Instapundit has a nice collection of links; see also, the Command Post and Tim Worstall. Some speculation on the G-8 connection here; and, for a different take, here.
Me? I smell Al Qaeda sympathizers.
And I suspect that once British authorities get through with the coming roundup of Muslim extremists in London and environs, Amnesty International will be compelled to begin braying about gulags on the Thames…
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update: Right Wing Nuthouse has a link-rich, frequently updated post that provides a narrative of events.
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update 2: From the AP: a chronology of explosions in London.
Question: what are the chances we roll back the PATRIOT Act now, do you think?
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update 3 (mini-analysis): It won’t be too long, I don’t suspect, before the first brave Guardian columnist—after the requisite impassioned condemnations of terrorism—will float the trial balloon that Tony Blair’s support of Bush’s illegal Iraqi oil grab is responsible for the London bombings. Unlike with Spain, however, I think the Brits will meet such nonsense with clear eyes and a stiff upper lip. Al Qaeda believes otherwise.
Either way, we’ll soon see who has a better idea about the character of our allies.
****
update 4: Good stuff at the Counterterrorism Blog (via Glenn). Latest casualty figures from FOXNews / Sky: 37 confirmed dead; 50 seriously wounded; 350 wounded. Tragically, that number is sure to grow.
Also, SKY is reporting that officials are investigating a suspicious package in Victoria Station; commuters are being told to evacuate the area.
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update 5 (addendum to update 3): Well. That didn’t take long, did it? Saddam flack MP George Galloway:
We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the Government ignoring such warnings.
Heartening to find a Member of Parliament chastising his own countrymen for having shown an unwillingnesss to surrender pre-emptively to a medieval death cult, no?
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update 6: James Robbins, NRO.
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update 7: Good piece from Greyhawk:
An attack on a nation hosting the leaders of the civilized world certainly sends a message, after all. A carefully considered reply delivered soon would be appropriate.
There’s an undeniable conclusion that can be drawn from today’s attacks: the modern world has its vulnerabilities – its obvious weaknesses. That’s news to no one. That enemies of civilization would strike at those weaknesses should come as no surprise either. That they would symbolically aim that attack at civilization in its entirety might, however, shock a few slumbering souls into a slightly more wide awake attitude.
[…] But that physical, tangible, and tactical weakness is not their true target. The weak point they aim for in such assaults is the perceived weakness in resolve of the people of the civilized world. In Spain the tactic appeared to get results; a government fell. Whether today’s events would have occurred without that spectacular success from last year is a question for academics to debate.
And perhaps while they’re at it they can tackle these topics too:
Is it time for London to fill it’s cavernous subway tunnels with cement to ensure they are never attacked again? Is it time for the world to abandon mass transit as an unacceptably risky business altogether?
And what else should we surrender or abandon, to ensure we’ll always be safe?
My answers are brief. “No” and “Nothing”. The rest of the world will respond too, I’m sure.
But here’s a final question for you to consider, depending on your answer to the previous two:
Who’s next?
The ghost of Churchill might be glimpsed among those mourning and recovering in London Town this week. Certainly we’ll see if his spirit lives on.
****
update 8: Is the war lost? Is our strategy for fighting the War on Terror misguided? Is democracy the proper ideal for the greater middle east, or should the US instead attempt to buy off useful mideast dictators who’ll promise to crack down on their malcontents in exchange for our tax dollars and tacit support? Discussion in the comments here, provoked by this post, which, in its coverage of the bombings, manages to channel George Galloway.
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update 9: Sky News is reporting that London law enforcement has found evidence tying at least one of the bombings to a suicide attack.
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update 10: The death toll has been upped to 50.
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update 11: Mark Steyn, who will be on with Hugh Hewitt later today, weighs in here (thanks, Dario).
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update 12: Cliff May, the Corner:
On the BBC today one British official was quite puzzled that the terrorists would strike during the G8, a time when world leaders were addressing “poverty, inequality and injustice.â€Â
That presupposes that the terrorists care about “poverty, inequality and injustice.†How stupid do you have to be to believe that someone who takes money from a Saudi billionaire to buy bombs cares about “poverty and inequality� How ignorant do you have to be to believe that to Radical Islamists “justice†means anything other than infidels choking on their own blood, their civilization burning and a glorious, renewed caliphate arising from the ashes?
