"It may or may not have been an outrageous act, but (on the model of Spain) it was obviously neither random nor senseless. It was certainly, for example, less random and less senseless than the u.s. 1000- plane raid on Hamburg during WW2 -- not to mention the Tokyo firebombing, Dresden, or, more recently, Fallujah."
I think I must be missing something here. How is planting a bomb on buses and trains any less random or senseless than bombing Hamburg or Tokyo? Do you mean it killed less people? Or that it was more rational? The first is incontestable, but the second seems insupportable.
Does anybody know the *aims* of the bombers? What popular constituency stands behind them?
And what was there argument with the following:
"Monika Suchocka from Poland, Mihaela Otto from Romania, Gamze Gunoral from Turkey, Anthony Fatayi-Williams from Nigeria, Slimane Ihab from France, Behnaz Mozakka from Iran, Shahera Islam, a Muslim, Miriam Hyman, a Jew. ... an Italian publishing executive who had just got engaged, a Hindu IT manager, a hairdresser, a hospital cleaner, a computer analyst, an accountant who survived the Lockerbie bombing and a Vietnamese tour guide who was soon to be married. ... There is Laura Webb, 29, a personal assistant; Gladys Wundowa, 51, a hospital cleaner; Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, an Italian business analyst; Rachelle Yuen, 27, an accountant who moved to London from Mauritius five years ago; and Karolina Gluck, 29, an administrator from Poland; Ojara Ikeagwu, 55, a social worker with three children, Shahera Islam, a 20-year-old bank worker and Shyanuja Parathasangary, 30" ?