London Bombings

[WilliamTell]

All of this has got to stop. Yesterday was total happiness and today is total sadness for Great Britain. I hope and pray that all of these terrorists attacks end soon.

[southsider2k5]

The US just raised the warning level to "orange" for mass transit... whatever the hell that means.

[Rex Kickass]

Not a lot really. There will be more cops on trains for three days.

[mreye]

The US just raised the warning level to "orange" for mass transit... whatever the hell that means.

They're going to start checking your tickets before you get on the train, because we all know terrorists don't know how to buy a train ticket.

[RockRaines]

How can this people claim to be acting on a holy war, when they attack defenseless people that have nothing to do with their country and/or oppression?

 

How holy is it to bomb defenseless people who are trying to get to work to feed their own families?

 

For a nation of people who are trying to establish their identity in the civilized world, they ar taking steps back. Only savages and uncivil people would attack people in this way.

[Nokona]

I hope all our English bretheren at Soxtalk are not directly affected by this. Prayers and all that.

 

But "The Secret Organization of Al-Qaeda in Europe"? WTF is that. That sounds like something my little brother would come up with in his treehouse.

[JUGGERNAUT]

Personally speaking, the good news is our distant relatives are fine. They were no where near the attacks at the time. We all should think about that when these things break over the news. The chances are that people here at SOXTALK could be personally involved in some way.

 

We can't stop these attacks any more than we could stop the kamikaze attacks in WW2. When the aggressor is willing to give up their life to harm you there is only so much you can do.

 

They are not good at what they do. Do not look in awe of what they accomplish. They are nothing more than cowards to attack innocent civilians that are powerless to make decisions. They are simply preying on the weak in hopes to break the resolve of the strong.

 

They are good at PR though. They effectively make use of the media by blaming the attacks on America's Judeo-Christian value system. Taken by itself it's not all that effective but when you align that value system with America's greed it's very effective. It makes us look like hyprocrits & every mis-step (WMD report, Abu prison scandal, Haliburton Iraq contracts) only serves further to drive the point home.

 

Though the Madrid bombing impacted Spain's election this was a surprise. The world had become lulled into a belief that Iraq & Afghanistan had drawn terrorists like fly's on s*** & the rest of the world was safe. The world even seemed to be getting numb to the death & dying in these hotbeds. Now that feeling of numbness has been removed. The terrorists have not forgotten what they do best. What they feel their real purpose is : weaken the resolve of America's allies & make her go it alone.

 

The traditional stance is "we don't negotiate with terrorists". That's inheriant in the belief that you should never recognize their position of strength as they use human lives for bullets in their war against you. Well maybe it's time we change that stance. You simply can not prevent these attacks without greatly sacficing liberty. That is the only realistic cost base d means towards prevention. I don't want to sacrifice liberty.

 

I think it is time the G8 sits down with the leaders of the Muslim & Islamic world (not the militants) & open diplomatic talks with them. They are the only hope in winning the war on terror. They carry much greater influence than any political or economic leader in the West. More importantly they are still respected by the militants.

 

If that means less exploitation of their people & economies by global mega corps then that should be on the table. Find out what is really driving the people to demonize us & wish for our deaths. They view Coca Cola & Mc Donald's as symbols of America's aggression. You might not understand that but they don't separate economics from war like we do. Many nations don't. Are profits worth more than human lives?

[CanOfCorn]

The Muslims who have been doing these things, especially the suicide bombings believe they will go straight to heaven.

 

Optomistically, I'm hoping the peaceful Muslims, start to rebel against the radical ones. If the US-led coalition really wants to help that part of the region, they need to get a Martin Luther King-like person, someone well respected in the Muslim world to spread the word of tolerance for all religions. That Christianity is on an equal ground with Islam and Judaism and Buddhism and Hinduism and Taoism, etc. That the bombings are making it worse for that part of the world and that religion.

 

The clear-thinking Muslims have to know that these bombings are only causing the rest of the world to have pity on the poor innocents in these countries. So, instead of the US, UK and other coalition members sending more fighting men and women, they should send diplomats to help install a leader, an anti-bin Laden, someone with the same amount of support, one that is so revered that no one will touch him, and if they do, he will be martyred.

