As I follow the London bombings, I am starting to hear all sorts of information. Some say this was a "conveniently timed" operation from within the British government to continue fighting the Iraq war. (I sincerely hope that this was not the case.) Others say it was caused by the strong radical Muslim community within London and other major British and European cities. I won't rule anything out at this time, but I won't lock in on one cause either.
Most of the evidence does point to al-Qaeda, but there are those who claim that even al-Qaeda, and Osama bin Laden, are no more than puppets of the US CIA, with the September 11th attacks and this London attack being no more than excuses to get the US and UK governments into war. I do have to concur that on September 11th, the slowness of the US Air Force response against the hijacked jets was strange; perhaps the US government did not want the unpopular option of safely shooting down the airliners over the Hudson, and in the process, created a bigger catastrophe by letting them destroy the World Trade Center.
Again though, what I would like to see is how this affects the Blair government. The British may act like the Americans, and "rally" around their leader to keep the war going. Or they may act like the Spaniards, blame Blair for creating the cause of this bombing, and cause the government to lose popular support. What is noteworthy is that the Defence Ministry in the UK government was contemplating a troop pullout plan in Iraq right before the bombings.
What I do know for sure is that the timing could not have been more devastating, coming right after the hosting of the '12 Olympics and during the G8 talks. This also deflects attention away from what the activists wanted this year's G8 to be about - ending Third World poverty.
This is a sad week for the British and the world. Last week's idealism and hope of the Live 8 events is now just a distant memory.
