The war on terror?

The past few weeks have been terrifying for most Londoners and anyone travelling to our capital city. I have to go there on Wednesday and really do not want to- I feel like most Brits in that we should just carry on as normal but it's easier said than done with so many incidents occuring at this time.

The shooting of an innocent man last week has kept the news going for the terrorists and they must be loving every minute. It's impossible to know at this time how justified the police were but these two comments on BBCi are both valid-

"The police had no option, the man could have been a suicide bomber. They could not afford to take chances with the lives of innocent people at stake. He should have obeyed the police when challenged."

"What if this man did not understand English, and all he saw was 3 normally dressed large built men screaming, looking aggressive and running after him in a tube station? Put yourself in his position."

It's quite awful that the Police in the UK are having to use guns but understandable at the same time- to me there appears to be no way to stop these attacks happening. Relatively easy to plan, easy to execute and more and more people appear to be joining up to carry them out...

At the same time I feel that we are playing into the hands of the terrorists who find it all too easy to recruit young people and brainwash them into believing that the West is evil. Many of us think the West is evil at times so what chance do we have in the Middle East and Africa? It has been argued that they will find any excuse for the attacks and whilst that is true when you consider how many countries have been attacked we have done a lot of things to help breed this recruitment process.

Obviously Iraq is the big one and will continue to be. No matter how we justify it over 25,000 dead civilians will always be a good persuasive argument to use against young people. You know my views on the Iraq war but whatever side of the argument you are on you have to recognise that for extremists it is the oxygen they need.

Where we go from here is anyone's guess- basically we are f*cked whatever we do. Too many people hate us even if the majority of our populations are not responsible for any wrong doing and they will continue to recruit and will continue to kill innocents.

In the UK we have been used to terrorism for many years and that side has died down somewhat- just imagine this telephone conversation-

"Hi Tony, it's George. You have a domestic problem with the IRA- how about I speak to some people and sort that for you if you join us in Iraq?"

A colleague at work mentioned that to me the other day and it made me think- probably total rubbish but conspriacy theories are always good fun...

It's all very depressing and will not be solved for many years to come. Any one have any better ideas of how to solve this mess?

Comments

[alex montgomery]

NUKE IRAQ. THATLL TEACH'EM

[Matthew]

How does the police shooting an unarmed, random man in the Tube protect you? Ferreting out terrorist cells, like the ones caught last Friday, is the job of the police. Intelligence, investigation, and appropriate force when they have the right target are their job. Shooting the wrong person threatens us 1: by targeting random people for killing (obviously); 2: by destroying our trust in the police; 3: by reinforcing the image of unaccountable violence against civilians by the government.

Terrorism is not just killing civilians. If terrorists could spread fear by jumping off bridges, they'd be recruiting as many fools to do that as possible. When fighting terrorism, we have to both protect from the attack itself, and refrain from fanning the flames of fear. Terrorists are attacking a society by using its weaknesses against it. Our greatest weakness is our media's unchecked echo chambers, which send billions chattering in fear within minutes of hearing a scary news report. When we cooperate with the fear, when we increase the fear by our response, we are working for the terrorists. So it is even more important that we not serve their asymmetric attack advantage than it even is to protect those people who might be killed. And the only way to react without fear is to react with intelligence, information and a sense of proportion. Otherwise, we're helpless vassals of those pulling the terror strings.