[Vautrin]

I am sorry for the many victims in the London attacks.


The frightening thing of the "War on Terror", is that it is not a classical war, in which the purpose is to defeat and occupy a nation-state. It is more complex, and military might has little importance in this.

If civilians are deemed acceptable casualties (as happens in Iraq with the term 'collateral damage'), it is not difficult to come up with a rationalistic excuse for doing the same in London, or elsewhere - especially if you feel that there is no real justice done in Afghanistan, Iraq or where-ever. Whatever your beliefs may be on justice - and that allows for widely different views in what is acceptable, and what is not acceptable.

You could maintain that the US and their allies have other purposes than instilling fear in Iraq. But you could maintain the same for the terrorists. Their ideology does not consist solely of spreading terror. Spreading terror is justified by virtue of their "belief" in some divine purpose.

Of course, that does not make terror and counter-terrorism right. As always the people who lose most in this insane situation are the people with the least choices.