Posted by
arandomguy on Friday, June 29, 2007 6:10:14 PM
This is a very disturbing story coming out of London today. Earlier today, a very large car bomb was discovered in the West End of London, and now the reports say, there was a second car bomb, roughly equal in power, also discovered in the West End later today.
The first bomb consisted of gasoline, gas canisters, and nails, and would probably have caused a sufficient degree of damage if it had gone off. The bomb was disengaged by a brave police officer, before the Bomb Squad arrived, and it is possible that the action of this man saved several lives.
The police weren't sure that it was an act of Jihadism (islamic terrorism) at first, because it could have been the act of one lunatic - Timothy McVeigh used a car bomb. With the discovery of the second bomb however (though London Police have been largely unwilling to comment on this), the only realistic conclusion to draw is that it IS terrorism, and specifically, Jihadism.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the UK is "currently facing the most serious and sustained threat"
It is good that some people in Britain recognize that they are not immune to the dangers that face the world from Islamic terrorism. 7/7 opened that first eye for them, and perhaps the actions today will open their other eye. Some Brit's understand, but many do not - as is the case in the United States.
Authorities within the British government suspect that the terrorists who planted these vehicles, are home grown terrorists - British jihadists. This is very distrubing, and needs to be addressed in the United States as well. We have a larger population, that is spread out over a wider area. We have a southern border with more holes then the moon, and the northern border isn't a whole lot better. Homegrown terrorism is an even bigger danger for us than for the Brits I'd say.
This also proves the validity of the "If we leave, they will follow argument" that frequently gets attacked by liberals and leftists. They claim that terrorists in Iraq are just fighting for their homeland, and will calm down if the United States were just to leave the country alone. Conservatives and terror analysts on the other hand, have argued largely that the jihadists will follow us back home, should we choose to leave.
England has chosen to leave Iraq, and that process has started already. And guess what? They almost got attacked again - they foiled a terrorist plot, but they only foiled the plot when the bombs were already in place - they didn't nab it in the planning stages, which is much safer and less likely to fail (but also harder). Have the jihadists stayed home and decided not to bother the UK because they are leaving? It doesn't seem that way to me. Rather, the jihadists are just going to Britain, because now it is easier (and it's where the Brits are - they can't kill them in Iraq if they are no longer there).
The US Needs to take heed of this, and realize the threat we face from global islamic terror, and take more steps to deal with these threats. The border is one of the biggest problems, and the one that needs to be fixed the most (unfortunately, many over-politicized Senators have crafted the Immigration Bill that looks as though it originated on the 7th circle of hell.)
We need to understand the threat we face, and how to best deal with that threat - and it is a threat, and it is a very dangerous one. If we leave Iraq right away, without taking attempts to quell the jihadists that are there, then not only will Iran soon conquer Iraq (the worst of all possible outcomes for the fledgling democracy, and the region as a whole), but the jihadists who want to kill Americans, will move to the place where the Americans are. Now, they can kill Americans from the comfort of their own geography. But since their goal is to kill Americans, they will just go where we are. And I would prefer to keep them away from HERE.