Terror in London

May God grant speedy recovery to the survivors, and comfort to the families of the dead and injured. As just about everyone else has already said, Americans stand steadfast with our British friends. When President Bush spoke his praise, "America has no truer friend than Great Britain," few probably imagined that the friendship would be solidified this way, with mutual horror.

My family in London is all safe. My cousin and her young son came close: they were on a train that blew up only minutes after they disembarked. I saw only the breaking headlines on Yahoo! News at 7 a.m., as I quickly checked my e-mail before leaving for work. Then I heard people at the local train station talking about the rising death toll.

Many of us wondered if it was such a good idea to take the train that morning, let alone go to work in Manhattan, but if we do change our lifes, then the terrorists have won. They'd like to kill us all, but that's not logistically possible, so the next best thing is to frighten us into capitulation. We cannot let that happen. I hope the British people don't.

Brad rightfully points out some who have taken advantage of this tragedy to push their politics, like certain damned fools and other babblers who'll never get it. Did they ever consider how many more major terrorist attacks the West would be suffering if Osama still had free reign to run terrorist camps in Afghanistan, and Saddam were still giving safe haven to terrorists?

Similarly, Robert (thanks to Brad for the link) clearly defines something that most leftists will never understand:

Um…who initially declared war on whom? Was it not Osama bin Ladin, motivated by his crazed, blood-thirsty religious ideology? And in reality, those that comprise the 'insurgency' in Iraq are former Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters who are sympathetic with al Qaeda, rather than 'ordinary' Iraqis. Furthermore, what distinguishes the Iraqi theater from other potential targets of terrorism (western cities) is that the enemy has engaged soldiers, instead of civilians (that is, beyond Iraqi civilians that become targets of convenience).

Pubcrawler had a great quote of Donald Rumsfeld, though sans source: "Before long, I suspect that those responsible for these acts will encounter British steel. Their kind of steel has an uncommon strength. It does not bend or break." We can be certain the British will courageously weather and overcome this tragedy, as they did the Nazi bombings.

Also via Pubcrawler, The Mirror has an excellent article on London Mayor Ken Livingston, who displayed Churchill-like statesmanship:

I know that you do fear you may fail in your long term objective: to destroy our free society. And I will show you why you will fail. In the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our seaports and look at our railways.

Nothing you do, however many of us you kill will stop that life ... where freedom is strong and people can live in harmony ... whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.

Sean Hannity played a couple of clips on his radio show, and Mayor Livingston was really terrific. Blair has similarly been eloquent, and most importantly, adamant that the terrorists will not win.