Terrorism

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.

Read more

The guards at Buckingham Palace, to show support for America after the 9/11 attacks, played the Star Spangled Banner instead of the usual God Save the Queen. I get a lump in my throat every time I see it.

The Guards played the Spanish national anthem, Marcha Real, after the Madrid bombings last year. They wanted to put aside one of the most beloved of British traditions for one day to show respect.

Publius Pundit reports that we hoisted the Union Jack over the State Department today, the first time in history that a foreign flag has flown there.

(Hat tip to Glenn.)

The English people and their government have been the greatest of friends to the US during the last few years. Today terrorists attacked London with a series of bomb attacks. If you’re interested in finding out what’s going on, as well as read some first hand accounts by bloggers, then Glenn has the skinny.

You can contact the British Embassy if you’d like to voice your support. There’s not much any of us can do right now, but that’s a great start. Let them know that they aren’t alone.

UPDATE
Ace of Spades notes that you can make a donation right now. Follow this link to find the British Red Cross Disaster Fund.

Like Ace says they probably don’t need a great deal of support, but it certainly will do some good.

(Part I is here.)

As Charles at LGF would put it: Amnesty International reaches bottom, digs.

Their website now features “USA: Betraying human rights
Information for journalists related to the US reaction to the Amnesty International Report 2005.” The first item in this press information package is a video interview on the subject of Guantanamo with none other than Noam Chomsky. What, was Osama bin Laden not available?

Gregory Djeredjian attempts to play umpire between Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds, and comes off rather well for it. And he brings up a point that folks dismayed by Andrew’s recent writings would do well to bear in mind:

(Oh, please spare me the comments about how no one got decapitated at Abu Ghraib just for being Christian. And that Abu Ghraib was worse (so much, dude!) when under Saddam’s stewardship. And that we treat ‘their’ Holy Book better than they’d ever treat ‘ours’. And so on. We are better than our heinous, barbaric enemy; and so must have hugely higher standards).

Greg’s comments remind me of an e-mail I once sent to Andrew:

I believe that the vast majority of American service personnel are good people, as are most of their officers. But all it takes is one bad apple to ruin the bushel, and I don’t mean this in the sense that they ruin our image. Much more than that, Andrew. What I mean is, if they are seen as getting away with inhumane treatment of prisoners, what’s to stop another group of soldiers who were already leaning that way from giving into the temptation of sadism?

So while Gonzales may be correct on a technical level, it remains to be seen whether or not this sort of behavior is what we want the world to see. I don’t doubt that most other great powers would be harder pressed to be better than us. But as my brother takes pains to remind me, we are America, we can be better than everyone else, and so we should be.

Well, I guess it just goes to show that even the non-Kos/DU side of the blogosphere is not immune to the dynamics of a community. While it may cause short-term consternation, it is a healthy sign of the vitality of the community, as long as nobody’s going to become archenemies. And, most of all, it speaks well of both men’s statures that so gifted a blogger as Greg would attempt to mediate.

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]