The majority here on Mudcat and in the media seem to be of the opinion thatto attempt to rationalise the London bombings is a bad thing.

The current thinking from most of us is that we should continue the "War on Terror", tighten up on civil rights at home and generally never give in to the terrorists, without giving any regard to whether this course of action has worked in the past.

Blair appeared on TV today, saying that to link the London bombings with UK foreign policy was ludicrous, without giving any credible reason for his statement.

In most of the past conflicts involving terrorist action,where military force was used against the terrorists, the terrorist were not defeated, by ended up achieving most of their objectives.
The examples of Northern Ireland, Chetnyia,Vietnam, prove my point.

In Iraq and our policy has produced a culture of terrorism and a threat to ourselves which was not there before the invasion.

The injustice of how the war was sold to the British people has also pruduced a deep sense of resentment among young Muslims, and the blame for this lies with Mr Blair personally, as he was instrumental in pushing the discredited "reasons for war".

The most important point as far as I am concerned, is that suicide bombing does not become commonplace in the UK as it has in Iraq, and sticking to a failed policy and trying to justify past crimes by our politicians certainly won't keep us safe....Ake