According to A Big Stick and a Small Carrot Charles Kennedy had the audacity to mention Iraq yesterday and was attacked for his naivety for what seems like a fairly measured statement in comparison to say George Galloway.
“I am not here implying some causal link between Britain’s involvement in Iraq and the terrible terrorist attacks in London last week. Not at all. The mass murderers who attacked London last week did not need Iraq as an excuse. The blame for the deaths in London falls firmly on their shoulders and on their shoulders alone.”
But it would be hard not to link the war in Iraq to the bomb attacks in London as our political leaders themselves link the war into the wider War on Terror.
If we truly are at war with the terrorists then this latest attack may be seen by many especially those who support the actions of the terrorists as a retaliatory strike. I believe that Britain would still have been targeted even if our government had decided not to participate in the removal of Saddam Hussein from power and that in time the majority of population of Iraq will be a lot better off than they would have if Saddam Hussein had remained. But there is no escaping the fact that war has resulted in many innocent Iraqis losing their lives thus aiding those people who wish preach hatred of our country.
In the end we may never know why four seemingly normal lads from Yorkshire decided to blow themselves and many innocent Londoners up. But to think there may possibly a link between the events in Iraq and the attacks on London should not be considered a thoughtcrime. Most of us are thinking it anyway but I don’t think that the bomb attacks have at all changed our opinions on Iraq whichever side of the debate of whether we should have invaded or not we place ourselves.