Similarly, a German official lamented that the G8 was about alleviating poverty in Africa and, she suggested, alleviating poverty is imperative because otherwise we have to expect more terrorism.
First, though the sub-Saharan regions are mired in poverty, there has been very little terrorism out of Africa. Most Africans do not appear to be of the view that one can murder one’s way into the middle classes.
Second, in a very real sense, the German official was legitimizing terrorism, implicitly arguing that poverty is sufficient justification for killing other people’s children.
For the last time: lack of freedom—not poverty—is the chief cause of terrorism.
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update 13: “Bloggers call for protests and solidarity” – The Times of London (via IP); and one Democratic blogger is confronted by the reality of the totalitarian streak that animates many on the hard left.
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update 14: (via email)
REPORT: One UK Homicide Bomber Was Recent GITMO Release:
7 July 2005; 12:54 ET: Preliminary reports from a source inside the Pentagon indicate that one of the operatives involved in this morning’s bombings in London was recently released from the prison at Guantanamo. DEVELOPING…
More here.
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update 15: Hitchens responds (via Beck); and John Cole prepares us for what is sure to be a flurry of stories “investigating” just what the Jews knew, and when, precisely, they knew it.
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update 16: Predictably, Justin Raimondo is already seeing Joooos in the Shepherd’s Pie. Now, I’m not one to tell the Zionists how to run their international cabal, but if it were me who was in charge of running the world, I’d sacrifice up a few Hebes at each of these bombings, just to keep Justin Raimondo and his tireless investigators off my ass. Hell, I might even throw in a Likudnik from time to time, just to really confound the Truth Seekers.
Like Fox Mulder, had his sister been abducted by hooknosed bankers or orthodontists, this guy is.
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update 17: For those familiar with London, Daniel provides this link to an MSNBC map of the bombing sites. And Apologist notes that two unexploded bombs have been found (both links from comments).
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update 18: Rick Moran—larded by the materialist complacency that blinds vast herds of bourgeois consumerists like himself to the intricate plots hatched by our shadow government’s sinister power brokers in their endless quest for world dominations—tries futilely to deconstruct the ironclad TRUTHS that have already been painstakingly culled from the Zionist-controlled media’s white noise and reconstructed by those vigilant few who are willing to keep their eyes open for signs of the BIG JEW LIE.
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update 19 Atrios, Pandagon, Kos, and—more disturbingly, if it proves predictive of how the Democratic leadership will respond—at least one Democratic congresswoman I’m aware of, are all suggesting that today’s London bombings prove that the “flypaper theory” is demonstrably false, this despite the documented fact of thousands upon thousands of jihadis pouring into Iraq each month, where many of them will be killed.
Which, for a group of people who claim to be so nuanced, things really are quite black and white in the reality-based community: if we can’t take down every dictator simultaneously, we shouldn’t take down even one; if a terror attack happens outside of Iraq, the thousands of terrorists we’re killing inside Iraq are no longer part of the equation.
It is infantile to expect every terror attack outside of Iraq can be stopped; and it is ridiculous to extrapolate from a single terror attack the lesson that somehow our entire longterm strategy for defeating Islamic terrorism is faulty. Doing so just serves the terrorist’s interests by showing them that such tactics could well weaken our commitment to an overall war strategy of spreading the seeds of democracy throughout the mideast. (Thanks to Allah for the heads up).
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update 20: The radical left and the paleocon right are finding common cause in this Stratfor brief. (via Ted Pannkoke, who notes in his email, “If it does come out that the British government had some kind of useful forewarning, the potential parade of horribles is staggering: Blair falls/resigns; his left-Labor successor ‘re-evaluates’ Britain’s Iraq commitment; so much for a unified front in the War on Terror; Bush’s Second Grand Alliance fails. Of course, that’s an awful lot of theoretical dominos right now. But it is exactly what these people are after”).
Questions to keep in mind, if indeed it’s true that the British government had some sort of foreknowledge: 1) How specific was the intelligence? 2) Would it have prevented the attacks? 3) Is it feasible to shut down the public transportation system based on the kind of intelligence the British authorities had? 4) Has British intelligence been given this kind of warning before? In what context? How did they use the intelligence then?
