The San Diego Union-Tribune
July 8, 2005
The bombs that ripped through London early yesterday surely will rock this side of the Atlantic. While our British friends and allies must cope with the shock and casualties from this mayhem, it vividly should remind Americans that terrorists are tenacious and dedicated to their murderous craft.
These human cockroaches are utterly unimpressed with the good that Britons are trying to do for Muslims, among others, right now. Sir Bob Geldof staged a July 2 concert in London's Hyde Park, one of 10 "Live 8" shows worldwide designed to promote economic development and health advances in Africa, a continent that 345 million Muslims call home.
"It is particularly barbaric that this has happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa," British Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters Thursday.
When these bombs exploded, Blair was hosting the G-8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, where leaders of the major industrial powers discussed debt forgiveness and trade relief for impoverished Africans – Islamic and otherwise.
"The contrast couldn't be clearer," President Bush said, "between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill – those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks."
Of course, nothing satisfies these perpetrators. They could care less about the West's mercy, charity or assistance. Their destination is religious totalitarianism, and their path is paved with crushed bones, twisted metal, broken glass and spilled blood. They offer nothing but death itself.
Consider the glee with which "The Secret Organization of al-Qaeda in Europe" applauded this carnage on a militant Islamic Web site:
"Rejoice, Islamic nation. Rejoice, Arab world. ... The heroic mujahedeen carried out a blessed attack in London, and now Britain is burning with fear and terror, from north to south, east to west."
News channels feature a red British double-decker bus, the sort that instantly and cheerfully tells a visiting American exactly where he is. With its roof yanked off, it resembles an Israeli vehicle demolished by Islamic extremism.
Fox News analyst Mansour Ijaz reported yesterday that British cops recently raided a northern London home where several Middle Eastern men were dismantling some 200 units of a common appliance to extract radioactive materials for use in a "dirty bomb."
These facts should hush Americans who have grown ho hum about if not hostile toward fighting Islamofascism. Those who carp night and day that Guantanamo is not a Club Med finally may abandon their endless whining. The enemy combatants detained there are being interrogated specifically so officials can prevent the homicidal outrage that now tries Londoners. If placing these thugs in isolation, stress positions, or uncomfortably warm rooms makes them talk, get on with it. Far better for them to endure those inconveniences than for New Yorkers, Washingtonians or San Franciscans to suffer a rush hour such as London witnessed yesterday.
Similarly, U.S. civil libertarians should compare yesterday's concrete casualties of Muslim extremism against the imaginary risks of the USA Patriot Act. The House of Representatives foolishly voted 238 to 187 on June 15 to scuttle the Patriot Act's so-called "library provision."
Even though seven of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers used public libraries for Internet access and to purchase tickets on one of the doomed flights, the House seemed more worried that some overzealous FBI agent might try to learn who checked out "The Joy of Sex." If, equipped with court orders, the FBI can unravel Islamic terrorists' Internet communications via public library computers, hindering these investigators could hasten the day when American commuters suffer the fate of their British counterparts.
For now, Londoners are exhibiting the common sense one expects from our Atlantic cousins.
"Unlike the Spanish, who turned on their government on 3-11, I suspect British sentiment will now harden against terrorists," predicts Fraser Nelson, political editor of The Scotsman newspaper. "We did not need this attack to bind Britain and America together in our resolve. But we are closer still. In a macabre way, we are now blood brothers: And this can only mean surer and earlier defeat for those who seek to disrupt our way of life."
Murdock, a nationally syndicated columnist, is a senior fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Fairfax, Va. He can be reached via e-mail at deroy.murdock@gmail.com.
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