People’s Song

Lileks has a new entry in his Screedblog. He talks about the recent London bombings, and muses on the music that best defines a culture. (This might sound odd, but trust me. James handles it with verve and class.) Later in the essay, he savagely punctures some of the talking points of the anti-war crowd. An excerpt…

“They did not bomb London because there is insufficient transparency in Congress about the Gitmo detainees; they bombed London because it is part of the Zionist-Crusader Conspiracy run by the sons of monkeys and pigs, who must submit or die.

“Ummm, how does it end? I don’t know. Not well for quite a few, I fear. And not well for quite a few, I hope.”

It’s worth your time to read the whole thing.

Firehand at Irons in the Fire isn’t very optimistic. He notes that the British government has both gutted the military while insisting that the average citizen refrain from defending themselves from violent criminal attack, and he thinks that the spine has almost disappeared from Old Bailey.

I think that there’s something to this. The only way to guard against an enemy which considers every innocent civilian a legitimate target is for every innocent civilian to become responsible for their own defense. Millions of security cameras and an overworked police force aren’t going to do it for you.

Of course, I could be wrong about the British lack of confidence. In fact, I hope that I am. A comment left on Lex’s post certainly gladdens my heart.

“I opposed, and continue to oppose, the Iraqi war, but British soldiers will remain alongside their American comrades until the Iraqi government states that they are ready to be relieved, and to even suggest anything to the contrary is to totally misunderstand the ethos of the British military presence in Iraq!”

Maybe there’s a little spine left after all.