What is the reason behind this?

[AnnaInManchester]

What is the reason behind the bombings? I am not so clued up on terrorism and just want to know why anyone would want to bomb London?

think the most likely theory is that it's a reprisal for Britain backing the US in Iraq, from some group aligning themselves with Al Qaida

I think it's for backing the wars in Iraq and Afganistan.

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dunno - the IRA always did i think, but I think these people fancy themselves as being more ruthless than that. Some of them are suicide bombers after all.

think G8 disruption was perhaps to add to the general chaos-value of it all, and to unnerve all those other world leaders cos Gleneagles isn't that far from London.

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reprisals for action in Iraq, Afghanistan, no doubt Israel will be pulled into it and publicity for a cause ... and honour and respect from other fundamental lunatic fringes

Yes, but Twiglett - what is the cause? I think Ken made a good point yesterday - it's just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder. I don't believe they are driven by any end goal, it's just pure, unreasoned hatred, and as Polly Toynbee says in the Guardian today "it is a monstrous force of unreason beyond arguing with"

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to understand the cause (if it is indeed islamic terrorist extremists) you have to be able to take the mindset of the fundamental extremists who see our way of life as peverse and unholy and any action as a country we have taken against afghanistan / iraq or in support of israel as 'against' them and worthy of punishment .. they see the slaughter of innocents as a holy thing they are twisted and unworthy of life and liberty IMHO

The more we label people who perpetrate these types of atrocities 'nutters', the longer they will continue. They are not crazy. No one who is insane has the capability to conceive of, plan and execute heinous crimes like this. They are fanatics.

And if you think it's all b/c of Iraq and Afghanistan, all you have to do is look at how Christians are being persecuted in the Sudan to realise it's not called a 'jihad' - holy war - for nothing.

Just look at how female Muslims are treated in Islamic fundamentalist regimes for further proof.

This is about seeing EVERYONE who doesn't believe as you do - and even those who do, 'honour' killings, anyone? - as a target for murder.

It is to control people by terror, which comes from within themselves. As long as you let fear over what may potentially happen to you govern your own actions and those actions of those you elect into office, you are giving credence to their strategy.

I think people might be using the term 'nutters' for want of a better word and as a way to put a handle on it

growing up in a democracy it is almost impossible to understand how other 'people' see 'democracy' and freedom in the west as evil

But don't you think this would have happened eventually regardless of Iraq or Afghanistan? And no, I don't think they're "nutters", that's too easy. But I suppose "fanatic" begins to address the lack of reason.

On another point, the conundrum is that terror is fuelled by the blanket coverage these atrocities receive in the media. Don't get me wrong, I was glued to the TV yesterday and feel sick about what has happened and one life lost, one injury received by an innocent civilian is one too many. But a simple risk assessment would show that the chances of being directly affected are slim. I think in a free society I have the right to know exactly what is going on, but at the same time the terror threat is augmented by this freedom of information and thus we are helping the terrorists achieve their aim (if indeed it is their aim to terrorise people) and they know that.

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I can understand it, I just don't buy it personally. But that's not the point. They realise, quite correctly, that 'The West' will never be defeated through military force. So instead they adopt a far more clever strategy: play upon most Westerners most innate fears, and they will serve up to you what you desire.

And it's a strategy that has worked well and continues to work well in a secular climate.

See, when you're not afraid of death. When you start to consider it as something that's at the least not unpleasant and at the best glorious, then it's hard to control you by terror.

Think about it, peeps.

What do you fear most? Leaving your children behind whilst they are young. Losing your children whilst they are young. Most of us would do anything - give up anything - to keep them, and ourselves, 'safe'.

To the fanatic, however, there is no fear of such things, b/c to the fanatic, God will take care of these matters.

And also Mosschops, in the days of the IRA there was apparently a tacit understanding that they would not target the underground.

And yes, franke, I agree, these things will occur no matter how many Iraqs and Afghanistans there are. As I said before, look at how such regimes persecute those who don't believe as they do in countries where they established themselves. Hell, look at how women are treated in such regimes.

Funny to think now that there used to be some accepted protocols in the execution of terrorism [ironic emoticon]

expat - I suppose Afghanistan before 911 is what their goal is then.

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Their goal is to subjugate 'the infidel', franke, it's just a matter of getting behind their logic as to exactly who 'the infidel' is.