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Responding to the barbarous attacks

The serial bomb attacks that left a trail of death and destruction in London on July 7 were outrageous and despicable acts of terrorism, the shock and horror of which are no less for the heightened anticipation of such an attack since 9/11. The March 2004 Madrid bombings that killed 190 people apparently to punish the Spanish Government for participating in the war on Iraq drew the threat to Britain even closer and appeared to make a terrorist strike not just possible or probable but inevitable. "Not if, but when," British security experts and political leaders warned repeatedly whenever they spoke of its vulnerability as a target. But ultimately, no number of warnings is enough psychological preparation for the appalling violence of a terrorist act that deliberately targets innocent people, even for a country that knows only too well from its experience of the Irish Republican Army that terrorists need to be lucky only once, governments have to be lucky all the time. The multiple attacks on the London transport network were clearly timed for the opening day of the meeting of G-8 leaders in Scotland, but their impact seemed all the bigger on account of London's selection, only a few hours earlier, as the venue of the 2012 Olympics. There are enough similarities with the Madrid bombings for investigators to suspect Al-Qaeda is behind the London attacks.

All this is more tragic evidence — as if more were needed — that the world has become a much less safe place than it was before President George Bush of the United States declared a "war on terror" after 9/11, and particularly after the U.S.-led war on Iraq, in both of which British Prime Minister Tony Blair played the role of main ally. It also underlines the fact that there is only so much that an advanced security and intelligence apparatus can do. After the attacks in London, Prime Minister Blair said "our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction." Most in India, long a target of terrorists of all hues — even as recently as two days before the London attacks — would share this sentiment, and appreciate the importance of a united response by the international community to a global scourge. But to continue with the type of response the U.S. and Britain have imposed on the world over the last four years would be monumental folly. If the world is to prevail over terrorism, it is first vital that Prime Minister Blair and President Bush acknowledge the truth that their military project to "make the world a safer place" has only increased the numbers of those in Muslim-majority countries who feel marginalised and threatened by the West, provided more recruits to the cause of Islamist terrorism, and contributed to its growth as a hydra-headed force that knows no borders and that will stop at nothing to vent its rage. Recognising this and making a course correction now may be the only way to bring in peace.

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