London Terrorist Attacks - Initial Messy & Confused Thoughts

[luna_k]

For those who just woke up or have been offline, there were a series of 4 coordinated terrorist attacks in London today that have killed at least 37 and injured more than 700

Comments

[thisficklemob]

my single biggest concern here (beyond sympathies for all Londoners) is how Bush, Blair and the Fox News' of the world are going to spin this into more justification for making us shut up and do whatever they say including waging new wars.

I'm worried about the same thing. Only right now I'm still in shock mode, which is rapidly turning into "this is what it's like every day in Iraq - I may not have any Iraqis on my flist, but why do I think that's any less bad?" mode.

Yeah, you can tell I'm a liberal, I can feel guilty for feeling sympathy. I guess it's to compensate for the conservatives, who are incapable of feeling guilt for anything not concerning sex.

[luna_k]

which is rapidly turning into "this is what it's like every day in Iraq - I may not have any Iraqis on my flist, but why do I think that's any less bad?" mode.

I was just thinking the same thing. Just about every day there's an attack in Bahgdad or somewhere around Iraq where dozens or hundreds die at a time. I feel bad and it makes me upset, but it's just not the same as when I see a country like the UK get hit. Because they speak my language, they dress and act like me, I know people from there, etc. It's closer to home.

Yeah, you can tell I'm a liberal, I can feel guilty for feeling sympathy.

Ha! Yeah, that liberal guilt gets me every time. :)

[thisficklemob]

Of all of those reasons, I think "I know people from there" is the one I feel least guilty about. Because then it's really personal. The others make me feel guilty, like, because intellectually I know that thinking people who look and act differently than me are somehow less human is just wrong. But I think some of it is also the mindset of not being as surprised when shit goes down in places known to be violent or terrorism-afflicted. I know plenty of people who've been to Israel, have friends who look and act and dress no differently than your average Israeli, but that doesn't make me take a bombing in Israel as hard as a bombing in London.

The psychology of this stuff is so weird.

Thanks for the link to london_070705. I saw the post about donating blood, and it just took me back to 9-11. People all over NYC were lining up to give blood - ghetto kids and stockbrokers just going en masse. I was upstate. I remember all the fire fighters being mobilized and sent down. I posted to my dorm's listserve about nearby blood drives later in the

[thisficklemob]

I almost feel like their being wounded today is good

I meant "there being wounded", obviously, as in, there are wounded people to help... not that those particular people being wounded is good, and... I'll shut up now.

[hail_atlantis]

I'm sure Brit Hume has figured out a way to blame this on a gay liberal hippie in San Francisco by now

Hee. Leave it to Liberal Rage to make me snicker in the face of sheer horror. Seriously, thanks. I needed that.

[luna_k]

You're welcome. :) If I don't laugh, the terrorist win....

[lovelark]

has anyone besides me noticed how freakin' conveniant this is for primesident Bush-blair? Blind nationalism and national enemy factor is down in the US, and so it doesn't take a genius to deduce that this is Bush's wet dream, and most people with half a brain suspect Blair is Bush's marionette, (if you watched the public statement this morning, there was a reason Bush stood so closely behind the prime minister- someone had to work the strings). In chicago, a conservative official was quoted saying that if anything good has come out of these london attacks, it's to remind the american people how real and dangerous our enemies are

[knowledgequeen]

I will lay you all odds that some asshole in the red states is gearing up for War II. Hannity, Coulter, Goldberg, all those loathsome people, gearing up for the troops and telling the average Middle-America farmer that their ten feet of land is next, that the "towelheads," queers and liberals (who must be working together, of course!) will come and destroy their lives, their taxes and their marriages. I'm telling you right now. Turn on Hannity and Colmes tonight (if you can bring yourself to do so). Listen to the hate speech.

If anyone tries to talk to me about Bush's rhetoric, how we need to be conservative, and strike with everything we have, and how you can't fight a war without casualties, well you know what? Fuck that. I have two sisters in London today. They're both fine, and they want to stay there.

I am not going to fall in with the regime, and I am not going to submit to Bush's terror tactics, never mind Al Qa'eda's. The only reason we are unsafe is because Bush and his flunkies are making it so

[ladyblackdragon]

Geez, I haven't seen the old Metro since I left the DC area in 1991.

Brings back memories, it does. I see nothing much has changed.

I lived in Silver Spring.

And after today, I tremble for the future.