Roosting

37 are dead and some 700 are injured. The UK has, almost inevitably, experienced "blowback" from our latest imperial adventures. The terrorist attacks are not an attack on our "values", nor are they some apolitical acts of random violence. For the perpetrators, and for us, they have meaning and if we wish to stop further atrocities we need to decipher those meanings and address them. Now, of course, the objective of the politicians and the media will be to disguise the real motivations behind these attacks. We will hear endless accounts of the terrorists hatred of our "way of life" and "values". In this narrative, an attack on London would be just as likely as an attack on Paris or Berlin. In this narrative, the fact that the 3 major post 9/11 attacks have been on Australia (most victims in Bali were Australian) Spain and Britain - 3 of the main backers of the mass slaughter in Iraq - is just a "coincedince", or is merely aimed at "dividing" the "west". Already, we have had heard endless platitudes about Londoners "standing together", which is merely disguised nationalism masquerading as solidarity. You'll hear this, "whatever their diffirences, Londoners will not be cowed by terrorism". It's "us" against the terrorists. Forget our own government's crimes against the population of Iraq and elsewhere, that's not important. Oh, and by the way, who could possibly now be against ID cards?

If we really do want to stop terrorism, "resolve" and bombing people will not suffice. Unconditional support for Israel cannot continue; we must remove our hated presence in the Middle east in its entirety; we must stop promoting dictatorship and poverty in all parts of the world. Or, if we wish, we can continue with the disastorous "war on terror" and live to count the bodies and speak the worthless "sorrow" another day.

The choice is ours, the victims of war and terror, they, with their armour plated cars and police escorts, are not fit to take up the challenge.