Blair vows terrorists won't win

Prayers to the people of London.

First, though I haven't been able to do much surfing this morning so I don't know if this definitely is the case, I would imagine there will be people voicing the argument that this attack is just desserts for England's involvment in the Iraq war along side America.

It isn't.

In our modern age, though collateral damage is still an issue, war planners try to make distinctions between "enemy combatants" and "innocent civilians." It doesn't always work out the way it's planned but the belief is sound. It is obvious, and has been for quite some time, the terrorists don't make such distinctions. Regardless of ones political dispostion or belief in the imperial designs of the Western world, blowing up 100's of commuters on their way to work is never an adequate response. This is not the way to make yourself heard.

The fact of the matter is that before we ever went into Iraq, there were Arabs/Muslims who's greatest desire was to push the Western world out of the Middle East. The fact of the matter is that there is no where to run and hide. There is no place to we can move to, to "just leave those people alone." Isolationism is dead.

Though it would certainly help if more countries moved up the developmental ladder across the globe to curb the recruitment of terrorists, the fact also remains that you will always have fanatics ready to sacrifice for a cause they believe is bigger than them. Remember Terry Schiavo? There was a mother who sent her son to bring "just a drink of water" to the departed Schiavo and that kid ended up in handcuffs. A few changes in beliefs and priority's and that kid would have been wearing a homicide bomber vest.

We cannot run from fanaticism. We cannot placate or pacify fanaticism. Osama Bin Laden and those who believe as he does are not interested in diplomacy. This is a war and today we, in London, lost a battle. The war however, goes on.

Here's the story:

Tony Blair has said terrorists will not succeed in destroying "our values and our way of life" after blasts hit London's transport network.

The prime minister said it was reasonably clear the blasts were a terrorist attack designed to coincide with the G8 summit in Gleneagles.

He said he was flying back to London to hear reports from police and emergency services face-to-face.

But the G8 summit would continue in his absence, he said in a TV address.

Mr Blair said it was "reasonably clear" terrorists were behind the blasts.

"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."

Mr Blair said all the G8 leaders wanted the meeting to continue in his absence so "that we should continue to discuss the issues that we are discussing and reach the conclusions that we were going to reach".

"Each of the countries around that table have some experience of the effects of terrorism and all the leaders ... share our complete resolution to defeat this terrorism," he continued.

"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.

"Just as it's reasonably clear this is a series of terrorist attacks, it's also reasonably clear, that it is designed and meant to coincide with the G8."

BBC political editor Andrew Marr said Mr Blair was clearly extremely upset when he gave his reaction to the blasts.