My mother flew to England earlier this week to take care of my grandmother. They’re north of Manchester, so this morning, I know they’re safe. Nevertheless, I’m angrier than hell this morning, and I’m trying to sort out my feelings.
My grandmother was born during World War I, lost her father in the trenches of France when she was a babe, lost her mother when she was a child. She lived through World War II, with its food privations, with the bombings of the industrial North by the Luftwaffe. She lived through the Post-War depression, was left a widow when my grandfather died at the age of 50, leaving her with two children at home. She helped raise me when my parents, who were 17 and 21 when I was born, lived with her while my father went to school to earn his degree and my mother worked. She lived through the Thatcher years, which devastated the North. And now, she’s 89, and Tony Blair, with his ill-considered support of George Bush, has brought the Iraq War home to England’s shores. To the heart of its London Tube system. Bastard.
Yes. I know it was the terrorists who blew up the Tube system. Madrid last year, London today. If it turns out that it was Al Qaeda, then it’s notice to the “coalition” governments that terrorists will punish the citizens of those countries. Of course, ironically, Al Qaeda didn’t give a shit about Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Osama Bin Laden and Hussein were enemies, not friends. But we created a situation where Al Quaeda is now in Iraq, and so we are reaping what men like George Bush and Tony Blair have sown.
What will Blair say to the families of the dead today? “Sorry, my bad?” No. I don’t expect so. I expect it will be some canned speech about “standing firm in the face of terrorism.” It will be the same empty words he offers the families of the soldiers he has sent to their deaths. He will not see his part in what happened today. The terrorists are responsible for the deaths of innocent people today. I am not absolving them in any way of their crimes. I am a pacifist, but today, I am unbelievably angry at the evil behind planting bombs on commuter trains and buses knowing that those bombs would rip bodies apart. But Mr. Blair, you invited those terrorists into your country when you supported George Bush. You could have said, “No.” You had the fucking evidence in the Downing Street Memos that this was a mistake. No. Not a mistake. A lie. A plan by an axis of evil in Washington DC to wage war on a country based on lies. And you did nothing. You said nothing.
There are people dead in London today, Mr. Blair. And what is to be done now?
I have no kin in the U.K., but I share your rage.
Bush and Blair think the killing of innocents is just fine if it advances their world view. Of course, we only kill innocents collaterally — which I’m sure is of great comfort to the families of the dead.
I opposed the war in Iraq for a lot of reasons, but my most selfish, and therefore probably most motivating reason, was that I thought it would strengthen the terrorist movement and make things less safe. Not the most noble reason to oppose war but there is is.
This was all so predictable.
And, by the way, where is Osama?
Lorraine, I’m sorry … you must be so worried.
These people lived through the London Blitz. They know what real terror is. And they have stood up to it with a level of matter-of-fact courage that most of us cannot even imagine, even when we see movies of it.
What happened today was a terrible tragedy. But it is as nothing compared to what Britons have lived through in living memory. Which is why no one should think that “the terrorists are winning” if Britons very sensibly take this as a sign that they should not be in Iraq. Not because it terrifies them on their own account, but because it starkly illustrates the folly of the road that Blair has taken them on.
The important thing for Britons is not that they withdraw from Irag, but that they should take a real leadership role in striking a new path that really can defeat terrorism–a path that does away with the wellspring of grievances that terrorists exploit.
It’s shameful to say this, as an American. Because we should be the ones doing this–taking a leadership role on a new path, one that can actually work. But right now the best we can do is urge on our Brittish kin. The Labor Party can vote to get rid of Blair’s leadership much sooner than we can get rid of Bush’s.
We can work our tails off, of course, to bring more and more pressure. But with no branch of government on our side, we are limited–at least for now. We need our Brittish kin to strike the first decisive blow.
Yes. It’s true. The Brits have survived some pretty horrible things–my dad’s mother had cracks in the wall of her house from a bomb that was dropped on a neighbor’s house during the Blitz.
My anger is that if Bin Laden had been the target, and stayed the target, we may have had a whole different situation on our hands. So my hope is that Britain will realize that they need to get smart about terrorism and quit supporting George’s NeoCon wet dream of world domination.
One does not understand the British mentality if one thinks that these terrorist bombings will somehow be the impetus for a discussion about withdrawing troops from America’s imperial misadventures.
