<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I don't agree with C.G. Estabrook/George Galloway's argument that the killings are inexcusable but not inexplicable. That is to say that this was somehow a spontaneous response to attacks on the Middle East. But the relationship is not so direct. Someone else posted up Gary Younge's similar argument from the Guardian newspaper. I posted them this reply (which turned out to be surplus to their requirements):</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"<FONT face=Arial size=2>I opposed the Iraq war, but I still think it is daft to blame Tony Blair for the London bombings (Blair's blowback, 11 July 2005). He is culpable for the deaths in Falluja, but others bombed the Underground, and bear responsibility for their actions. As far as anyone can tell, the inspiration for the bombings arises from the political isolation of the fundamentalists, not from a groundswell of support behind them in Iraq, or anywhere else.</FONT>"</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Doug asks</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>"The NYT had a piece on how one of the bombs was planted in a <BR>neighborhood of fairly assimilated Arabs. Was the aim in part to <BR>dissaude them from assimilation into British society? That's really a <BR>question."</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>One of the bomb sites, Edgware Road is marginally more Arabic than other parts of London, and close to the site of the Regents Park Mosque. The established Arabic part of London is mostly better off, and relatively westernised, so it is conceivable that they were a target for that reason. But the Arab part of the population is relatively small, and quite concentrated, so bombing the underground at Edgeware Road is fairly indiscriminate. If their target was Arabs it might have made more sense to attack above ground.</FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The other bomb sites seem to have been chosen overall for the number of people rather than their class or ethnicity. Arguably the Liverpool Street bombing was targeting the financial district, though since much of this has moved out to Canary Wharf the bomb there would have hit many more service sector workers than stock traders. Kings Cross is simply the most lines meeting, so maximum damage. The 30 bus route runs from Hackney (Afro-Caribbean/Bangladeshi, impoverished inner city) into town. </FONT></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>