Thoughts on the London attacks

The proper first response to such an atrocity is, of course, outrage. Brutality of this sort tempts me to a belief in Hell, because I'd like to see the perpetrators end up there.

An act of war? In the wake of the London outrage, we will no doubt hear an updated version of one of the key propaganda points offered by apologists for the Bush administration's "war on terror." Radio reactionaries convinced their disciples that liberals wanted to respond to 9/11 legalistically rather than militarily. In the alternative reality created by GOP propagandists, wimpy Dems said "Call the cops" instead of "Tell it to the Marines."

Democrats deny the charge. They insist that they would never shrink from a war, if that war targeted the correct foe.

But the time has come to ask ourselves whether declaring "war" on terrorism has become as pointless an exercise as declaring "war" on cancer or drugs. War is fought between states. (Civil war, fought within a state, provides the sole exception to this rule.) Terrorists are not state actors.

Rightists may scoff at those who those who (in their imaginative propaganda) would reduce anti-terrorism to a matter of making arrests. But what have the Bushites accomplished by insisting on war-for-war's-sake -- by invading a country unresponsible for the World Trade Center attacks?

More calendar pages separate this date from September 11, 2002 than stood between VJ-day and attack on Pearl Harbor, yet Osama Bin Laden remains free. Perhaps we would have nabbed the mastermind by now, if Bush had not misled us into the Iraq quagmire. Without Iraq, our forces might have had more mobility within Pakistan. They certainly would have had more sheer numbers within Afghanistan.

Propagandists will now claim that the London attack justifies Bush's war. But -- unless a state actor is discovered -- the attack on that city's transportation system should be classified as a crime against humanity, not as a casus belli.

Britons do no injury to their national pride if they invoke Justitia instead of Mars. We Americans were so mad to follow Shakespeare's advice -- "imitate the tiger" -- that we fell into a tiger-trap. Britons will prove themselves our betters if they insist on taking the fight to the enemy, as opposed to settling for any enemy. They should call upon the spirit of Holmes, not Hotspur.

Cooked evidence?. Xymphora has already suggested that the Bush administration will find evidence blaming the attacks on a state actor. The only question (in Mr. X's mind) is which state -- Iran or Syria?

Advance warning. Intriguingly, the Israelis received advanced warning of the attack:

The Israeli Embassy in London was notified in advance, resulting in Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remaining in his hotel room rather than make his way to the hotel adjacent to the site of the first explosion, a Liverpool Street train station, where he was to address and economic summit.

Should we take this to me mean that the Israelis knew not only that an attack was imminent, but also where the attack would take place? Was Netanyahu himself targeted?

A striking thought, that. How could a terrorist leaving a bomb-laden package behind on a train be absolutely sure where that train would be at the time of detonation?

Fox News responds characteristically. Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, in an on-air exchange with fellow-Foxer Stuart Varney, opined that this outrage "works to our advantage." Nobody ever accused Fox News of good taste.

Varney responded:

It puts the Number 1 issue right back on the front burner right at the point where all these world leaders are meeting. It takes global warming off the front burner. It takes African aid off the front burner.

I'm not at all persuaded that taking attention away from global warming or Africa's miseries off will prove advantageous to anyone except Bush, Cheney and Rove.

Perhaps Fox should have thought twice before reminding us to ask "Cui bono?"

Tony Blair: Say what you like about him, he met crisis with dignity. When our country came under attack in 2001, our leader spent long minutes staring into space like a confused Stan Laurel. At least the Brits were spared that sight.