It is foolish to say that the people who commit such appalling acts are nothing more than mindless thugs, or are some kind of separate species from us good law abiding peaceful people.

After 9/11 the desire for vengance was commonplace in America and even over here in England. The Iraq war was an expression of that vengance, even though Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. How much stronger must that desire be for people whose fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters, have been killed in their own homes, at weddings, in hospitals by military and economic powers which they are unable to challenge in any way other than underhand violence.

Violence creates the desire for more violence until people see that the only long term progress is made through peace. The real counter to the effectveness of the terrorists desire to produce terror and hatred does not lie in retaliatory violence against some scapegoat but in the way ordinary people in London were seen to be helping each other, refusing to be panicked and demonstrating our common humanity.