"Not the Blitz"
So says SteveC, and he’s right: Its a relatively small group of criminals. At the same time, I can’t agree with his feeling that “These bombings occured in all probability because of our unprovoked invasion.” The United States was attacked before we invaded Iraq or Afghanistan. People who will kill civilians on the tube are evil, and will look for excuses for their evil. We ought to challenge those reasons, and not accept their evil, or the twisted logic they put forth to justify it.
[update: In a comment, Jim Horning pointed out that Iraq did not attack the United States. And while I could bobble and weave, I’ll simply say “thanks Jim!” and my apologies for the inaccuracy.]
Yes, the United States was attacked before we invaded Iraq. In 1812 by the United Kingdom, for example.
But we were NOT attacked by Iraq.
Killing 57 innocent civilians in England is “terrorism.” Killing 25,000 innocent civilians in Iraq is “collateral damage.”
I consider them both morally unacceptable, and we should attempt to bring the surviving perpetrators to justice.
I agree both are bad. The US, in our failure to plan for the aftermath of a war, may even be at the level of having failed to meet important obligations under the Geneva Conventions. I don’t believe that they’re equivalent. Equivalence might be if the US intentionally bombed random neighborhoods in Tikrit.
Discussing the war is always fraught with danger of course. But here goes.
The UK was not attacked before the Iraq/Afghan invasions. Before the invasions, it would be hard to see why it would be attacked.
The US has been attacked for a decade or more, but the reason for that is clear – the US presence in the Middle East. So in terms of the US, the “rationale” for attacks on the US has not changed, just intensified.
The invasion of Iraq lacks a legal basis. Once that is established, all acts are bad, under general principles and/or the Geneva convention. It doesn’t matter whether it was random bombing or not, it’s all illegal, under some measure. It’s very hard to take a moral/legal posture today when ones very presence is immoral/illegal.