Terrorist attack "foiled" - my take
As the end of the day draws near in Britain it is clear the threat to British and US citizens was high. But who were the terrorists and why did they target us and was the response by the government the right one?1) Who were the terrorists?
A question I cannot answer. The BBC attempts to provide some answers at this page: Q and A
2) Why did they target us?
A second question I do not know the answer to. Perhaps they believe Britain is responsible for the war in Iraq or some other middle eastern issue? Or perhaps clerics are simply indoctrinating muslims into believing they or their faith has been wronged by the west (maybe this explains September 11th?).
However either way their long term strategy is flawed. America and Britain were being pressured to redraw from Iraq and Afganistan. With this incident they now will stay their longer. People in the world have little sympathy in general for Britain and America especially, but now they have more.
The only things that is occuring as a result of their actions is the repression of human rights and free speech in the west by our governments. Perhaps this is their aim? I can't see how that would benefit Islam?
3) The government response
The government has acted extremely precautiously, which is probably a wise thing, however the jams and congestion at the airports themselves would have been the ideal target for additional attacks! Also I do not understand why they raised the security threat level after the incident or why they introduced security threat levels for the public in the first place as they are extremely vague and, as we have seen, cannot be raised when a real threat is present.
It is worth noting that ID cards would not have prevented these attacks, biometric or otherwise. The same can be said of the US visit program which involves taking photographs and the fingerprints of all visitors to America.
The surveillance mechanisms enabled the detection of the threat and security forces to prevent it. I am sure government officals will be using this as an example in future discussions as a justification for such powers. Lets hope that the innocent do not become the victims in all this...
Labels: My philosophy, Politics
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home