haven't Heard from my Family
This is absolutely horrific. Hundreds will end up dead, over 1000 injuries have already been amassed with more to come. Al Quaida has claimed responsibility, and Al Quaida also assasinated the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq today simply for dealing with the newly formed Iraqi government. Coincidence? I think not! Apparently now Al-Queda has calimed that Italy and Denmark are next if they don't pull their troops out of Iraq.
For all those people who are claiming that the Iraq war is pointless, and we "created the terrorists ourselves", maybe you people will finally WAKE THE HELL UP! If Al Quaida thinks the cause is important enough to warant diplomatic assasination of fellow Muslims, and to try and spread the battlefield elsewhere, then WHY THE HELL can't mammoth portions of the US and British popultations, as well as the global community view the outcome of the war with the same gravity???? This thing is real, and our actions in Iraq have made Bagdhad the battleground. The terrorists realize it......WHY THE HELL CAN'T WE? Instead portions of our population make stupid "Dubya is a chimpanzee" jokes and fancy themselves all clever for it. God it just pisses me off.
The bombings in Madrid and now London are Al Quaida's attempt to spread the battleground. Here's praying that my native English people have more spine than those in Madrid, who cowered and ousted Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznart despite him holding a solid lead in polls the day before, and essentially yielding the exact result Al Quaida intended with the bombings. In contrast, let's hope in this instance that Al Quaida have awakened a sleeping giant, and the British people will belatedly put their time, energy, effort, and passion behind Mr. Blair, the same way they did so belatedly with Mr. Churchill decades before after all of his pleas had previously fallen on deaf ears.
Not knowing where loved ones are after terrorist bombings is getting old very fast. On September 11, my brother was one block from the World Trade Center and I lost touch with him after a brief instant messeneger conversation early that morning. My close friend Amy Shapiro was one block away from the Pentagon in Washington D.C. at the same time and I had no idea how she ws either. The stress was unfathomable.
And now, after having just returned from London one week ago, and after changing trains at King's Cross Station, I now hear that it, along with Edgeware station and a bus in Russell Square have been bombed. I have no idea where my family members in London are, or how they're doing. Some of them live close to Edgeware, and I'm sure some of them make changes on the Underground to get to work. Of course all of the phone airwaves are jammed and its vitually impossible to get through to the city from the outside due to all the hulabaloo. All I can do is pray that they are alright. The stress is high once again.
My only hope, is that the death and destruction in London will not prove to be in vain like it was in Madrid. And selfishly, I am praying that amongst the dead and injured in London, none of them are my loved ones.
For all those people who are claiming that the Iraq war is pointless, and we "created the terrorists ourselves", maybe you people will finally WAKE THE HELL UP! If Al Quaida thinks the cause is important enough to warant diplomatic assasination of fellow Muslims, and to try and spread the battlefield elsewhere, then WHY THE HELL can't mammoth portions of the US and British popultations, as well as the global community view the outcome of the war with the same gravity???? This thing is real, and our actions in Iraq have made Bagdhad the battleground. The terrorists realize it......WHY THE HELL CAN'T WE? Instead portions of our population make stupid "Dubya is a chimpanzee" jokes and fancy themselves all clever for it. God it just pisses me off.
The bombings in Madrid and now London are Al Quaida's attempt to spread the battleground. Here's praying that my native English people have more spine than those in Madrid, who cowered and ousted Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznart despite him holding a solid lead in polls the day before, and essentially yielding the exact result Al Quaida intended with the bombings. In contrast, let's hope in this instance that Al Quaida have awakened a sleeping giant, and the British people will belatedly put their time, energy, effort, and passion behind Mr. Blair, the same way they did so belatedly with Mr. Churchill decades before after all of his pleas had previously fallen on deaf ears.
Not knowing where loved ones are after terrorist bombings is getting old very fast. On September 11, my brother was one block from the World Trade Center and I lost touch with him after a brief instant messeneger conversation early that morning. My close friend Amy Shapiro was one block away from the Pentagon in Washington D.C. at the same time and I had no idea how she ws either. The stress was unfathomable.