Actually, the bombings will make it virtually impossible to withdraw (if it ever was possible)–Brits find it psychologically impossible to “cut and run”. As any President or Prime Minister will tell you, it is far easier to send the troops in than to bring them home. Blair couldn’t bring the squaddies back to Lancastershire even if he wanted–stay the course, steady on ’till morning, and all that.
That same stubborn resoluteness that we all find so admirable in Londoners in the wake of these deadly bombings is also a damnable trait, because we Brits don’t change course even when there’s an iceberg in our path. The Spaniards had far better sense.
Which is my roundabout way of saying: this is not over. No, it is only just beginning. Londoners are to pay the price for Blair’s lies, just as Iraqis and Afghanis are paying a thousandfold greater for Bush’s and Blair’s lies.
I understand what you say, and I agree that’s the default dynamic. But I’m damn hopeful that enough rational Bush hatred will arise to neutralize the normal course of events. Speaking of Spaniards, he’s the one who could be the Spaniard in the works.
<hugging you now> Lorraine, I can not imagine your feelings, well yes I can in a way. I want you to know that I for one am here for you if you need to say more. I will listen and be angry with you.
Thank you. I know my relatives are safe, but I cannot seem to swallow my rage.
best allowed out of ones self than held in.
I hear that. We are here with you and our British brethren today. Violence begets more violence. This is an age old truth.
The people that set these bombs are to blame for setting these bombs and killing and injuring all these people today.
Our leaders are to blame for not learning the lessons of history and providing real leadership geared towards solving the problems that create such terrorism in the first place.
We will never end violence. It appears to be an inate part of human nature. But there is no doubt in my mind that we are fully capable of reducing violence to be the exception rather than the rule… but it will take real leadership, real fortitude, real courage, real solutions. Killing people and blowing shit up is a short term (at best) and short sighted approach to the problem, any problem.
Real solutions can be found in solving economic injustices. Real solutions can be found in listening to each other and understanding each other. Real solutions can be found in promoting true freedom. The Bushies claim that is what they are trying to do but freedom isn’t promoted from behind the barrel of a gun.
I phoned my husband at P.T. to let him know what has happened. All of our soldiers tired out, used, money spent, all to breed more hatred and inspire new terrorists all over the world and give them something to feed on. More innocent dead who didn’t have anything to do with anything!
Powerful, lorraine. And I’m right there with you yelling my head off at these criminal idiots. Standing in their faces screaming at them and shaking my fist at them.
This must end. All of it. If I was angry yesterday, you can double it today. It is time to storm the seats of power.
So glad that your family is okay. At least we have that. No solace at all for those whose families are not okay.
thank you, shirl.
One of my sisters, Janet, is a Londoner (along with her husband and her two children who still live at home). I have other relatives there, as well: uncles, aunts, cousins.
Janet’s first reaction–and mine–when these bombings occurred was “those bastards”. Meaning, of course, whoever planned and executed these murders.
But once our heads had cooled, we realised that it was Blair who brought this upon us. Such bombings happen weekly, even daily, in Iraq–imagine the rage and horror that the Iraqis feel. And the Iraqis do not have the benefit of the excellent system of rescue services that Londoners enjoy. We have no idea who did these bombings, but almost certainly it was done in retaliation for the UK support of the murderous invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Again, it seems to my eyes that the only lives that mean anything to Bush and to Blair are the lives of Americans and British people. 700 injured and 40 killed? That’s a Wednesday afternoon in Baghdad. While we mourn the lives and limbs lost in London, what of those killed in Iraq? In Afghanistan? Just “collateral damage”–well, that’s how the terrorists see the innocent Londoners who got blown to bits. It’s nothing personal.
Again, I think–quite cynically, I realise–that Blair and Bush need for the cycle of violence to go on. If all is quiet in the streets of London and New York City and elsewhere, what excuse will they have for their daily depredations? I wonder, too, if Bush and Blair are even now concocting the “intelligence report” that will tie these bombings to Iran or whatever country they wish to bomb next.
What is the difference between Bush, Blair, and the people who did these bombings? I can’t see much of a difference, except that Bush and Blair have the means to spread their terror on a much larger scale.
courage and strength. They’ve survived foreign invaders, civil war, Nazi bombs, IRA bombs and worse. At the end of the day Londoners will be ok.
My sympathies to all of the innocents who were hurt. I have a feeling Mr Blair and BushieBoy’s “political capital” is in it’s last throes.
Glad your family is well and safe Lorraine.