London terrorist attacks

[Farren]

But sadly the emotional outrage over these heinous attacks gives the warmongers a toehold to demand that the war must go on. It just sucks all around.

I hope not, Tom. I've seen the "violence begets violence" meme more and more in the mass media here - not just from the pens of the wise but from the letters of ordinary people from all walks of life. I feel that in many countries political culture has reached a level of maturity where it's not a given that the mass of people will see violence as the immediate and obvious answer to violence. In fact, that's why the apparent bloodthirstiness of many Americans disappointed me so much after 9/11.

I think the Spanish publc's ousting of their former government is instructive. Its been pointed out that it wasn't so much the bombings as the former government lying about them that enraged the public (they blamed it on Basque seperatists). But its instructive that outrage at a cynical government was more of a political motivation in the elections than outrage at the perpetrators.