Ralph Peters explains what the terrorists lost yesterday:
* Instead of intimidating the the heads of state at Gleneagles — from South Africa's Thabo Mbeki to Mexico's Vicente Fox — the terrorists reminded them all of the need for unity. If you catch a rerun of Tony Blair reading their joint statement, study the worried face of Jacques Chirac. He knows it could have been Paris.
* The terrorists expect a repeat of Madrid, with British support for free Iraq collapsing. But Londoners aren't madrileños. During the Blitz, they withstood massive Nazi terror attacks night after night. They've endured decades of IRA bombings. The English intelligentsia will find a way to blame America, but the British people will not yield to terror.
* They've spoiled the party for all those sympathizers in the West who had turned their attention away from Abu Ghraib for five minutes to demand more aid for Africa. As President Bush pointed out, the terrorists disrupted a summit focused on poverty. Africans watching events unfold will realize that their continent stands to lose far more than London did. Even a rock star or two might figure this one out.
* Despite the drama of the attacks, it's revealing that the terrorists couldn't do more. 7/7 wasn't 9/11. It wasn't even Madrid. Not every attack can be prevented, but Britain's tough anti-terror efforts clearly limited what the terrorists could achieve.
As always with Peters, read the whole thing.
To say a rock star might figure it out is optimistic.
Chirac looked concerned, but GWB had the squinty-eyed look of a really POed cowboy. You know, right before he says "Get a rope!".
What they did was scare the HEll out of France and Germany. The G8 dedided to pay a giant ransome to the Palistianians because of the shake down. Terrorists won! We lost! Read what the G8 did 2 days later. Murder of children and women pays. Look at Madird. Go read Rove's speech of last month.
Do you really think the august leaders of Europe give a damn how many people are killed in their streets, or that it will make the slightest difference in their opportunistic policies?
Ralph is wrong and wrong by a mile. The Terrorist won and won big. They scared the Hell out of G8. 2 days after the slaughter the G8 agreed to give them $billions, as in $xxx,xxx,xxx,xxx. Terror pays and pays very well. Muslims understand this very well. Too bad "Westerners" have yet to figure it out.
hey
the brits, the french, the germans, and the spanish, all of whom have a long experience with terrorism, are not hysterics, the american right is when it comes to such attacks
moreover, the british public does not support nor will it ever support the bush-blair war on terror, particularly in iraq
the american right, rather than fighting smart, has tied the war on terror to bush's domestic political agenda.; for this reason the fear and hysterics, such as one finds on most right-wing sites, has come to dominate any rational approach to dealing with this problem
europeans, with their colonial pasts and immigration issues understand this, the american right does not
~~tmh
