British PM Tony Blair said on Tuesday that he felt that Iraq shouldn’t be an excuse for the two bombings that have taken place in London. He said that 9/11 was a wake up call for the world, but felt that
Do you know what I think the problem is? That a lot of the world woke up for a short time and then turned over and went back to sleep again.
I think he’s half-right with this one. I don’t necessarily think that Iraq is the reason for the bombings. But I do think that our actions (US and UK) add fuel to the fire. As Blair said, there’s “no justification” for the bombings and rightly so. No act justifies the death of innocent people. As I’ve said before, unfortunately I think the US has made violence the language and the terrorists are responding (while not justification for the attacks, the US has killed hundreds of innocent civilians in Iraq).
The thing is, terrorists have always been around. Just because the US hasn’t seen another attack doesn’t mean that we should go “back to to sleep again.” We need to keep our security raised and be aware that they can slip through our defenses. With this President constantly bullying around other countries and starting wars, we are wide open for attack. And for those of you that think Bush is a capable anti-terrorist President, let’s not forget that the current war has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with money. There’s no Al-Qaeda in Iraq, but Bush says “we’re winning the war against terror.” Interesting connection, eh?
