“I don’t want you going anywhere near London”, my mother said as I booked my trip to Ireland. “Don’t fly from Heathrow”.
“Doesn’t that mean the terrorists have won?”, I wondered to myself. Still, the flight from Luton is easier to get to, and although Luton was itself where the July 7 bombers travelled to London from, it’s certainly unlikely to be a prime target. In fact, much like Birmingham, I’d argue that it might actually do the place good to be explosively rennovated.
But people’s attitudes since the attacks in which 56 people died, including the four apparent suicide attackers, have been mixed. The We’re not Afraid site has given Londoners and others an outlet with which to show their defiance. Less brave Londoners have set up their own site in response: I Am F*cking Terrified. Plenty of gratuitous swearing, and unfortunately not-very-funny pictures, but they also make some very good points:
8. Fear is something you can grit your teeth against, but it doesn’t stop you being afraid. If you’re terrified, you’re terrified. Simple as that.
9. Terrorists cause terror. That’s why they’re called terrorists. If they didn’t cause terror, they’d be called something else – like ‘annoyingists’. Saying that you’re afraid doesn’t mean that the terrorists have “won”. #
Let’s face it, the ideology that drives these people is not fuelled by how scared someone who lives near London might be about going down for a day trip. Brits claiming not to be particularly bothered about what is, let’s face it, a pretty shambolic “terror” campaign will not convince the extremists to pack up and go home.
At the moment, we’re the bad guys, and it’s not because we’re afraid. It’s because of the mess our governments have made in the Middle East over the past century. And unfortunately, it’s going to take more than bravado to put that right.
..ok
…some home truths (and i’m playing devils advocate here – so don’t hate me)…
…’terrorists’, are not aiming to ‘win’ they are aiming to cause terror and publicise their cause… hmmmm, 2 out of 2 for the man in the scarf…
…an old saying, “One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter”, now this does not mean that I belive the perpetrators of “7/7″ are freedom fighters – but it does mean that some people do, think about that…
we cannot “win” this “war”, not in the conventional sense – think about isreal and the amount of suicide bombers they have to contend with, yet they have agreed to give up the gazza strip, does this mean they have lost? no, does this mean they have won? equally, no…
…there are no colours called “black” or “white”, only shades of grey…
we muddied the pot by tramping all over iraq, now we are paying the price, i lesser man than me might say, “i told you so…”
changing the tack slightly, tommorow morning i’ve gotta go into work and ask my brazilian collegue dave if he new (unlikely – but i gotta ask) the guy shot by “special forces” at stockwell, i’m fairly sure that dave will have VERY strong opinions about this…
…i know this as well, if 4 ununiformed blokes pointed a gun at me and shouted stop – i’d have probably run like the clappers as well – at least before the events of this weekend unfolded…
…peace – out.
No, it’s not about “winning” – as soon as innocent people die, both sides have already lost.
This didn’t start in Iraq, it’s been stewing for the best part of a century. Who armed bin Laden in the first place, in order to help him blow the Soviets out of Afghanistan? Who supplied Saddam with chemical weapons when Iran were the “bad guys”? Who set up the founding of Israel in the 1940s, when we couldn’t be bothered to run Palestine any more (and what were we doing there in the first place?) – cue the countless wars and conflicts that have plagued the area ever since.
We, the “civilised” West, created this situation. Or our governments did. But unfortunately they’re not the ones being shot at or blown up…
not only that, we (our glorious leaders) created the situation palestine and pakistan
it’s the wests fault – we are only just picking up the peaces… (sic)
…or what u said… ;-)
I politely reminded my mum of the millions of people who travel through london daily who don’t feel any effects of terrorism and who fail to get reported in the news.
Remember – If we let paranoia dictate our actions there’d be no food at all which people could eat and we’d all die prematurely of bird flu, salmonella, pesdicides, cow hormones etc.
Very true. And on the bright side, suicide bombers are nothing if not a dying breed.
*honk!*
Don’t believe the news stories about panic and fear on the streets of London. I live and work here and have noticed no difference at all since the first set of bombings save perhaps for a few more people tutting about late trains and security alerts.
I was at the recent REM concert in Hyde Park – which was itself postponed for a week because of the bombs. One of the support acts (an American) said what a privilege it was to be with us when we were going through ‘such a tough time’. Most people just laughed. There is no 9/11 style wallowing in grief here.
What happened is a personal tragedy (or rather just over 50 personal tragedies) but the bombings have not and will not affect this great city.