Particularly barbaric

It is particularly barbaric this has happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa and the long term problems of climate change and the environment.

-- Tony Blair, reacting to the apparent terror attacks in London today.

He and aWol were much more thoughtful, scheduling the brutal March 20, 2003 attack on Iraq so as not to interfere with any meetings of the Sierra Club, Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, UNHCR, CARE, the Rainforest Action Network, or any group meeting to try to deal with poverty in Africa or climate change and the environment.

Because that's just how unbarbaric they are.

(Actually, I didn't look that up--probably one or more of those groups were meeting. But they weren't the G8, which means they probably believe their own rhetoric, so they don't count.)

Without a doubt, the reaction to today's attacks will be exactly opposite of what is needed. There will be more senseless attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq, more cutbacks on civil liberties--and the seeds will be planted for even more terror attacks. Rather than admitting that the "global war on terror" is a complete disaster only causing the problem it supposedly addresses, the G8'ers will insist that the GWOT be ratcheted up a few notches. In fact, Blair is already trying to do that:

It is important that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world," he said.

"Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations throughout the world.

Shorter Tony Blair: "We're even crazier than they are."