For his part, Justin Raimondo has a different take, as John Cole points out in an update here.
Good to see you posting after the “Omega Post Jeff’s Not Going to Blog Anymore Scare”
Man o man. Either these giuys are incredibly stupid, or they just don’t understand the democratic west at all.
My money’s on #2. When your education consists exclusively of memorizing a “holy book”, ignorance is the inevitable result. It was the same during the dark ages, when the roman church’s doctrine ran rampant in europe. Then came the Enlightenment.
Maybe we need a guy named al-Luther?
Gorgeous George Galloway has already surrendered – see the reference to his statement in the Guardian UK blog …
Yep, he’s not a columnist, but Galloway has done exactly as you predicted. Except he agrees with the terrorists that this is about Afghanistan, too.
Thanks, guys. Looks like I was updating with the Galloway bit even as you commented.
Not surprising, really. Just hope I’m right about the Brit resolve. Hard to tell; they’ve been raised on the BBC, after all. Let’s see if they believe the leftist the indoctrination that they’ve been forced to pay for for much of their lives.
Link collections? try this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_London_transport_explosions
What, nothing from Galloway about the Tragedy of Andalusia? He’s been getting less reliable since the checks stopped coming.
BTW:
(sorry for the multi, I’m doing several things at once.)
Anybody got any good conspiracy theories? Not the usual claptrap from IMC/Kos/Metafilter, but actual creative conspiracy theories?
Thee attacks were orchestrated by the Aruban government to take the spotlight off of their failure to find Natalee?
Nah. Maybe if you work in the ostriches?
Okay. Conspiracy Theory:
This one isn’t that creative, but it’s the most plausible. In my mind anyways. I mean, who else could it possibly be other than the FRENCH. When they learned that London was in the running for the 2012 Olympics, they knew they were going to lose. The French have never beaten the Brits at anything, and they knew they weren’t strong enough to overcome the odds. So they preemptively set the packages in place, and waited until the day after the announcement to be sure. Their strike was actually well thought out, because people would be momentarily confused over whether it was the IRA or AQ that was up to no good. I’m telling you man, it was those cheese-eating unbathed bastards in France. They finally got their licks in.
Spam word: probably. As in “Then again, probably not.”
Chiraq’s comments about British food set off a flatulent chain reaction, and someone lit a match ?
(Joe’s Razor – Always find the most likely explaination that blames the French)
“Just hope I’m right about the Brit resolve.”
I think you are Jeff. My biggestest curiousity has been about how that kind of culture would react to something like this and it’s very different than here in the US, although I believe the end results will be the same. First thing I did was to to Mark Steyn’s website and this is all he had to say,
“THE LONDON BOMBINGS
After Bali and Madrid, an attack on Britain was simply a matter of time. Nonetheless, the ability to pull it off at this particular time is sobering. I’ll have more on this in Friday’s Telegraph.”
Then I went to Andrew Sullivan’s site (yes, him). He has several observations, stories and quotes about the typical Brit reaction. Interestingly enough it consists of a stoic response and an almost forced nonchanlance toward the horror of what just happened. Fill the Pubs, talk about soccer and later, they will go rumble when they are good and ready.
HA! Great minds think alike.
I hope you’re right; the British are hard to read these days. Exactly how much of the self-destructive Euroblather have they absorbed? Have they really succumbed to the forces of despair like the rest of Western Europe or are they only in a daze, ready to snap out at the first sign of real disaster? You can never underestimate them. For a bunch of very white guys on a very small island, they’re a real bunch of world-shakers and ass-kickers. Once upon a time the sun never set on the British Empire. Let’s hope that spirit is still there, somewhere…
Also, Britain and Londoners in particular have dealt with acts committed by the Irish Republican Army for 30 or 40 years now.
As a matter of fact, a couple of guys on sports talk radio managed to get in contact with a pub over there. They asked the owner if this is the worst or something like that. The pub owner mentioned, nonchalantly, the IRA, a bombing at Canary Wharf, etc.
My thoughts are with the Brits today, but I’m not too worried about their resolve.
SW: foreign
What’s up with Galloway’s use of ‘we’?
Is he an editor or a potentate?
Or is he just appeasing a mouse in his pocket?