 

And when they are done there, they should do that here.

[Pale Hose Jon]

Before we jump on the i hate the middle east bandwagon, could we atleast wait a little while and find out who ACTUALLY did this before we start blaming people. ( oh wait it appears i am far to late).

 

IIRC, the madrid bombings were done by the ETA, a basque seperatist movement, although after those bombings we were quick to blame alqueda.

 

So could we please wait til more information comes out before we spread ignorant hatred of islam.

[mreye]

Before we jump on the i hate the middle east bandwagon, could we atleast wait a little while and find out who ACTUALLY did this before we start blaming people.  ( oh wait it appears i am far to late).

 

IIRC, the madrid bombings were done by the ETA, a basque seperatist movement, although after those bombings we were quick to blame alqueda.

 

So could we please wait til more information comes out before we spread ignorant hatred of islam.

I think most here have qualified their statements with "Radical" Islam, not Islam as a whole.

[Balta1701]

Before we jump on the i hate the middle east bandwagon, could we atleast wait a little while and find out who ACTUALLY did this before we start blaming people.  ( oh wait it appears i am far to late).

 

IIRC, the madrid bombings were done by the ETA, a basque seperatist movement, although after those bombings we were quick to blame alqueda.

 

So could we please wait til more information comes out before we spread ignorant hatred of islam.

Actually you're completely, utterly, totally, 100% wrong about the Madrid bombings.

 

The Aznar government in Spain immediately tried to blame ETA after the bombings because they realized an Al Qaeda attack might look bad for them in the elections due to their support for the terribly unpopular Iraq war.

 

But rapidly, evidence came out that it was an Al Qaeda hit. The government which had been trying to cover that up then was voted summarily out of office.

 

Several Al Qaeda people are now in jail for that attack.

 

It was not ETA.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

The US just raised the warning level to "orange" for mass transit... whatever the hell that means.

It means bring your coffee on the train, read the paper and go to work like normal. The color coded system is meaningless cuz nobody cares. Besides, haven't we been at orange for a while now? Perhaps I missed it getting knocked back down to yellow before.

[DePloderer]

...................................................(speechless)

[Steff]

It means bring your coffee on the train, read the paper and go to work like normal.  The color coded system is meaningless cuz nobody cares.  Besides, haven't we been at orange for a while now?  Perhaps I missed it getting knocked back down to yellow before.

 

 

We noticed during lunch that it had been raised yesterday..

[Pale Hose Jon]

Actually you're completely, utterly, totally, 100% wrong about the Madrid bombings.

 

The Aznar government in Spain immediately tried to blame ETA after the bombings because they realized an Al Qaeda attack might look bad for them in the elections due to their support for the terribly unpopular Iraq war.

 

But rapidly, evidence came out that it was an Al Qaeda hit.  The government which had been trying to cover that up then was voted summarily out of office.

 

Several Al Qaeda people are now in jail for that attack.

 

It was not ETA.

 

 

You're right, it seems that my source, wikipedia, was not exactly up to date with the june arrests. My apologies.

[FlaSoxxJim]

...................................................(speechless)

How is the mood of the rest of the country over there now?

 

Hope none of your loved ones were affected in any way, and our hearts out to the victims and their families.

[southsider2k5]

How can this people claim to be acting on a holy war, when they attack defenseless people that have nothing to do with their country and/or oppression?

 

How holy is it to bomb defenseless people who are trying to get to work to feed their own families?

 

For a nation of people who are trying to establish their identity in the civilized world, they ar taking steps back.  Only savages and uncivil people would attack people in this way.

 

ACtually from what I understand of Islam, these people are breaking their own rules, just like the Christians who kill in the name of God.

 

The rules for Jihad are incredibly specific, and are very clear in that innocent people are not to be harmed at all, especially women and children. They also specify that both property and nature are not to be harmed either.

 

If anyone has more speifics feel free to add to this, I am going off of memory from stuff I learned after 9-11 so I might be a little fuzzy.

