Thursday, July 7, 2005

Good thing we invaded Iraq


London Attacks (BBC News)

London has been attacked by terrorists, coordinated attacks in the subway system and on a double-decker bus. Dozens dead, hundreds wounded. Every time something like this happens, I am astounded yet again by the human capacity to do harm. It is unfathomable to me the desperation that must drive someone to act out in violence due to anger. I sympathize with the mistreatment of people around the world at the economic and millitary hands of the United States and our allies, but killing people--especially in the political climate of today--is only going to make things worse.

So I'm glad we are waging war on Iraq, rather than focusing our efforts on actually finding terrorists. That seems to be working out well for the Londoners.

I have nothing to base this belief on, but I have a feeling that the people of the United Kingdom are not going to rally behind their Prime Minister in a chest-thumping display of juvenile machismo and military adventurism. If anything I hope this will increase anti-war sentiment in the UK, as people realize that it was probably their government's mindless following of America's mission of vengeance that made them a target.

10 comments:

  1. You can't be serious. How many times was Britian attacked before Iraq? Start counting and then ask yourself if Iraq is a bad idea.

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  2. Calm down Quimosabi.

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  3. It is true that "Britian" was attacked before the illegal invasion of Iraq. However, this particular attack was almost certainly similar to that in Madrid, with the intent of encouraging a British withdrawal from the so-called "war on terror." Germany invading in the 1940s, for instance, is hardly relevant.

    The confusing part of your comment is where you imply that because Britain was attacked before the illegal invasion of Iraq, the invasion and subsequent occupation were somehow justified. See, I'm doing as you suggested and counting all of the times Britain was attacked, and they don't add up to "clear and present danger to the United States." In fact, Iraq has never attacked Britain or the United States at all. So, yeah, Iraq was still a bad idea.

    But of course, anybody with a blog in their profile called "Vote GOP" probably thinks that terrorists attack in a socio-political vaccuum because they are "cold-blooded killers that hate our freedom," in which case there couldn't possibly be a motive for their crimes. Using violence to make your voice heard is something only America is allowed to do.

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  4. Ryan rocks it once again with the ways of common sense and logic.

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  5. "I have a feeling that the people of the United Kingdom are not going to rally behind their Prime Minister..."

    It'd be nice, but I'm not too optimistic about this. They already re-voted the Labor Party back in, by a considerable margin. They say they don't like Blair and his relationship with Bush, but I think they do. When it comes down to it, I think the Brits are lot more like Americans in their desire for a strong leader to fight back the mongol hordes. Spain has a long history of unabashed anti-war socialist thinking that just doesn't exist in the UK/US.

    Care to wager on which way the UK public will go? :-)

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  6. I think you may be right, Gene, but my feeling was always that they like Blair and/or Labour in spite of his support for the war, not because of it. And I really don't see Blair war-mongering independent of Bush's plans. That is, I can't see him starting a new British-led attack on whatever Middle East country the responsible parties are from. He'll just continue the usual rhetoric and do whatever we're doing. But I'm far from an expert in British politics, so I could be way off.

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  7. A coworker informed me on why I may be wrong. The two basic elements are the same in the UK as were seen in Spain: A population that is largely anti-war and a government dead-set on supporting the war.

    But I think the British anti-war movement may be out of options. The Spanish voted out a conservative gov. and voted in the Socialists. As in the U.S. the left-wing party was pro-Iraq War (Democrats and Labor Party).

    "Who ya gonna call?"

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  8. Woops--that should have said

    "As in the U.S. the left-wing party IN THE UK was pro-Iraq War..."

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