Thoughts on a Morning of Terror

We have a routine in my house most mornings. My wife takes the first shower, I stop in the study on my way to the kitchen to start breakfast. In the study I quickly check the headlines to make sure that the world is still standing before I start scrambling the egg whites. Most days everything's fine. Some days it's not.

A few initial thoughts:

* I would not want to be London's Mitt Romney--in charge of organizing their Olympics. One of the great advantages of having the Olympics in Salt Lake was that the city didn't have an enormous soft-target of a public transit system, like the Underground. Whoever has that job won't be getting much sleep tonight.

* We should all be proud of our president. In direct contrast to his reactions on September 11, 2001, he was clear-minded, strong, and very nearly eloquent this morning:

The contrast between what we've seen on the TV screens here, what's taken place in London and what's taking place here is incredibly vivid to me. On the one hand, we have people here who are working to alleviate poverty, to help rid the world of the pandemic of AIDS, working on ways to have a clean environment. And on the other hand, you've got people killing innocent people. And the contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill -- those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks.

The war on terror goes on. I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room. Their resolve is as strong as my resolve. And that is we will not yield to these people, will not yield to the terrorists. We will find them, we will bring them to justice, and at the same time, we will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate.

That's good, strong stuff.

* Anyone who buys the line that these attacks are in response to Britain's role in Iraq and Afghanistan should be ridden out of town on a rail. You know what terrorists do? They kill people. It's who they are. They don't need provocations and their "reasoning" is always post facto. The people of Bali weren't fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no Iraq and Afghanistan on September 11 or at Khobar Towers.

There is no appeasing these people. If the Western allies pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow, there would still be attacks for some other slight--maybe the affront of having troops in Saudi Arabia. If our Zionist infidel troops were pulled out of the Hijaz, there would still be attacks because there are Jews in the Holy Land. If the Jews were scrubbed out of the Holy Land, there would still be attacks because there are Gucci stores in Riyadh. It never ends. And so we should care not at all about why these monsters tell us they are making war against us.

What we should care about is making them dead, as quickly as possible. To their credit, George W. Bush and Tony Blair seem to understand this.