[southsider2k5]

It means bring your coffee on the train, read the paper and go to work like normal.  The color coded system is meaningless cuz nobody cares.  Besides, haven't we been at orange for a while now?  Perhaps I missed it getting knocked back down to yellow before.

 

To me an event like this only emboldens me. I will NOT change my daily life in order to appease a terrorist. That is exactly what I did after 9-11, and it is exactly what I will do when (not if) something happens here.

[FlaSoxxJim]

ACtually from what I understand of Islam, these people are breaking their own rules, just like the Christians who kill in the name of God.

 

The rules for Jihad are incredibly specific, and are very clear in that innocent people are not to be harmed at all, especially women and children.  They also specify that both property and nature are not to be harmed either. 

 

If anyone has more speifics feel free to add to this, I am going off of memory from stuff I learned after 9-11 so I might be a little fuzzy.

I'm not any sort of authority on it either, but you are correct that mainstream Islam authorities view the extremist view of jihad as very much against the will of God. There are several types of jihad, and mainstream Muslems concern themselves primarily with personal spiritual and intellectiual jihad and overwhelmingly denounce the radical militants who dress their horrific acts up as a legitimate religious jihad.

[FlaSoxxJim]

To me an event like this only emboldens me.  I will NOT change my daily life in order to appease a terrorist.  That is exactly what I did after 9-11, and it is exactly what I will do when (not if) something happens here.

You mean you won't change the things that are in your control. So much of our normal routine was changed in the wake of 9/11 that was out of our control but certainly affected us all.

[southsider2k5]

Also interesting notes for those who follow the financial markets.

 

The usual things happened in the overnight markets that you would expect after an event of this magnitude, stocks sold off, while gold and crude oil rallied a lot. But as the trading day has gone on, crude has actually gone negative, down as far as $2 a barrel at some points going below $60. Stocks have rallied hard from their lows, and the Dow Jones Index is almost postive for the day.

 

The markets are giving a big fat up yours to these terrorists, its really strange to be honest. I expected panic and being busy, and the markets have been 180 degrees different. Weird.

[DePloderer]

How is the mood of the rest of the country over there now?

 

Hope none of your loved ones were affected in any way, and our hearts out to the victims and their families.

 

Everyone I know is fine thanks. Credepopsup however is from London. I just hope that the only reason he hasn't posted yet is that he's stuck in town trying to get home, all transport is closed.

As to the mood here, I guess it's one of shock and anger. Part of me is relieved that it's finaly happened, I've been expecting it for a while, and that it wasn't any worse. I hate to think what it would have been like had it happened last weekend while Live 8 was on.

Sadly this is nothing new for people of my age, we had much worse happen during the 70's, 80's and 90's and the troubles with the IRA. Now as then, I have one message for those chicken s*** lowlifes who carried this out;

 

Britain is strong,

Britain will NOT be cowed down by these acts,

Britain will NOT let these acts cause us to turn on each other; decent people of all faiths will NOT be scapegoated in retribution for these acts,

These terrorists will not win, I and all I know will go about our business as normal.

This is the only way to beat these idiots.

 

Once again, Britain is strong.

[mreye]

Everyone I know is fine thanks. Credepopsup however is from London. I just hope that the only reason he hasn't posted yet is that he's stuck in town trying to get home, all transport is closed.

As to the mood here, I guess it's one of shock and anger. Part of me is relieved that it's finaly happened, I've been expecting it for a while, and that it wasn't any worse. I hate to think what it would have been like had it happened last weekend while Live 8 was on.

Sadly this is nothing new for people of my age, we had much worse happen during the 70's, 80's and 90's and the troubles with the IRA. Now as then, I have one message for those chicken s*** lowlifes who carried this out;

 

Britain is strong,

Britain will NOT be cowed down by these acts,

Britain will NOT let these acts cause us to turn on each other; decent people of all faiths will NOT be scapegoated in retribution for these acts,

These terrorists will not win, I and all I know will go about our business as normal.

This is the only way to beat these idiots.

 

Once again, Britain is strong.

 

For lack of the Union Jack :

[southsider2k5]

Interesting story about Bibi Netanyahu changing his plans at the last minute...

 

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...in_explosions_1

[YASNY]

So much for "no warning".