London Calling

I'll be back with more of my normal frivolity and oddball ranting later today or tomorrow, but right now, it just doesn't seem appropriate. I woke up this morning, all set to write some cover letters and continue my search for employment in our Nation's Capital, only to learn that we can now tragically add London and England to the ever growing list of cities/countries which have been struck by an Al Qaeda organization which only seems to be growing stronger and more emboldened.

Think about it: One day after London wins the bid for the 2012 Olympics, four bombs rip through Subway cars and a doubledecker bus. It reminds me once again just how scary and well-coordinated Al Qaeda truly is. And it also makes me wonder whether London was the target all along, or if they were sleeper cells deployed in each of the five competing cities, with only the London cell getting the green light after the announcement? If Paris had gotten the bid yesterday, would we be reading about the tragedy in Paris this morning rather than London? I have just about zero doubt that there are sleeper cells in New York or Paris, Al Qaeda's been active in Madrid before, and it wouldn't surprise me if they've gone so far as to extend to Moscow (although I don't know how that would help their objectives, the global reach of Al Qaeda and it's variously affiliated branches no longer perplexes me, but simply frightens me).

I don't know. I'm in shock. All I do know is that I agree with my buddies at 1115.org: "It's time to stop playing games and produce Bin Laden."

"London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared - and battle come down
London calling to the underworld
Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls..."
- The Clash

UPDATE: Once again, I find myself agreeing with the boys over at 1115.org (rapidly becoming one of my daily reads, along with the always brilliant firedoglake) when they say this:

"Is this supposed to inspire confidence:
The U.S. government raised the terrorism alert level for buses, subways and trains across the United States on Thursday in the wake of deadly bombings in London but said it expected no similar attack in the United States.
[Homeland Security Secretary Michael] Chertoff earlier said, “The Department of Homeland Security does not have any intelligence indicating this type of attack is planned in the United States.”
Unless the U.S. government is implying that the U.K. government did expect or have intelligence on today’s attacks, the above statements are completely meaningless. The Bush administration has no shame about using fear as a weapon, but at the same time they issue statements saying that they have it under control. And why is it that the vast majority of Bush supporters live in areas where terrorism isn’t much of a threat and the large metropolises where attacks are much more likely want him gone?"

Yeah, and for all everyone wants to talk about raising alert levels and focusing more on mass transit and this being a "wake up call" and what not... shouldn't we have woken up to this possibility March 11, 2004? Or perhaps from the scores of bus bombings that have occured in Israel? The fact that we needed a day like this to "wake up" to the fact that Al Qaeda (or anyone else for that matter) might attack subway cars, buses, or trains is fucking laughable. Any idiot could have told you that mass transit would be a target-- hell, any idiot can tell you that Al Qaeda will use any and all weapons it can get their hands on to make their points and kill people.
Over at TPM Cafe, Greg Anrig, Jr. makes similiar points.

You know, it's all well and good that we respond and try to act tough, do everything in our power to stop these things from happening again... but at the end of the day, we're still playing defense. We're still responding and reacting, and allowing Al Qaeda control-- control of targets, timing, everything. And so I return to what I said earlier today:

Get fucking Bin Laden.

I know enough about Al Qaeda to know that should we ever get Osama, Al Qaeda and the threat it represents doesn't just disappear (and in the near term, it probably increases the threat due to retaliatory violence by sleeper cells). But you get Osama, you get his lieuteneunts, and then you've got something.

"And why is it that the vast majority of Bush supporters live in areas where terrorism isn’t much of a threat and the large metropolises where attacks are much more likely want him gone?"

You know, being that I lived in New York up until last month, this is something that I've always wondered. When Lincoln, Nebraska gets hit with massive terrorist strikes, we can talk terrorism, pals.

(P.S. As you can see, I figured out how to post photos here. It really wasn't that hard-- all it took was discovering the "Add A Photo" button on Blogger. Amazing! I'm an idiot. In any event, you can expect some photo fun to be popping up on this page more in the future, now that I know-- and knowing is half the battle).

FURTHER UPDATE: Just found thisfrom Londonist:

"Yeah, they hit us. But we didn't go down. Londonist's sympathies go to the victims, and we like to think of the hot sweat that is breaking out across the brows of a fair few terrorist nutters right now - we're coming for you, you fuckers."

Reminds me of how I felt on 9/11. That's the right attitude to have-- hold your head, London. (Props to The Fiddler for orginally pointing me to this link.)