| Thursday, July 7, 2005 |
11:44 - Test of mettle
|
(top)  |
So now that London has been attacked, it seems hard to escape the speculation that the terrorists—if indeed today's attack was by the same people—are moving from country to country, feeling each one out to see which way it will jump.
They know now how the US and Australia reacted, they know how Spain reacted. Now they'll find out how the British will react.
We won't know for another couple of days; today, people are still giving speeches in the heat of the moment, and many folks are saying very encouraging things, including even Ken Livingstone. But time will tell whether that kind of ire will last as it has here, or whether the Galloways of the world—with their connecting the dots between the claim of responsibility citing Iraq and Afghanistan as the reasons for this "retaliation", and the necessity for Britain to withdraw from the War on Terror—will win out.
Many are claiming that the British Isles are made of sterner stuff, but I fear that the world has become so cynical by now that the hope for a muscular response is slim.
In any case. The main thing today is for our thoughts to go out to the victims, and that's where mine are.
|
|
Brian Tiemann
