From an e-mail to an American colleague:
>I pray you were no where near the bombings?I was in mid-France at the time; we didn’t have time to encounter local comment.
I am told that the Italians cannot comprehend why the British were not beating their breasts, wailing in public and rending garments in the streets, calling for vengance.
I am told that the American media is swamped with “could it happen here” stories, and there was an amusing tale yesterday of US Military personnel living in the UK being banned from traveling in London – which led to the locals commenting that the Americans were “pussies”. The order was quickly rescinded, but I know some colleagues visiting London next week are not planning to use the Tube.
They’re a tragic event, but there’s been nowhere near the national outpouring of grief that the USA experienced after 9/11, probably because over the years the IRA has likewise been bombing us and killing people – 21 here, 28 there, a streetcleaner caught in the blast of a large City building, and Guardsmen and Horses on parade elsewhere – so the 50+ that these morons killed is a big tragedy, but I beieve that the UK’s national psyche is somewhat inoculated towards bombing and what Dubya calls “terrer”.
The truth is – mass media aside – real British people seem to laying blame squarely upon the bombers and the circumstances that drive them to be thus, rather than on the politicians, co-ordinated terrorist rings, Osama Bin Laden or Marilyn Manson. People are not scared, not out of bravado, but simply because – er – we’re *not* scared.
It’s looking more and more like it was done by a small clique of British-native religious nutters, so maybe Waco is a better analogy than 9/11?
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