Yesterday's bomb attacks in London
So far the manner in which everyone has reacted to yesterday's atrocity does them great credit.
The emergency plan appears to have worked as well as anyone dared hope, and this together with the lack of panic, undoubtedly reduced the number of lives lost. London's transport network appears to be getting back to normal remarkably rapidly.
Public comments about what has happened have been measured and responsible, and almost everyone seems to have avoided the temptation to make political capital or to over-react.
It is still too early to say for certain exactly who perpetrated these mass murders, although the modus operandi does appear to fit with an al-Qaeda attack and an extreme islamic website has claimed responsibility on behalf of al-Qaeda.
If the murderers were acting in the name of Islam, it is important to emphasise that the vast majority of Muslims are totally appalled by these bombs and condemn them as strongly as everyone else. That point has been made by the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, and Imam of Brighton Mosque, and many others. It is extremely likely that we will find that among the victims there were Muslims as well as Christians, Jews, Hindus and members of other faiths and none.
Islam means "Peace" and Muslims worship Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. There was no compassion, no mercy, and nothing but contempt for human life shown by the people who carried out these bombings.
It is worth putting this in the context of all the other attempts to bring terror to London. When my grandfather was a young man, the Kaiser tried to break the spirit of the British people by bombing London and elsewhere. He failed, he was defeated, and his Hohenzollern dynasty was removed from power.
When my father was a boy Hitler tried to break the spirit of the British people by bombing London and elsewhere. He failed, he was defeated, and his Nazi regime was removed from power. The survivors were put on trial and those convicted of crimes against humanity were hanged or imprisoned.
In my own lifetime the Irish Republican Army tried to break the spirit of the British people by bombing London and elsewhere. They failed to break the spirit of the British people, they did not advance the cause of a united Ireland by their campaign of violence, and insofar as they have subsequently achieved anything it has been after they called a ceasefire.
The people who bombed London yesterday will fail as the Kaiser, Hitler, and the IRA failed before them.
Britain will now need to hold an intelligent discussion about how we balance the rights which go with a free society with the need to protect innocent people ainst a terrorist threat which has been proven to be very real. Questions such as whether we need ID cards and what powers of arrest the authorities should have will be difficult; honorable and intelligent people will disagree.
There is no longer any risk that we will underestimate the terrorist threat; I hope we will be equally vigilant against allowing the terrorists to stampede us into dismantling liberties which have stood for hundreds of years and through even greater threats.
The perpetrators of yesterday's bombs have shown a higher level of contempt for all human life than any previous enemy other than Nazi Germany, and their willingness to kill and die with complete ruthlessness makes them extremely dangerous. But compare them with the enemies who have been overcome.
The Nazis tried to starve us out by sending hundreds of U-Boats to sink our shipping, to flatten us by sending thousands of planes to bomb our country, launching V1 cruise missiles and V2 ballistic missiles against us. But we defeated them.
The former Soviet Union had hundreds of ICBMs with nuclear warheads aimed at this country and our allies, one of the most powerful armies the world has ever seen, and the KGB spy network. But we faced them down.
By comparison with the former Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, the people who planted yesterday's bombs are just a handful of ruthless throwbacks with the mentality of 14th century religious fanatics. They are dangerous as a scorpion in your boot is dangerous, as MRSA is dangerous, as drunken driving is dangerous, but they are no more capable of defeating us or destroying our way of life, let alone building anything different.
If you add up the death tolls from the World Trade Centre and similar act of terrorism against the entire West over the following four years, including yesterday's bombings, you will get a similar number to those who die in Britain alone each year from hospital acquired infections, or over that period as a whole from road traffic accidents.
For all their evil ruthlessness, the monsters who bombed London have not even succeeded in doing more harm than MRSA.
The emergency plan appears to have worked as well as anyone dared hope, and this together with the lack of panic, undoubtedly reduced the number of lives lost. London's transport network appears to be getting back to normal remarkably rapidly.
Public comments about what has happened have been measured and responsible, and almost everyone seems to have avoided the temptation to make political capital or to over-react.
It is still too early to say for certain exactly who perpetrated these mass murders, although the modus operandi does appear to fit with an al-Qaeda attack and an extreme islamic website has claimed responsibility on behalf of al-Qaeda.
If the murderers were acting in the name of Islam, it is important to emphasise that the vast majority of Muslims are totally appalled by these bombs and condemn them as strongly as everyone else. That point has been made by the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, and Imam of Brighton Mosque, and many others. It is extremely likely that we will find that among the victims there were Muslims as well as Christians, Jews, Hindus and members of other faiths and none.
Islam means "Peace" and Muslims worship Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. There was no compassion, no mercy, and nothing but contempt for human life shown by the people who carried out these bombings.
It is worth putting this in the context of all the other attempts to bring terror to London. When my grandfather was a young man, the Kaiser tried to break the spirit of the British people by bombing London and elsewhere. He failed, he was defeated, and his Hohenzollern dynasty was removed from power.
When my father was a boy Hitler tried to break the spirit of the British people by bombing London and elsewhere. He failed, he was defeated, and his Nazi regime was removed from power. The survivors were put on trial and those convicted of crimes against humanity were hanged or imprisoned.
In my own lifetime the Irish Republican Army tried to break the spirit of the British people by bombing London and elsewhere. They failed to break the spirit of the British people, they did not advance the cause of a united Ireland by their campaign of violence, and insofar as they have subsequently achieved anything it has been after they called a ceasefire.
The people who bombed London yesterday will fail as the Kaiser, Hitler, and the IRA failed before them.
Britain will now need to hold an intelligent discussion about how we balance the rights which go with a free society with the need to protect innocent people ainst a terrorist threat which has been proven to be very real. Questions such as whether we need ID cards and what powers of arrest the authorities should have will be difficult; honorable and intelligent people will disagree.
There is no longer any risk that we will underestimate the terrorist threat; I hope we will be equally vigilant against allowing the terrorists to stampede us into dismantling liberties which have stood for hundreds of years and through even greater threats.
The perpetrators of yesterday's bombs have shown a higher level of contempt for all human life than any previous enemy other than Nazi Germany, and their willingness to kill and die with complete ruthlessness makes them extremely dangerous. But compare them with the enemies who have been overcome.
The Nazis tried to starve us out by sending hundreds of U-Boats to sink our shipping, to flatten us by sending thousands of planes to bomb our country, launching V1 cruise missiles and V2 ballistic missiles against us. But we defeated them.
The former Soviet Union had hundreds of ICBMs with nuclear warheads aimed at this country and our allies, one of the most powerful armies the world has ever seen, and the KGB spy network. But we faced them down.
By comparison with the former Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, the people who planted yesterday's bombs are just a handful of ruthless throwbacks with the mentality of 14th century religious fanatics. They are dangerous as a scorpion in your boot is dangerous, as MRSA is dangerous, as drunken driving is dangerous, but they are no more capable of defeating us or destroying our way of life, let alone building anything different.
If you add up the death tolls from the World Trade Centre and similar act of terrorism against the entire West over the following four years, including yesterday's bombings, you will get a similar number to those who die in Britain alone each year from hospital acquired infections, or over that period as a whole from road traffic accidents.
For all their evil ruthlessness, the monsters who bombed London have not even succeeded in doing more harm than MRSA.
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