Scott apparently was up late & heard about the bombings shortly after they happened, but unlike 9/11 chose not to wake me up for this one. So now it's about 6 hours after the fact and I'm playing catch-up. I even turned the TV on to MSNBC but was soon treated to some utter stupidity: A nameless newscaster suggesting that commuters in major cities bear some responsibility for preventing these kinds of atacks, and since Londoners have lived with this sort of bombing attempt for a long time, it's partially their own fault for not noticing the bombs.
Jerk. No wonder I don't watch TV news anymore.
If this is another al-Quaeda attack, it's a concern. But it's also noteworthy that the attacks they have made have steadily declined in severity since 9/11. That attack killed just under 3,000. Madrid killed about 200. This one, so far, has killed less than 50. Whether that is due to AQ's decreased capability or increased security measures taken after 9/11, I don't know. Maybe both. At any rate, continued attacks = bad thing, but decreased casualties = good thing.
I expect the war drums will beat louder now. If anything good can come out of this bombing, it will perhaps call more attention to the fact that our misbegotten invasion of Iraq is not helping fight the "war on terror". Although whether BushCo will see it that way, I seriously doubt.