Styen has an article up (of sorts). He will be on Hewitt today as no suprise.
http://www.steynonline.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=69
If there is one exactly, precisely wrong way to intimidate the British, bombing is it.
Turing = ahead, as in Full speed ahead, and faster please.
Unfortunately, Jeff, that’s far from the last time you’ll have to debunk the “poverty causes terrorism” meme. It seems to be a very stubborn and pernicious belief.
What’s ironic, Matt, is that the former Democratic belief for ameliorating oppression and suffering worldwide (freedom) has been taken up by a Republican president (and “neocons”), while erstwhile Dems have embraced the “realist” foreign policy stance of Bush the elder, and the root causes argument of the kinds of leftist ideology that permeates academe.
Anyone notice the Hamas condemnation in the Wikipedia entry?
Neither the buses that have exploded in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, or any of a dozen other Israeli cities over the last ten years nor their dead or maimed passengers could be reached for comment.
REPORT: One UK Homicide Bomber Was Recent GITMO Release
7 July 2005; 12:54 ET: Preliminary reports from a source inside the Pentagon indicate that one of the operatives involved in this morning’s bombings in London was recently released from the prison at Guantanamo. DEVELOPING…
See this link for updates:
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/
I take it that this has nothing to do with this, except for the ironic sullying of a proud name.
Since you’re collecting links, Hitchens has a good piece at Slate.
Two unexploded bombs found.
If you’re familiar with London, here’s a map of the explosion sites.
Galloway’s use of “we”? He’s extending an invitation for everyone else to surrender with him. Bastard.
Joooooos! Of course! And I bet they were instructed to do it by KKKarl Rove!
Occam’s Razor, you know.
Was anybody else scared and sickened by Bush’s statement today? He said something like, “We’ll spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overcome their ideology of hate.” Ok, I give, he is a moron.
The man is utterly fucking clueless about the nature of our enemies. His border policy is a disaster, and he continues to make ridiculous statements about The Religion of Peace(tm). Somebody needs our giant foot up their ass, and right now.
Spamword, “below,” as in, “Look out below, motherfuckers.”
I think you’re being too harsh, Craig. I agree on border security, but we’re an open society with a huge border and a very large population of illegals helping our economy churn, so it’s difficult.
Also, Bush has to make mealy-mouthed appeals to the “religion of peace.” He’d get crucified by the liberals if he didn’t. I think he understands what we’re up against much more than he lets on. The volume of actions relative to words and all that.
Like he doesn’t get crucified by them on a daily basis now? Actions speak louder than words, Matt. We need to cut off the borders, for one thing, and don’t tell me it can’t be done. If it takes a wall and the National Guard, so be it. There are ways around Posse Comitatus.
If it were up to me, I would make it known to the leaders of every muslim country, and to the right people so that it would get to Al-Qaeda, that if there’s another attack in this country, BOOM goes Mecca, and then Medina. (See Randy Newman.)
Spamword, “right.” Nuff said.
I think this President’s actions have been plenty loud enough. Closing the border is not physically impossible, but it would be a collosal mistake. Psychologically, economically… a terrible move. How many attacks have their been since 9/11? If we’d closed the border, at a huge cost, we’d still have had zero attacks.
As appealing as your second paragraph is (and hell, he might just have told the Saudi’s this, privately) I’m glad he’s in charge and not you. No offense.
Spam word: hair. Yep, hair. Just think about it.
Spamword, “taken,” as in, no offense taken. I fully expected that reaction from someone.
Craig – Did you mean “Pussy Comitatus”?
Just wonderin’ …
We’d also lose the support of the people of the Middle East and thus the war, too. The hour that the majority of them believe that this is a war against Islam, we will have lost.
Thanks, Sanity. Meant to say something more like that.
I don’t even get that, MC.
To quote Margaret Thatcher, Now is not the time to go wobbly. Hit back, and hit back hard.
TW -Trouble, as in what al qaeda will be in after SAS gets through with them.
Raimondo is one of those cranks who get me scared shitless about supporting the Libertarian Party.
Even so, they have fewer of them than the Democrats have, but unfortunately, it might be a larger percentage of the membership.
Craig –
As much fun as it would be to see the Dome of the Rock go “Kablooie” from – heck – a Daisy Cutter with the phrase “Here’s Your Allah” written on it in chalk – the repercussions would be devasting.
