London has had a glimpse of the horror of war. An echo of the massacres of Fallujah, the devastation of "shock and awe", the bulldozing of Palestinian villages, has come home to the British capital.
The principal political responsibility for these events is carried by those who launched the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush and Blair's declarations of sorrow ring hollow.
They have shed no tears and have expressed no grief or sympathy for the murdered and maimed innocents of Afghanistan or Iraq, slaughtered by their armed forces on their orders.
The numbers killed in London are more or less the same as an afternoon's "collateral damage" whenever the US army attacks a wedding party, or shells a village.
As socialists we condemn the attacks on London, as we have condemned all attacks on civilian targets, whether that be New York, Bali, Baghdad, Madrid Palestine.
Those targeted, maimed and murdered on July 7 were not the G8 leaders, war planners or politicians who voted for the war.
They Londoners going to work in the rush hour.
The photos of the dead and missing show that planting bombs in central London guarantees you will kill British, Turkish and Pakistani Muslims. The victims were a cross section of that majority of people in Britain who oppose Bush and Blair's war.
The anti-war movement has always rejected Blair's arguments for supporting Bush's so-called "war
and warned that Britain's involvement in the invasion and occupation of Iraq would make London, and other British cities a target for terrorist attack.
The anti-war movement has unfortunately been proven right. This attack comes directly as a result of Britain's involvement in Iraq, in same the way the Madrid bombings were consequence of Spain's participation in the war under Aznar.
Whoever placed the bombs in London, we know that the ideas and methods of the Jihadist bombers behind the attack will not defeat imperialism.
These people have nothing to offer the working class of the Arab world or working class Muslims in Britain. They have no support in any section of British society.
They are incapable of distinguish- involvement in ing between the British government and the tens of millions of people in this country who are against the war.
They seek to eliminate democracy, pluralism and secularism. Born in the despair and powerlessness of the neocolonial world their ideological explanations of what is happening are based on an interpretation of religious texts. The jubilation in their statements about the pinprick they have inflicted on the
British state is testimony to their inability to challenge it. Their methods do nothing but strengthen the state. Identity cards, arrests, more intense surveillance of political dissent, attacks mosques and Muslims, and increased short-term support for Blair when he preaches national unity, are the only outcomes they will achieve. Already as we go to press a succession of evacuations elsewhere in London, in Birmingham and around the country, claiming to be based on "intelligence", give a hint as to the climate of The anti-war paranoia that Blair
and co will exploit movement has to the hilt. unfortunately The mass mobilbeen proven isations against the
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Bush, Blair and
result of the other imperialBritain's ist leaders claimed
that their invasion of Iraq would make the world a safer place. Yet again the contrary has been proved the case. Our response to Blair is clear. We say the blood of the victims of the London bombs stains his hands, and is mixed with the blood of Fallujah's dead. The anti-war movement has united millions in opposition to Blair, his allies and his war-mongering: now he must get British troops out of Iraq, and resign.