And now, after having just returned from London one week ago, and after changing trains at King's Cross Station, I now hear that it, along with Edgeware station and a bus in Russell Square have been bombed. I have no idea where my family members in London are, or how they're doing. Some of them live close to Edgeware, and I'm sure some of them make changes on the Underground to get to work. Of course all of the phone airwaves are jammed and its vitually impossible to get through to the city from the outside due to all the hulabaloo. All I can do is pray that they are alright. The stress is high once again.
My only hope, is that the death and destruction in London will not prove to be in vain like it was in Madrid. And selfishly, I am praying that amongst the dead and injured in London, none of them are my loved ones.
posted by Mark at
7/07/2005
3 Comments:
Mark, this is sensationalistic crap.
All this proves is that Bush's "We're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here" rhetoric is, once again, woefully inept.
Iraq now has more Al Qaeda than ever before, and has become the new breeding ground for terrorism. Meanwhile the real fight against terrorism has suffered, and those who attacked the US on 9/11 have never been brought to justice.
To minimize the opposition to the war in Iraq as "we think Bush is a chimp" jokes is beneath you.
And attacks on the US, London, and Madrid are not attempts to spread the battleground, but firm reminders that the battleground was never in Iraq in the first place, but in our own backyards.
Your logic here is stunning in its inconsistency and sensational in its radicalism.
The attack on your fellow Londoners, and the threat to your family there is terrible.
By
Dylan, at 3:03 PM
Sensationalistic crap? C'mon Dylan..tell me what you REALLY think. hehe Pardon me for being sensationalistic, but something as sensational as the London bombings often lends itself to an equally sensationalistic response.... if you want to call it that. I prefer to think of it as realistic with perhaps a bit more venom than usual due to my frustration surrounding the London situation.
I'll take your comments piece by piece. First Bush's comment that we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here. You say that the London bombings show Bush to be inept in this analysis. I say the bombing represent the exception that proves the rule. The details of the bombings are still a bit murky, but Bush's point is totally valid....Al Qaeda is getting pretty sick of fighting the battle in Iraq....they're trying to go on the offensive with this London action after being unable to engage in any sort of terrorist action in the US since 9/11. Is it possible the US security measures are working and so they're moving on to easier pastures?
As for Iraq being a breeding ground for terorrism...it wasn't exactly devoid of anti-western militants before. But with that said, the assasination of the Egyptian Diplomat to Irraq, while truly trgic, is also SO TELLING. Lots of Bush critics like to claim that Sept. 11 and the Iraq war have no ties....and surely this kidnapping by Al Qaeda of Mesopotamia shows otherwise. Iraqi Freedom is tragic for them, so much so that they are willing to attack high ranking fellow muslims, risking whatever credibility they may have amongst certain sects of the Muslim community.
As for the Bush is a chimp coment..that was reactionary. Here I was, not knowing about the well being of certain members my family after a bombing, and I click on a link to a blog, and I see that person calling Bush a chimp. I realize that all of Bush's opponents don't stoop so low, but the reality is some do..and I know because I've seen and heard it. As it happens Dylan, you are not one of them, and for that I am grateful, though even you on ocassion have been known to get personal.
As for the battleground issue....obviously Al Qaeda has shown a propensity for sporadic terrorist attacks in the Western World, but as you said, there are a heck of a lot more of them in Iraq than in London or the US or Madrid, as evidenced by how rare terrorist bombings have been on Western soil as compared to incidents taking place in the middle east.
The reason there is a battleground in Iraq is because it is at the forefront of the battle between freedom and democracy, and despotism and opression through fear. Al Qaeda realizes a free Iraq is a very bad thing...and they are fighting to prevent it. If Al Qaeda didn't give a crap about Iraq, I would agree with you that perhaps the ties between the two are dubious...but from what I've seen..they sure seem to care...Al Qaeda sure seem to have a vested interest in Iraq!
