Another al-Qaeda attack in Istanbul, this time at a British bank and the British consulate. Many dead and wounded, (at this point why quote figures?) As usual, many victims were Muslim civilians. A man claiming to speak on behalf of al-Qaeda and the Islamic Brotherhood said in a statement that

We will continue to attack Masonic targets ... The Muslims are not alone.

Masonic targets..? But he's right, of course. The Muslims are not alone. We stand by them.

Hours later, tens of thousands of Britons, chanting "George Bush, terrorist", gathered on Trafalgar Square to tear down a statue of the Great Satan himself, in what a BBC reporter made sure to point out (repeatedly!) was a "highly symbolic act".

I wonder if they bothered to make any banners about today's attack, or about al-Qaeda - you know real terrorism. Any, at all?

More confusion: Just now, an NRK news anchor wondered if there could be "any doubt" that the attack was a "reaction to Blair receiving Bush in London", and the BBC spoke of a "revenge" for Iraq, with one reporter concluding (I'm not making this up) that these attacks will continue until the US and UK pulls out of Iraq. They don't get it. Blair does:

Once again we must affirm that in the face of this terrorism, there must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace, in attacking it wherever and whenever we can, and in defeating it utterly. ..

There may be some who think that Britain would gain from standing back from this struggle, even some who believe that we, and the United States, and our allies have somehow brought this upon ourselves. Let us be very clear. America did not attack al Qu'eda on 11 September, al Qu'eda attacked America, and in doing so attacked not just America, but the way of life of all people who believe in tolerance, and freedom, justice and peace. ..

Here is where we have got to. We have got to see what this struggle is about, because you can see it clearer and clearer day by day. This is a struggle between fanaticism and extremism on the one hand, and people who believe in freedom and intolerance on the other. ..

And when you say is this attack today directed at our alliance, it is directed at anybody who stands in the way of this fanaticism. And that is why our response has got to be to say to them as clearly as we possibly can, you are not going to defeat us because our will to defend what we believe in is actually in the end stronger, better, more determined than your will to inflict damage on an innocent people. ..

What has caused the terrorist attack today in Turkey is not the President of the United States, is not the alliance between America and Britain, what is responsible for that terrorist attack is terrorism, are the terrorists.

(Transcripts are funny things. The BBC reporter mentioned above, one of those people with an audible sneer, was the one who asked the first question listed in this transcript, but on the air he connected his first question to the second reply from Bush, bypassing Bush's first reply which made the reporter look like a fool. Behold the power of broadcasting vs the power of the internet.)

All this is wishful thinking - Europeans (and especially the hare-brained press) are (true to the traditions of Chamberlain) holding on to the hope that the terrorists will leave them alone if they just appease them sufficiently.

In practice, this means lambasting anyone who actually stands up to the terrorists.

Blair says that he won't "flinch" from his purpose in this regard. Why does he expect Sharon to flinch?

And now Aftenposten has done a full circle - jewish targets in Turkey are attacked because Israel is allied to the US.

http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article.jhtml?articleID=674355

(in Norwegian)

After the US and the UK have failed to bring democracy to the Iraqi people it became impossible to prevent attaks on thier interests. In fact they, US and UK, are boldly showing pictures of the worst human crisis the Iraqi people have ever witnessed in history. Today the US and UK are labeling the Iraqi people as terrorists. They labeled the palestinian resistance as terrorists. Syria, Iran, Lebanon and many others are sponsers of terrorism. Iran and North Korea are parts of the access of evil according to the Americans and IT'S EITHER YOU'RE WITH US OR AGAINST US!
The US and UK want to bring freedom to the whole Middleast and yet they lack it. Guantanamu prisoners are being held without trials in cages for more than two years including children as young as 14 (that's today not 2 years ago!) and not mentioning that they don't have access to lawers or families. The US has ignored calls by the world (including thier allies) to save the environment. The US was the first country who used WMD in mankind history(in Japan). Pres Bush said "the terrorists have lost two countries". The two countries are Muslim countries!
How can anybody trust the US? and why Iraqi people should trust the UK's prime minister when the UK's people don't trust him?
The US troops said today that they've arrested 307 foregn fighters in Iraq most of them are from Syria and Iran. It is clear that the citizens of those countries realize that they are the next target and they have decided to foil the Anglo-American plot before it's too late. The US is boldly threatenning the whole world so they should expect international resistance in Iraq.

Anas: You're under the false impression that whoever is fighting the Americans in Iraq are fighting _for_ Iraqis, for Muslims. Ask ordinary people in Baghdad - the people who walk in anti-terror protests, the people who nearly get blown up every other day - they'll tell you otherwise. Ask ordinary people in Istanbul - they'll tell you otherwise.

US foreign policy has been consistently pro-Muslim for a decade (Kuwait, Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia). Iraq is no exception.

When I ever I hear people debate the benefits of appeasement vs non-appeasement, the spectre of medieval England comes to mind.

During the later years of Roman power in Europe, the emperor began pulling his forces out of the more distant parts of the empire, including one well known outpost.. Britian.

Once the Romanised Britons were without Roman protection, they began to bear the brunt of raids, from Scandinavian and northern Germanic barbarians. The Britons, had neither the military might nor the strength of numbers to repel their unwanted guests. So they paid huge amounts of gold, and then eventually and more foolhardly began using their land to appease (“shut the dogs mouth” ) their enemies and make them go away. As you can imagine this didn’t work at all and eventually resulted in their conquest, and the Germanicisation of England. This historical example shows very clearly that appeasing ones enemies works very poorly indeed, and will at worst merely encourage your foes to continue to oppose you, or at the very best prolong the final and inevitable conflict between the two.

We can not allow modern terrorism to survive or risk its continual proliferation.

Trackback URL: http://bearstrong.net/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/551

Peaktalk: THE WEDGE OF TERROR, November 20, 2003 09:01 PM

These attacks are both horrific and significant. As far as I am aware this is the first time British interests, the consulate and an HSBC office, are directly attacked by al-Qaeda and related groups. It proves not only that the