Because you had not been reading about homeland terrorism in the papers until recently, did not mean that the problem did not exist. The security services and the Police have been fighting this problem quietly for years, and it is only over the last couple of years that it raised its ugly head.
How to deal with terrorism on our own doorstep is an entirly different problem from that of combating it on what can seem like the other side of the world.
In a perfect world we would take a different approach to the problems we face. Talk to, negotiate with, find a solution to, but that will not work. We are at war against an invisible, extreme enemy, to whom the only solution is total domination. They do not believe in democracy, their aim is a dictatorial Fundamental Islamic world, where the only law is theirs. These are people who have no interest in integration, or any form of society other than their own. The Geneva Convention or any other rules that you and I live by, do not exist in their world.
We are the victims of our own desire to do right by everyone. To be reasonable and above board. To believe everything we see and hear on the TV, or in the newspapers, as being fact. We see images so horrendous that they must be true. Sadly the media has to take its share of guilt, in its desire to make a headline that will sell newspapers or improve TV ratings.
An example is the gross misquote of the instructions issued to American military personnel after the London bombings. The headline in almost every newspaper read, "America has instructed its military personnel to stay out of London for their safety". Now that goes against everything that America, and George Bush were saying, and if that had been the order, it would have been disgraceful. But... the actual order reads thus... "All American military personnel are instructed not to make any unnecessary journey to London , to enable the emergency services to conduct their activities unhindered". Which is not the same thing as was published.
This instruction was issued on the Thursday night of the bombings, in exactly the same way as the Metropolitan Police and every company in central London made the same request to the civilian population and their staff. Stay out of London on the Friday, because there is no transport and the Police need the space to get on with their work. This is not as it was reported, and the press should be ashamed of themselves, and apologizes for intentionally misleading the public for the sake of a cheap headline. They had enough to write about without that.
The problem is that we live in a world of instant communication. We see it as it 'ALMOST' happens, but that is not the same as seeing it 'AS' it happens, or seeing what happened seconds before or what led up to the situation on the first place. If you read my story you will see how we the public, are manipulated in ways you would not believe. Incidents are portrayed in such a way that the truth if it be told, bare no resemblance to the chain of events as reported.
I have seen women and children killed or seriously injured, have their limbs broken by their own people, to gain the attention of the world media, and hence you.
We are manipulated by everyone, our governments, radical groups, and the press, simply to suit their own ends. We must learn to listen and look at what we see, with open minds, not jumping to conclusions, for they are normally far from the actual truth.
Always remember that two people veiwing the same incident from different locations will see it differently. Both will be telling the honest truth as they saw it, but that doesn't make it a true recount of what happened. The truth will be somewhere in the middle and perhaps something that neither of them saw. Neither was lieing, but nor were they telling the truth.
Anyone who has seen the realities of war, does not wish to see another one. We will always strive to seek a peaceful solution, but this is seen as a weakness and will be used to full advantage by the terrorist.
It is normal that we should be horrified by what is happening all over the world, but before you join in the clamour for the withdrawal of our troops from wherever they may be deployed, stop and look at what is happening in the bigger picture.
9/11 was a horrendous event, and we will never forget the images we saw, or the people who lost their lives. Almost 3000, but recently a mass grave was found in Northern Iraq containing 15000 bodies, 15000. There are hundreds of burial sites that have still to be excavated, but it will take years. These people were killed long before the invasion of Iraq by the allies the first time round, and remember this was an invasion which took place with the backing of the Arab world. The same thing applies to Bosnia, where we will be discovering mass graves for years to come, and they will not all be victims of the Serbs.
How many have died and are continuing to die in Darfur?... A million?... Two million?
What and where are the major conflicts in the world at this moment outside of Iraq and Afghanistan?
Russia/Chechnya ; India/Kashmir/Pakistan ; Indonesia/Bali/West Timor ; Saudi Arabia ; Ethiopia ; The Sudan ; Nigeria ; Sierra Leone and many others.
All without exception, problems caused by Extreme Fundamentalist Islam. Sadly that is the reality of this world. We have now seen terrorist attacks spread with the bombings of embassies world wide, and with attacks on tourists in the Far East, Madrid, London, Egypt and Turkey.
There is no doubt that the war in Iraq is being used to fuel hatred, to poison the minds of would-be terrorists, but it would have happened sooner or later, whether we had been involved in Iraq or not. It was only a question of time. Can you honestly sit back in the comfort of your armchair and say that what is happening round the world is not your concern.
Are you aware of the number of countries contributing to the coalition forces in Iraq? Everyone talks about the UK and the US as if we were the only countries involved. We are a major contributor, but there are 26 nations taking part at this moment in time.
The UK, USA, South Korea, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, Netherlands, Romania, Australia, Japan, Denmark, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Mongolia, Georgia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovaria, Albania, Estonia, Tonga, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldavia and Fiji.
It comes as a bit of a surprise doesn't it.
The UK press are very guilty of only reporting incidents concerning our own forces and of ignoring everything else except if it is spectacular and makes a great headline. In afghanistan for instance, you would be forgiven for thinking that only US and UK forces were involved.
The mountains of the Pakistan /Afghanistan frontier are where most of the Extreme Fundamentalist terror training camps are. This is a war zone involving the INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCE (ISAF) under the control of NATO, with 37 NATO and non-NATO nations supplying over 18,500 troups. This number will rize over the next few months and it is to our credit that the UK is playing a major part.