And not only if it turns out that Allah is the One True God and Mohammed was his Prophet and Allah does indeed get pissed and open a can of God-Ass on us.
So long as Bush says to the Muslim population – “Look, we’re tired of that crazy extremist uncle of yours coming over, breaking stuff, and scaring the women and children – we’re going to kick his ass, and his ass only, understand?”
Then, things remain okay.
Were Bush to make this a more general – ‘You muslim types coddle your crazy uncles and the lot of you need to go’ .. then it becomes an US/Them issue.
Which is bad.
Derbyshire has a slew of sharp posts up at the Corner arguing the opposite. Worth reading. And Charmaine Yoest’s anecdotal report from London (posted at Powerline) is not encouraging.
Craig – mostly trying to loosen you up a little bit ‘cause this has got us all wound up pretty tight. I know you can, cause I read those good lyrics.
But, you know, right now, the military can’t help us out with stuff like border security. Hence the derogatory reference to the act that makes it impossible for the military to be put to domestic use. Silly me.
Hmmmm.
I fully expect the British to fold like a cheap suit. This isn’t the British Empire of days gone by. This isn’t the London of the Battle of Britain.
They’ll follow the pattern provided by the Spanish. Blame America, Bush and being involved in Iraq. They’ll be out of Iraq in 3-6 months.
And then we can kiss the whole Trans-Atlantic “special relationship” goodbye. It was already mostly dead, and this will finally show it as the paper tiger it has been.
My main worry about all that pub-drinkin’ dart-throwin’, wot-me-worry? nonchalance isn’t so much an indicator of resolve as it is of indifference.
I mean, I love that dry cynical British humour, but sometimes I’d kinda like to see them to get right pissed off.
That act doesn’t make it impossible to put the military to that use. Unfortunately, I don’t have the relevant facts at my fingertips. but there are different ways to interpret it. As for the nuclear option, my point was not to make the threat public, just to make those assholes believe it.
As for British resolve, let’s hope Sully is right:
Whoops, didn’t catch that dario had already mentioned Sullivan. Well, there’s the link, anyway.
I think we should also express our defiance of Islamabaddy jihad by determinedly carrying on as normal. No concessions in our way of life for terrorists!
…So…
…just like normal…
…did you know that there is such a thing as <objectID=10334155” target=”_blank” class=”text”>yak skiing?</a>
*sigh*
Never shake the bucket of nuts before you’re tied to the yak rope.
Never!
Oh sure, TSI, I’m on to your little game. Trying to DISTRACT us with yak-skiing from the fact that BUSH LIED, and is responsible for these latest attacks. IF WE HADN’T GONE INTO IRAQ, THIS NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!!! Never mind the fact that these 7th-century goat-fuckers have been pulling this shit for thirty years. BUSH LIED, PEOPLE DIED!!!!
So, a Presidential border emergency would be enough for me. There’s got to be a way to refrain from restricting commerce or labor without having a porous border – check them in through a gate or something – whoever you are going to let in. Unless you don’t mind having a few hand carried bombs show up on mass transit from time to time. It’s only a matter of time if we don’t do something about it.
Conversely, I am mindful of potential misuse and the need to exercise great care.
True story: Once I was driving from Nevada into Utah (less than 10 years ago). There was a bulldozer blockade of the interstate and all traffic was directed to a ‘rest area’ pretty much at the entry into Utah. This ‘rest area’ was a bowl sorrounded by hillside. There was a command post about 200 feet up and to the right from the parking area (the bowl). There were several dozen paramilitary guys in enfilade and fusilade positions surrounding the bowl. They were dressed in D-boy fatigues and carried automatic weapons – not M-16s – I don’t know what they were but they were close to Uzi’s.
Turns out they were DEA – our Federales – doing a ‘trial run’ interdiction operation. Searching everybody and the cars and what not – there were about 300 civilian vehicles all together when I was there.
I asked to go to the command post and asked them for their judicial papers that gave them permission to conduct their operation. They got pretty pissed, refused, and sent me on my way.
I wrote to the Governor of Utah, Senator Orrin Hatch, the DEA, etc. And I asked them all this question: “What if someone they stopped that day was a dangerous fugitive and was armed to the teeth when they pulled into that ‘bowl’?” I asserted that there would be dead innocent civilians as a result. I also asserted that this was a violation of Posse Comitatus.
