London bombings: It's not our lifestyle that did it

db: As George Galloway helpfully pointed out Friday - the London attacks did not come out of the blue. Blair chose, ahead of any known supporting evidence, to lay the blame at the door of Islamist extremists. Of course the chances are that he is right, although one found it a little curious that a man such as Blair - known to triple check every statement leaving his brain before arrival at his mouth - would choose to depart from his usual caution.

There is no shortage of commentators alerting us to the fact that the bombings in London are a direct result of Blair's support for the Bush government's War of Terror - and it's more than 'support'. In this 'with us or against us' world, even the most anti US governments make noises that indicate a level of tolerance - bordering on support - for Bush's neocon inspired war. In Britain however we have (re elected) Tony Blair, who is not just supportive of US policy but is Bush's primary euro-mouthpiece - a man who, like Bush, is known to talk of the need for 'sacrifice' (not his own) in the military pursuit of a world fashioned to 'our' liking - and it's backlash.

Blair said recently "They are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cow us, to frighten us out of doing the things that we want to do, of trying to stop us going about our business as normal as we are entitled to do. They should not and they must not succeed."

Of course the terrorists must not succeed but I am not sure that I follow Blair in his assertion that the terrorists are trying to 'cow' me - nor do I completely hold with the idea that they want to frighten me out of doing what I want to do - at least not as an end in itself. What seems much more likely to me is that the ghastly series of explosions in London were part of another battle, hitherto raging elsewhere, that has little or nothing to do with Londoners but everything to do with Blair and his foreign policy blunders made in support of the increasingly belligerent and destabilising force that is the current US administration.

Whichever way you look at it the only winners from Thursday's events were the extremists - those whose aims are served by increasing the levels of fear. As to who those extremists might be well Blair is probably, at least partly, right - although it must not be overlooked that recent events have also played out very well for Bush. Already the scoundrel is making political capital out of it - "We need to finally bring Osama bin Laden to account for his crimes," he said. "And we need to get much more serious about protecting America from attack - about securing our roads and rails, our borders and bridges, our seaports and airports, our nuclear and chemical plants" [He could start off by closing Indian Point]. Bush said the London attacks were a reminder of the "evil" of the Sept. 11 attacks and underscored that the United States and its allies were fighting a "global war on terror."

"We will stay on the offense, fighting the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them at home," Bush said. He would be well advised to drop that particular well worn cliche - sooner or later it may come back to haunt him.

The only solution Bush and his lieutenants seem to have is more 'offense', further restrictions on civil liberties, and probably a lot more of the same ill-thoughtout moves that got us into this sad situation in the first place. As long as Bush (and Blair) continue pushing the myth that it's our 'lifestyle', 'freedom' or taste in music that the militants find offensive there is probably no alternative to this hell.