Early Thoughts

As I write this, it has been 8 hours since the bomb attacks in London and 7 hours since I first learned about them (Guardian | Newsblog).

Much like September 11th has become defined by one year in history, 2001, July 7 will now be defined by a singular terrorist attack in London.

I feel compelled to bring up an email I wrote September 13, 2001, two days after the attack. The note was in response to a sympathy note I had received:

Dear (Name Omitted)

Thanks for your sympathy and your shared stunned sense… The magnitude of the attack is far beyond comprehension, and far more than any one will ever be able to understand.

This is one of three defining moments in my life–I clearly remember the day Challenger exploded, I remember when I heard the news about Matthew Shepard, and this will clearly be the third event.

Campus was clearly stunned yesterday. Today we are recovering—(omitted phrase)—tomorrow we will continue. (omitted sentence)

I hope that when the US gets around to finding the instigators that it will be relatively bloodless and that it will be precise. I value human life and despise hate too much to seek the same for those who do not like the US.

Adam

From day one, I believed that the decapitation of the Taliban led Afghani government was justified due to their support of al-Qaida. However, it is painfully obvious that the US overreached in our response to September 11th when we invaded Iraq. In contrary to my wishes, the response to 9/11 hasn’t been relatively bloodless and hasn’t been precise.

I hope that today’s attacks were not instigated by the carelessness of the United States—although my fears appear founded as reported by the initial claims of responsibility that blame Britain’s participation in the Iraqi and Afghani wars.

Regardless, I hope that when the United Kingdom gets around to finding the instigators, that they take the moral high ground in how they deal with the terrorists.

Doing so might help discourage future attacks.