Did anyone read this article in The Times yesterday on the London bombings?

[oliveoil]

I think it is spot on, what do you think? It's a bit long.

here it is

Can you all stop huffing and puffing now, it's starting to sound like an obscene phone call

Ahem I think you will find that Richard Reid was a British suicide bomber (failed). And a raving maniac.

Do you anti types not realise that the reason this is so important is that we are no longer safe. No amount of security can stop a suicide bomber who is really determined. It could happen anywhere at any time. Though tbh what is the point for the terrorists of doing it anywhere other than a major city so that they can cause max. disruption and get the most possible media attention.

Londoners are amazing and resiliant. I was in a lift in Charing X hospital this morning and two nurses were comparing their journies to work, changed from 45 mins to 2 hours each way as a result of the bombs. And this morning 3 hours as there was a security alert. They ended their conversation saying that they didn't care, some small bunch of loonies was not going to stop them doing their jobs. Everyone in London feels like that. We have constant station shut downs, buildings are being evacuated, streets closed, sirens everywhere. We don't feel safe but we will not be cowed.

COD it is easy to feel the way you do in your little fluffy cotton wool market town that tbh no suicide bomber worth their salt would look twice at.

oh and fwiw I think these silences no longer have any impact. I go to watch Arsenal regularly, there seems to be a minute#s silence days almost every week - if one of the cleaners in the stadium breaks a toe for eg. Same with black armbands. Too much of it has lessened it's impact without a doubt.

they've named the 4th bomber - on bbc . Jamaican born convert from the sound of it. I don't think we can generalise any more about race or communities (though they're all young men). these are cult members, fanatics.

"the highest number of casualties as a result of an act of terrorism that this country has ever seen"

Sorry, no ... and I don't know why the media keep INSISTING on repeating this. Lockerbie anyone?

I don't disagree that the terrorism is serious, but I do think that a sense of perspective is needed.

I thought that too GeorginaA - but then reckoned that Willow2 said the highest number of casualties, including injured, rather than fatalities.

I have to say though that like some others have pointed out, part of me wonders how many people have died and continue to die, as a result of our aggression in Iraq

It doesn't excsue what happened in London - which is still a tragedy and inexcusable - bit it does put it in context.

Ah good point. Will shut up then

Depends whether you count the injured and maimed as casualties.

Of course they are casualties

60 people were killed in mining accident in China I think the other day. was well down the news running order..

To take issue with a less heavy point in Alice Miles's piece:

It is hysteria when friends e-mail from overseas to find out if you're OK? It sounds to me like merely "giving a damn." Her stance sounds self-congratulatory and suspiciously self-glamorising (for all her anti-glamorisation talk). The implication is: "This happened to us so do not try to connect yourselves to what happened to us, you foreign hysterical peasant scum."

I was touched when people e mailed me.

I agree expatkat. Of course people want to know their friends are OK. People would be offended if you didn't enquire, wouldn't they?

bundy

THATS why i always loved you

very well said expatkat

The deaths in China are incredibly sad. However, I presume that they weren't the work of a fanatic armed with a bomb - someone who set out to deliberately kill as many as possible. Surely you can see the difference? It's a bit like saying, "Well Fred West only murdered a handful of people - look at how many people got run over last year."

oh no, i wasn't suggesting they were the same..just that life/death is treated differently depending on when/where it happens. wasn't squaring the london bombs with an industrial accident, sorry if it came across that way.

(btw, the russell square bomb was in my carriage ie the front one on the piccadilly line, so I take this very personally)

Isn't it just human nature though, to treat disasters that happen closer to home as being more serious.

I suppose so, but sometimes it feels weird

My misunderstanding, Bundle.

FWIW I took 9/11 really seriously - and I haven't been to NY for years.

Hmm, I thought it varied from offensive (about the bombers' mothers) to deeply irritating, 'm afraid.

Yes I was very irritated by the implication that it was all their mother's fault. What on earth can she possibly mean by that?

gosh, did they say that? my first thoughts were the families were as much victims as those who'd died. how appalling to add to their grief.

I can't imagine what it must be like for their families. It sounds as though they had no idea of what was to come - feel for the wife with the young baby... what a way to start parenthood.

Equally, I can't imagine what it must be like for the families of the victims.

It's all so bloody sad.