Have you considered, especially given the unflagging attempts by the press to create a parallel with the Vietnam War, that this may be a "Tet offensive" sort of event which the AQ have been working on? While limited in military, or even terrorist scope, although this appears to be well thought out, casualies are relatively few compraed to the number of people affected in their day-to-day lives.
Hopefully, your press will not allow the terrorists to fully capitalize on this attack, by spouting the sort of rhetoric the US press did in 1968.
Hopefully, the AQ will be denied that propaganda victory in the court of public opinion.
May God grant you all the resolve shown during the Blitz, when the bombs came from the sky, rather than saboteurs crawling in tunnels.
First and foremost, this isn't going to change our foreign policy because we're more or less used to living with terrorism, thanks to the IRA. All it's going to do is make us more angry with the terrorists.
Regards, Ivan