What do you mean when you say "the real fight against terrorism has suffered?" If you mean that the Islamic World doesn't like the US, wel I hate to break it to ya, but the majority of the Islamic world didn't like the US before. Never have, never will...sure there some is anti-american sentiment...but that's been the status quo for decades. If we never wnet into Iraq of Afghanistan..they'd still hate us for being "pro-zionist infidel"
By
Mark, at 6:21 PM
Ok, I'm not going to engage in round after round of this, because it is troubling to me how divorced from recognizable reality your comments are Mark. But I'll do my due diligence here on your last comment.
The problem with your logic that Al Queda is sick of fighting in Iraq is that Al Queda wasn't in Iraq before we got there. More Americans died in Iraq in June than they did in May, and more people died in May than they did in April. Donald Rumsfeld himself said there is no end sight, and we could be there for 5 more years, conceivably. Al Queda isn't tired of fighting in Iraq, they are winning.
Read this for more information on Al Queda's ultimate strategy. Movin g the fight to London, Madrid, etc. isn't evidence that they are in their last throes, but they are expanding.
"As for Iraq being a breeding ground for terorrism...it wasn't exactly devoid of anti-western militants before." Yes, but there was no Al Queda. And just because someone is anti-America doesn't automatically sign their death warrent. That's the same logic the terrorists use, Mark. I don't want to be a part of that country. As for the murder of the Egyptian ambassador to Iraq: Are you really trying to make the point that his murder today proves that Iraq was behind 9/11 in 2001? That is stunning in its stupidity. Al Queda isn't fighting against a freedom in Iraq, but an American occupation. Sure Al Queda is trying to make things chaotic in Iraq. That's not a surprise. But our inability to protect a high level ambassador is proof that we are winning. I... I'm just shaking my head wondering how you can't understand how silly that sounds.
Bush is a chimp: Fine, you were upset. Great. These words you write are tied to your name forever, and now, forever, the distillation of anyone, like me, who is against the war is against it because we hate Bush and think he's stupid. I've spent a great deal of my time writing about the reasons why I'm opposed to the war, and they are much more complicated than "Bush is a chimp." Enough said, there.
"The reason there is a battleground in Iraq is because it is at the forefront of the battle between freedom and democracy, and despotism and opression through fear." All I can say is you really drank the Kool-Aid on this one, Mark. Iraq is the forefront of the battle because THAT'S WHERE THE AMERICAN TROOPS are. The people fighting against us aren't nihilists, hell-bent on chaos for the sake of chaos, but ideologues who view us as an occupying force which must be expelled. Maybe, over time, that sentiment will change, but I can't figure out how when our automatic response is to invade our enemies who had nothing to do with attacking us.
Which leads to this. You said "If we never wnet into Iraq of Afghanistan..they'd still hate us for being "pro-zionist infidel"" Don't you see what you've done? You've done what the Bush Administration spent a year convincing us of: That Afghanistan/9-11/Iraq are all the same thing! I was for the war in Afghanistan because they were harboring the terrorists who attacked us. Unfortunately, once we had given up on finding the mastermind behind 9/11, we short-changed the people of Afghanistan and sent our resourses to Iraq. Remember when we overthrew the Taliban? Well how is it that they've re-emerged and beheaded a US commando this week? Because we never defeated them. But you'll never hear that from Right Wingers or the Bush Administration.
Your comments remind me of a survey that came out recently that showed that something like 70% of Fox News watchers believe that we have found WMD in Iraq and that Saddam was behind 9/11, things that are factually untrue (Even Bush said so in his most recent state of the union). Disinformation, Mark. That's all it is, and you've just regurgiated it because you can't imagine a world where Republicans are corrupt or have mismanaged a war in which over 1700 Americans have died and over 5000 are wounded.
By
Dylan, at 3:28 PM
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