Friends

With the apparrent terrorist attack on London this morning I wondered if our UK and visiting MBs and loved ones are all OK.
Click here for BBC news

Oh dear. Here we go again....

Bloody he//!

I was just having a little sniffle as I got down to writing my plan B letter - I'm off to watch News 24 now!!

Alph.

I hope everyone's OK. Just emailed my friends there to check on them too.

~A

Oh Bob, this is terrible news. As soon as I read your post I quickly checked on my daughter who is living in London, but my son, I'm not sure when he gets back to London. He's traveling in Europe and is due back in London any day. This is so scary!

AN

Luckily, no one in my family went into London today - H was in the City yesterday, and D was planning a trip in today.

Any idea who? G8 protestors? Islamic fundamentalists?

The French?

At least the IRA used to claim responsibility, so you knew what it was for.

Perfect timing too - the day after we won the 2012 games.

How can people do such things?

Alph.

G8 Summit, too.

Anti-gobalisation extremists?

No ideas so far. No claims of responsibility yet.

A great time to attack London though while all security focus was on Scotland.

I can't get through to my friends and colleagues in London. Cell networks are overloaded.

ANYname your son will check in with you as soon a she hears the troubles I am sure. No problems at Heathrow yet so I am sure he is safe ...

Anyname the phone lines are overloaded. I will pray for you and yours. I pray for eveyone in London and all over the world. This is horrible.

I can't bring myself to turn on the news. It's like we've seen it all b4. If it hadn't been for Bob's message I'd not know about it. Is it too early or in bad taste to ask why PM Blair was so keen to support American's invasion of Iraq? I know we in Australia are just as bad - because our govt. supported the war too - even though Blind Freddy could see it was a mistake to go in there without the discovery of weapons of mass destruction. As usual, it's the innocent who wear the consequences. So sad.

AN

Anyname - my son was there and my stepson. It is horrible and the Iraq people are glad we are there. The innocent want our help. Most terrorists are not even Iraqi's.

Anyname

Thr truth will out regarding Iraq, but the UK and US suffered terrorist attacks before the invasion of IRAQ. Such icons of free democracy are ever targets of terrorism and attack.

And while I will havea LONG discussion with any one who will listen over my suspicion at the reasons given for the invasion, I will never say that the restoration of democracy is a bad thing after the regime of Saddam and his family.

Dont lash out, AN. It is the purpetrators of these disgusting attacks that deserve our immediate scorn, not our politicans.

Realtor, those who have gone there to serve are without fault and my heart goes out to each and every one of them but the decision to go there in the first place was very wrong. We were told clearly that the west would only invade Iraq with proof of WMD, but they never found any WMD, not before and not after. There are many countries that need our help from oppressive regimes but we do not invade them. eg. North Korea.

AN

Mean people SUCK! There were terrorists before Iraq and there will be terrorists AFTER, this is nothing new. [remember 9-11?]

So sorry you have to endure these evil monsters, my UK friends.

Hope all are ok.

Unfortunately those who are willing and able to carry out such attacks will always do so regardless of what they claim the current reason is.

The simple truth is they hate our society and will do all they can to destroy it.

I guess it comes down to it in the end of where you say this far and no further.

Hope for all the losses are few, tragic as those will be.

Al Qua'ida claimed responsibility.
****

I'm glad you all are doing OK. It is so disturbing to see the violence continue. It just makes me sick to my stomach to see innocent people killed and hurt...

Regardless of whether we (the U.S., England, et al went to Iraq, today's attack may still have happened. To think the terrorists are lashing out BECAUSE we've invaded THEIR land, is mistaken I think. They are attacking us because they hate us, they hate freedom, and they see us as infidels who need to be eliminated. It is as simple as that.

It is highly likely the terrorists claiming to have done this, Al Qaida Jihad, aren't even from Iraq or Afghanistan at all. Staying home and ignoring they are out there is dangerous. Bow to terrorism, and you become its prisoner. Ignore it and it will only gain strength. JMHO.

My 19-year-old son is in the army reserve and prepared to die to keep his little brother safe at home (he wrote him that recently). While he is not overseas, he is away from home and training, and he could go at any time. I have a 21-year-old nephew who is going on his second tour, a young marine who, like my son, volunteered to "put his money where his mouth is." My cousin's 19-year-old son has recently returned from a front-line stint in some of the hottest parts of Iraq and is going back soon. A guy from our company, a Michigan National Guardsman, is there now, having left his family to help provide the peace and stand up to these evil beings who would kill you and me just as soon as they'd look at us.

Arrgg. Didn't mean to go on and on. Just a subject that is near to my heart. And, like Bob, even though the WMD were not found does not make me regret that all of those Iraqi people are forging freedom in their own way. Near us is the largest Arab community outside of the Middle East. When you listen to their stories, you come to realize how evil Saddam was and it is incredible to witness their joy that someday they might be able to go "home."

God bless all of you. Friendship and peace to our world.

~ Snow

Say what you really feel, Bob!! LOL!!!

Al Qaida Jihad. A psuedo splinter group perhaps? Or part and parcel of the main group? Guess we'll find out in the days ahead.

~ Snow

One thing that blunts any terorrist attack on London - we're so used to it, it doesn't shock or disrupt as much as it might in other places.

I lived in London - and worked in central London - through all the IRA attacks, and like all other London-dwellers, got used to it. People just learned to take it in their stride; to find alternative ways to get to where they were going, to live without litter bins and to report suspect packages as soon as they saw them. It was a damn nuisance (and much more than that to all the people who had loved ones die or be seriously injured), but London barely stopped for it.

Perhaps it's the Blitz spirit living on?

Bob and all - So sorry to see this happening in your country. I thought Bob was joking around when I read the title of the thread.

My prayers are with you and your country.