I eventually got a letter of apology from the head of the Utah State Troopers, via the Governor’s office – who had refused to be any part of this ‘op’ for that very same reason.
That’s why any use of our Federal military – or paramilitary – in regard to border enforcement needs to be focused outward, we should be able to conceive of this as defense of country – because that’s what it is. Leave the citizens alone, don’t trouble the folks that want to work too much, and keep the bad guys out. Isn’t that doable?
A nice glass of warm yak milk before beddy time anyone?
Craig – Now, what did I just say about shaking the bucket of nuts?
Don’t do it! Not before you’re tied to the yak rope!
You Jews and your wacky shennanigans!
Yeah, especially since that particular mosque is in Jerusalem. I think you’re thinking of the Ka’bah–that big box that houses the black stone in Mecca.
And while blowing that sky high would be inadvisable, dropping a big ass bomb on the old part of Jerusalem would be a BIB no-no.
I agree with Ed that the Brits will fold like a cheap suit.
Does anyone there even smoke many cigars anymore?
many s/b manly
But it works both ways. Not unlike Andrew Sullivan.
One thing to remember about the Brits, their special ops troopers don’t have to answer to whiny ass liberal socialists in Congress like ours do. Once they say ‘sic em’, the SAS don’t mess aroubnd.
Just wondering if the Queen can still sign death warrants or toss suspects into the Tower.
(Insert “Pussy Comitatus Act” satire here.)
No, really, cuz I’m not smart enough to write it.
“Posse Comitatus”
“Dis you just call me a pussy communist?”
Arianna Huffington just jumped on the flypaper theory bandwagon with a particularly ignorant post. Thanks to Instapundit I see that, amazingly, that’s not even the dumbest thing she’s written today.
A quote from an e earlier comment “When your education consists exclusively of memorizing a “holy bookâ€Â, ignorance is the inevitable result”
You know, I couldn’t have described Bush or his fans any better.
Look at the repeated attacks on science, enviromentalism, civil liberties, the incredibe deficit, the profiteering of companies associated with the Bush/Cheney Cabal, etc.
Ignorance is reigning supreme in the US.
Sean – thanks for the ‘Dome of the Rock’ clarification. I’ll update the intel over at the targeteers station.
Regardin Jeff’s update #19 – regarding the Troika of Kos, Atrios, and Pandagon and their take on the Flypaper Theory – the entirety of their case rests on a really poor graph made by General Ed over at BTCnews.
The graph shows ‘terrorist incidents’ on the Y axis and years along the X axis. It’s saddle shaped with the low point occuring during the Clinton Administration.
UNFORTUNATELY – General Ed provides the link to his data source –
http://tkb.org/AnalyticalTools.jsp
And if you go through the exercise, you’d find the following:
* Ed’s chart includes terrorist incidents with zero injuries/zero fatalities. The graph changes once you filter for actual casualties inflicted.
* There are nine regions for reporting – of nine regions, the only two that show an uptick in terrorism are the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The bigger conclusion is this: Places where lots of white people live have benefited significantly from Pax Bushicana. So have those non-whites living near the white peoples
More importantly, so have people in Africa and Latin America. Go ahead, check the data.
Using the Kos/Jesse/Duncan metric, the Clinton era was a tragedy of unprecedented proportions for most of the people on Earth compared to the peace and stability brought by the Bush Doctrine.
Really, go play with the filtering tools, check out what happens when you include all of Clinton’s statistics rather than the arbitrary cut off of 1995. Clinton’s averages are, in cases, worse than Bush’s peaks.
The central tendencies for all but the Middle East and Southeast Asia favor Bush.
And the Middle East and Southeast Asia aren’t all that bad when you take into account the reasons why terrorist attacks are on the rise …
and, btw, after a spike there’s a negative slope on those two regions as well.
I thought these particular reality-based guys were supposed to be whip smart. I mean, I take for granted that Oliver is just … well … Oliver. But it seems that Jesse, for all his umbrage, is at heart a moron considering he takes at face value a graph tossed up by General Ed posted at a Betty the Crow production and makes that graph the heart of his screed.
Markos and Duncan are demonstrable morons, wankers even, but I thought Jesse had better sense.
