a more eloquent friend... used with permission

Date: 2005-07-07 09:35 Subject: Terrorism in London Security: Public Mood: pessimistic Music: Madeleine Peyroux: Careless Love - J'ai deux amours

Starting the car this morning, I caught a bare snippet of "bombing in London" from Mark & Mark before they cut to commercial. Bombing in London? Let's see: G8 summit in Scotland, yesterday's pick for the 2012 Olympics, summer rush hour traffic opportunity. No question in my mind, whatever the supposed "rationale" (and with these people, how can one suppose they have a rationale when they themselves are hardly rational at all?), I just knew that when the fellahs came back, there would be mention of al Qaeda.

Is anyone really, truly surprised by this? I'm surprised that I'm not more affected somehow, like it's become a routine - or if not a routine, then an anticipated hazard. Gotta love the conseravtive bombast tho: "Those libruls are soft on terra!!" Never mind that the UK is frighteningly "liberal" compared to the US (and they have that evil, anti-Christian "socialized medicine" going on over there, too!), and Tony Blair is one of the biggest liberals of all. Never mind that the terror attacks the Neocons find inspiring for flag-waving continually happen in those hated big cities, especially "librul" enclaves like New York, Madrid and London. Seems the Neocons have that in common with the al Qaeda thugs: they both hate blue states and bluer cities.

It's a dreadful tragedy, that ordinary folks can be targeted as if they were the footsoldiers in their governments' wars. Thinking about it raises some ugly, uncomfortable and dangerous questions. Don't all those flag-waving, yellow-ribbon-magnet bearing, America-love-it-or-leave-it McPatriots consider their fervent red-white-and-blue exhortations as being part of the war on terra? What about that truly obnoxious bumper sticker that is reaching epidemic proportions in this neck of the woods, the one that demands "Support President George W. Bush and Our Troops", bold lettering on a star-spangled background. To hear them talk, to read their letters to the editor, to read their postings on hundreds of blogs and message boards across the web, one might think that these folks definitely consider themselves Soldiers for Bush, as much as perhaps Soldiers for Christ - if they aren't already one and the same in some circles. And yet, enlistment numbers continue to sag and stop-loss orders are completely maxed out. There are plenty of people out there - like the ones cheering the imprisonment of Judy Miller - who talk as though their support for the war in Iraq is on a par with actually taking up arms in the desert. Why not let them share some of the costs, considering that they're so fucking willing to have someone else do all the dirty work for them. If they believe in it, they should step up for it, no?

The truly tragic part is that the overwhelming majority of Britons disapprove of the Iraq war as a whole, not to mention their nation's own role in it. Had Blair not been a liberal, there is little question that he would have lost his post. Then there's our own little fascist prick, Bubbles, swaggering up there in front of all the other G8 leaders, rambling on about "evil" and "terra" and capturing the terrorists to "bring them to justice." Is this a stock speech for this guy? How many times have we heard him say "bring them to justice"? As if saying it made it so. Where the fuck is Osama anyway? "I don't think that much about him," says Bubbles. So much for justice. Besides, how could any reasonable person take him seriously given the nature of the ties between the Bushes and bin Ladens? So maybe not the terrorist branch of the family, but there is something going on there that just isn't above board.

No matter how tragic, how terrible, BushCo will use the victims' blood to refresh its war paint: that was evident in the strangled, mangled sentences Bubbles managed to choke out in his address this morning. And there's no end to this. It will just keep cycling around and, eventually, we will have surrendered our most significant liberties to purchase the illusion of safety and security. We are snivelling cowards, we Americans, and will receive the proper rewards of cowards: more death, more destruction, more debt.

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