Keep Calm & Carry On.

The British people are once again facing the nightmare of terror. Fortunately the police responded quickly and, aided by a good measure of fortune, no one has been killed.

The situation looks oddly like 2001. A lackluster leader in the early stages of his new post confronting a terrorist attack on its home soil. This time it is the newly empowered Gordon Brown and the attack, while not as dramatic as the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, will certainly temper, if not change, the tone of Brown's new administration. Already he sounds like Bush, and I like Bush,

"We will not yield, we will not be intimidated, and we will not allow anyone to undermine our British way of life,” he (Brown) told the British Broadcasting Corp. in a TV interview. ¹

I wonder if this attack will also affect the British public's attitude towards Iraq? It is interesting to see the British authorities connecting this attack with Al Qaeda while the U.S. officials are more hesitant.

Britain’s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, said his country was dealing with terrorists associated with al-Qaida. Chertoff was less willing to make the direct link at this time.

“Certainly it seems a reasonable possibility that it’s either al-Qaida or people who are associated with al-Qaida or sympathetic to al-Qaida,” Chertoff said. “I don’t think again we can be definitive about whether this is a plot that was directed from al-Qaida central so to speak, or whether it reflects what we sometimes call homegrown terrorism.” ²

1 Fifth arrest made after Glasgow airport attack

2U.S. ‘comfortable’ with terror alert status

Keep Calm & Carry On.