Guess I was wrong.
Ignorance is reigning supreme in the US.
Of which your comment is a perfect example.
I apologize for being late to this.
I lived in England for two years in the mid-80’s. I’d just graduated, and moved from Ireland to England. with a thick Irish accent, I was expecting all the worst from the Brits. Anti-Irish bigotry, that sort of thing. In fact, I was never treated with anything but courtesy and respect. Those two years made me a totally committed anglophile.
I was kind of shocked when I heard about the bombing. I’ve been through Russell Square, on the way to the British Museum, many times. The last time I was in London, I stayed at a hotel round the corner from Aldgate. It was kind of freaky to see places I’ve been through come up as targets.
I think the terrorists really screwed up on this one. The IRA tried for 30 years to break British spirit. The more they bombed, the less the Brits gave. It wasn’t until recently, when the IRA launched a charm offensive that they were able to make any progress.
Jeff,
Thanks for the mention. I had linked to DarkSyd’s article in the midst of doing an upgrade. In no way do I agree with him. Actually he and I had quite a spirited email exchange afterwards.
Very impressive and thorough post here.
Bill –
Yeah, because Yale is a well-known bible school. It’s pratically a madrassa for Christianity!
Which attacks on science? If you mean stem cell research, that wasn’t banned. Hell, federal funding wasn’t even banned, scientists just weren’t allowed to use federal money to develop new lines of cells.
Find me a link on an attack on the environment. Not signing the ridiculous Kyoto treaty doesn’t count.
You’re right, though, that the restrictions on my civil liberties suck. These new inter-state passports are a pain, and the spot where they implanted my tracking chip is still itchy. And I can’t even fight back because they took away all my guns, and I can’t tell anyone about it because suddenly blogging is illegal.
The deficit? We’re at war.
What the fuck does “profiteering” (which, as far as I can tell, means “making a profit during wartime”) have to do with ignorance and Christianity? Tell the truth, you’ve got no idea, you just tacked that on the end because you like the sound of Halliburton!
I tried to find pictures of the London bus but all I could find were Jerusalem bus pictures… hundreds of them…
Funny…. /Sarcasm off…
Not that the suffering of the Brits shouldn’t be appreciated but 4 bombs isn’t… hundreds… is it?
Thanks for the comprehensive bitch slap you just delivered to “Bill”, Matt, but I think we’ve seen the last of him.
Hit-n-run, baby. Hit-n-run. That’s all they’ve got left.
Gee, I think I’ve got my own stalker.
SB: fine
Matt Moore,
Good job. Add to all of your post the fact that Halliburton is only one of three companies in the world that do what they do (rebuilding infrastructure of oil pipelines and facilities), and happens to be the only one that is not a foreign corporation. But of course people don’t want to be bothered with pesky things like facts.
Can someone help me out with this “flypaper theory” thing?
Jeff says there are “thousands upon thousands of jihadis pouring into Iraq each month” and that’s a good thing because “the thousands of terrorists we’re killing inside Iraq are no longer part of the equation” outside Iraq.
Does that mean the Iraqi borders were not secured on purpose?
I’m going to sound like a broken record here but Steyn’s Telegraph piece is now up and linked from his site to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/07/08/do0802.xml.
Couple of interesting excerpts…
Did we learn enough, for example, from the case of Omar Sheikh? He’s the fellow convicted of the kidnapping and beheading in Karachi of the American journalist Daniel Pearl. He’s usually described as “Pakistani” but he is, in fact, a citizen of the United Kingdom – born in Whipps Cross Hospital, educated at Nightingale Primary School in Wanstead, the Forest School in Snaresbrook and the London School of Economics. He travels on a British passport. Unlike yours truly, a humble Canadian subject of the Crown, Mr Sheikh gets to go through the express lane at Heathrow.
Or take Abdel Karim al-Tuhami al-Majati, a senior al-Qa’eda member from Morocco killed by Saudi security forces in al Ras last April. One of Mr Majati’s wives is a Belgian citizen resident in Britain. In Pakistan, the jihadists speak openly of London as the terrorist bridgehead to Europe. Given the British jihadists who’ve been discovered in the thick of it in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Palestine, Chechnya and Bosnia, only a fool would believe they had no plans for anything closer to home – or, rather, “home”.
