I find the thinking in the Applebaum column on the London bombing attempts almost as worrisome as the incidents themselves. It's disturbing because it underestimates enemies and ignores what lies behind their commitment to destroy us. The writer's word "resilient" translates here as superior -- always a foolish notion. Rather than patting "the West" on the back for calling police after noticing smoke coming from a car trunk, shouldn't we be questioning why the bombers are so persistent, why they come from countries beyond the Middle East and why they include physicians among their ranks? What is it about this hate and ideology that can enlist people to kill who otherwise are pledged to help?

The hatred is politically motivated. It isn't religious. People keep concentrating on religion as if it were the source and blaming countries as though they were the source. That isn't the case. These terrorist organizations owe allegiance to no government. They take what they can get from anyone, including enemies. They fight political battles. The reason it has just become a real problem for us is that those political battles are mostly involving territorial disputes we aren't a direct part of. We are now suffering attacks because we are blamed for the lack of resolution to those disputes by the terrorists. It has little to do with religion, really. Bin Laden isn't the leader of Mecca's main mosque, he is the leader of a political movement that uses terrorism.

so removed from being political?

Nightclubs, shopping malls (hey I can speak American) people going to work & airports all feature heavily as targets.

What we don't get, unlike when the brave boyo's from Ireland were letting rip, are politicians being targetted.

The IRA not only killed the Queen's uncle but also war hero & politician Arey Neave. They had several attempts at Maggie and even launched several mortars at the then PM John Major. That's political.

This rabble target drunk women and commutors. No wonder western civilisation is trembling.