In “No Quarter for Londoners?,” contributor Pat Lang asserts at No Quarter that “[s]everal ‘faith based’ beliefs should have been tested in our minds by the atrocities committed today in London” … more below:
… no amount of invasions, modernist reforms or uninformed efforts at persuasion will end its threat to our way of life. No. The Jihadis must be defeated through infiltration of their groups and destruction based on real intelligence.
2- Passive security systems wrapped up in expensive and profitable equipment contracts and grandiose new organizations are an effective preventative for attacks like this.
So, what IS the answer. Simple. We must really go over to the offensive and get serious about espionage penetration of these hostile groups, reaching deep into their guts until we KNOW, KNOW, what they are going to do next, and not waste our time trying to guess their actions from indirect evidence.
If you think that we and the Brits are already doing that, look at today’s butchery. If we had effective penetrations, this would not have happened.
There has been no “quarter” for Londoners. Now there should be no “quarter” for the ineffective bureaucratic drones and political hacks who have failed the British people.
Pat Lang is a “former Special Forces officer.”
and needs to be done, but it’s still treating the symptoms instead of treating the disease.
And until we can address the root causes of what makes these people want to jihad, we will continue to treat the symptoms and the disease will continue to spread.
Unfortunately, this is not going to happen so long as Karl Rove and his minions and surrogates can categorize it as offering terrorists therapy.
Or as long as the Democratic party tries to speechify like Bush Lite.
We need a contrasting view.
Yes. We need to do both. Intelligent infiltration to disrupt/destroy these groups and address the root causes so the terrorist groups don’t have support. That’s the pragmatic, and most effective approach.
It also happens to avoid large-scale expensive military engagements and to improve the welfare of many innocent people.
It should be a win-win situation, but Bush learned about solving problems from action movies, apparently. And has many friends looking for big defense/oil industry contracts.
Thu Jul 7,12:25 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) – The bomb attacks which have struck at the heart of London came as no surprise to the authorities.
For more than a year, police and politicians have been warning that a terrorist strike against the British capital, like the one which occurred Thursday, was highly probable, largely due to Britain’s support of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
As far back as March 2004, in the aftermath of the bombings in Madrid which left 191 dead, the then commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, Sir John Stevens, and the city’s mayor, Ken Livingstone, both went on record to say it was “inevitable” that one day London would be the target of terrorist attacks.
Livingstone said: “It would be miraculous if, with all the terrorist resources arranged against us, terrorists did not get through, and given that some are prepared to give their own lives, it would be inconceivable that someone does not get through to London.”
And with alarming prescience, Stevens warned: “This is not just about the railways, the underground, it’s about buses, roads, pubs, nightclubs and the like.”
He estimated that around 100 people trained by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden were at large in Britain and as many as 200 people could be involved in planning terrorist attacks.
With the authorities taking an increasingly tough line on Islamic fundamentalists, anti-terrorist police issued repeated warnings that the city was at risk and last December Stevens revealed that police had foiled a series of Madrid-style attacks.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050707/wl_uk_afp/britainattackswarnings
When the Brits had to quickly round up a group of purported Al Quaeda terrorists because of the leak of the identity of an inside source, who had been “turned” after his arrest in Pakistan. At the time they were irate, but publicly polite, that the US and Pakistani governments had allowed this information to be leaked via the NYT, and believed that their investigation had been comprised.
Wonder what they think of that “outing” today?
NYT Article
Kudos to theleftcoaster and dKos for refreshing my memory
Peace
compromised…
spelchek is my friend
spelchek is my friend…
… no amount of invasions, modernist reforms or uninformed efforts at persuasion will end its threat to our way of life.
This is revenge-think. From Israel’s 50 year struggle against Palestinians, to Euro-Americans’ hundred year struggle against organized labor and 2-1/2 century struggle against Native Americans, to Britain’s 5-8 centuries against Ireland–VENGENCE DOESN’T WORK.
Islamic terrorists are not threatening our way of life. They don’t have the capacity to take out Disney, much less Wal*Mart or our trade with China.
They’re disrupting our way of life–to back us off from our actions toward their part of the world. They didn’t attack Spain or Britain or Austrians in SE Asia till those countries supported the U.S. in Iraq.
Saying that a population cannot be persuaded is the 21st century way of saying they’re animals. It’s not useful for anything except ramping up the weapons and security trades.
Short-term, we have a severe security and intelligence problem but very little military mission other than the unrelated one we created out of boredom in Iraq. Long term, it’s a matter of economic & political policies and, yes, modern reforms.
But again, this presumes that leadership wants a solution. If it doesn’t want a solution, then yes, the way to proceed is to build up the military, show strength because They Only Understand Force<sup>®</sup>, and not negotiate with people who Hate Our Way Of Life<sup>®</sup>.