… “Since 9/11 most Britons have been sceptical of Washington’s view of this conflict. Douglas Hurd and many other Tory grandees have been openly scornful of the Bush doctrine. Lord Hurd would no doubt have preferred a policy of urbane aloofness, such as he promoted vis àvis the Balkans in the early 1990s. He’s probably still unaware that Omar Sheikh was a westernised non-observant chess-playing pop-listening beer-drinking English student until he was radicalised by the massacres of Bosnian Muslims.
Abdel Karim al-Tuhami al-Majati was another Europeanised Muslim radicalised by Bosnia. The inactivity of Do-Nothin’ Doug and his fellow Lions of Lethargy a decade ago had terrible consequences and recruited more jihadists than any of Bush’s daisy cutters. The fact that most of us were unaware of the consequences of EU lethargy on Bosnia until that chicken policy came home to roost a decade later should be sobering: it was what Don Rumsfeld, in a remark mocked by many snide media twerps, accurately characterised as an “unknown unknown” – a vital factor so successfully immersed you don’t even know you don’t know it.”
Jeff,
Just a quick Thanks for pulling all this stuff together in this post. And to the constructive commentors, also Thanks! I spend more time here than watching the TV news and know more.
From Halliburton’s Financial Statements (in US $ Millions):
2002: Revenue 12,572 Operating Loss 112 Return -.9%
2003: Revenue 16,271 Operating Income 720 Return 4.4%
2004: Revenue 20,466 Operating Income 837 Return 4.1%
Now that’s some major profiteering, baby !
Sigh. What total morons these leftwits are.
Let me add my appreciation for Jeff’s linkalicious post, and also add something of substance for once: Here is a nuggety, English-language digest of reactions from the German opinion journals.
*I spend more time here than watching the TV news and know more.*
Protein Wisdom IS the place for news, hypocrisy, zionist conspiracies and of course, the infamous porn cock of lies.
Yep, “the Brits will fold like a cheap suit”. In fact, they appear to have already folded … please recall that some of them are actively calling for a ban on pointy kitchen knives:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4581871.stm
Not the sort I’d want watching my back.
Interesting new take on the strange goal of terrorist attacks, intefada, etc. by Lee Harris of “Al Qa’eda’s fantasy idiology” fame.
Blood Feud
In the blood feud there is no concept of decisive victory because there is no desire to end the blood feud. Rather the blood feud functions as a permanent “ethical” institution—it is the way of life for those who participate in it; it is how they keep score and how they maintain their own rights and privileges.
It’s interesting to note that this explains why terrorists usually avoid making sustained attacks that would provoke all out war. They want to AVOID any response that could result in war – wars can be lost, and the people who start wars are held responsible.
I’d quote more but tech central seems to be down right now.
Anyway, I’ve made similar observations about the Palestinian conflict and the attitude Muslims have toward that conflict.
In the case of Palestinian conflict, the whole society of Palestinian society (and in fact the whole worldwide Muslim community) supports the feud, but they strenuously strive to maintain some level of deniability. They don’t want to be held responsible, but as in a classic blood feud they just want to kill random people from the enemy tribe, slowly and forever.
As foolish as war may seem, our society has never been foolish enough to institutionalize eternal, unending warfare. But it seems the Arabs have taken blood feuding and institutionalized it into their religion.
They get the disadvantages of war eternally with no end in sight, because victory is impossible and peace is not a goal. It drives me nuts watching the Palestinians (and other middle eastern societies for that matter) indoctrinate their children to hate and to religious violence because it’s so criminally senseless.
Killing is gorified, killers are glorified and they have a “get into heaven free card” for themselves and their families and friends. Terrorists are rock stars! Terrorism is a spectator sport! It’s the Muslim world’s secret pleasure.
But there are twists. WMDs are a temptation that these terrorist rockstars won’t be able to resist. Wouldn’t a nuke blast be more glorious than a pack full of semtex on a bus?
At some point they’ll go too far, and though they never wanted a real war, they’ll have one.
Another twist is that, in the case of the Jews, they’ve modified their theology to make genocide a duty, so in that case they’ve got another reason to take this further than mere feuding.
There was a Muslim Shiite attack in Madrid in 1985, killing 18; which can’t possibly be in retaliation for the Iraq War.