WSJ: 'Take Courage' -- That's what the sign says, and the Brits do.

An assertion was made yesterday on the Web site of an al Qaeda affiliate claiming responsibility for the terrorist bombings in London: "Britain is now burning with fear."

This is not true; and it cannot ever be true, because it is alien to the British character to "burn." And even if ardor were not so damned un-British, "fear" would never make for kindling in Britannia. Some nations are too stoical, too suspicious of disarray, to panic or wilt in the face of hostility....

When I moved to London..., I was greatly impressed by the large, stark billboards I saw all over the city depicting a pint of ale. They said: "Take Courage." That was the name of the beer, of course, but I could not help thinking that this counsel was irrefutable proof of national fiber....

Only the day before, Britain was in exultant fettle; there had been--for Britons, the world's most unshowy people--a quite dazzling outburst of national pride. London had secured the 2012 Olympics.... After the bombs, all celebration cast aside, there was no breast-beating....

It really is considered unseemly to complain, or to feel sorry for oneself, among Britons: This aversion to self-pity is bad for the terrorists, who thrive on attention and the sowing of chaos. They won't get much satisfaction in Britain. Londoners will not retreat into their shells, and they are unlikely to do as the Spaniards did and draw out the tragedy with a lot of public recrimination, or to capitulate in any way.

The secret of British composure is that Britons really do feel proud of their civilization. On the whole, they apologize for very little, which is as it should be. Their message to terrorists is always likely to be straight and robust: "How dare you! I'm British!"

"We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials of vigilance and exertion will wear us down. Give us the tools and we will finish the job." -- Winston Churchill, 1941

"[D]o not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning.This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time." -- Winston Churchill, 1938

* * *

"It's through terrorism that the people that have committed this terrible act express their values and it's right at this moment that we demonstrate ours. I think we all know what they are trying to do, they are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cow us, to frighten us out of doing the things we want to do, of trying to stop us going about our business as normal as we are entitled to do and they should not and must not succeed.

"When they try to intimidate us, we will not be intimidated, when they seek to change our country, our way of life by these methods, we will not be changed. When they try to divide our people or weaken our resolve, we will not be divided and our resolve will hold firm. We will show by our spirit and dignity and by a quiet and true strength that there is in the British people, that our values will long outlast theirs.

"When they try to intimidate us, we will not be intimidated," he said in a recorded address to the nation from 10 Downing Street. "When they seek to change our country or our way of life by these methods, we will not be changed. When they try to divide our people or weaken our resolve, we will not be divided and our resolve will hold firm." -- Tony Blair, July 7, 2005

Compare and Contrast:

Blair's Rising Star Runs Into a Treacherous Future, New York Times,
By Alan Cowell, July 8, 2005

LONDON, July 7 - It is said, usually as a kind of joke, that a day is a long time in politics. Rarely has that been so true - and so bloodily so - as in the past 24 hours of Prime Minister Tony's Blair's roller coaster ride from triumph to tragedy.

On Wednesday evening, as chairman of the Group of 8 major industrial nations summit meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, he led a gathering of the world's political, diplomatic and economic powers, bolstered by the victory he scored that morning, when London was awarded the 2012 Olympics. He had led the charge to turn the annual summit meeting into a pep rally to end poverty in Africa and address world climate change, buoyed by worldwide concerts and demonstrations.

Early Thursday morning, as the leaders there took up the thorny issue of climate change, he continued the diplomatic minuet, meeting with President Hu Jintao of China.

But, even as the politicians talked, aides were watching television images pouring in from London raising the first alarms. When he finished his meeting with Mr. Hu, his aides broke the news, but still there was some confusion, his spokesman said, speaking in return for customary anonymity. Then, toward midday, the doubts were over: London had been struck by terrorists. Mr. Blair flew back to London, somber and shaken.

Perhaps the crudest lesson to be drawn was that, in adopting the stance he took after the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Blair had finally reaped the bitter harvest of the war on terrorism - so often forecast but never quite seeming real until the explosions boomed across London.

The war in Iraq has been increasingly unpopular here, with taunts that Mr. Blair had become President Bush's poodle. The anger about Iraq led to Mr. Blair's shaky showing in the May elections: a third term with a severely reduced majority. Now, as long predicted and feared, his support of the war appears to have cost British lives at home. Thursday was a day of rallying behind the leader, but there were indications that the bombing could take a political toll.

No mainstream politician would say so out loud, but George Galloway, the maverick, onetime Labor legislator who had met with Saddam Hussein before the Iraq war, had no hesitation. "We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain," he said. "Tragically, Londoners have now paid the price of the government ignoring such warnings."...

* * *

In Americans, Lurking Fears Rise to Surface, New York Times,
By Paul Vitello, July 8, 2005

Even on a roaring uptown No. 6 train in Manhattan, there is a certain kind of quiet that veteran riders can sometimes sense. And yesterday, when the morning rush seemed almost to shiver in the aftershock of a terrorist attack on commuters in London five hours earlier, was one such time.

It is the quiet of being reminded that one's entire life, if it is lived in any urban area of this country, is a soft target.

"You notice it in the vibe of the train," said Geoff Hoffman, an uptown No. 6 rider who described himself as a painter. "Everyone's brow is furrowed. Everyone's thinking about it. Just look around."

It is usually hard to say what everyone is thinking about, but yesterday you could say it: "It's dangerous to live here," said Craig Fols, an actor. "But I thought this through after 9/11. It's a kind of danger I'm going to live with."

In Chicago, Boston, Miami and San Francisco, people said similar things yesterday, whether with a certain bravado, or on the legs of denial, or from a more tentative resolve. "When I stop to think about it, I don't feel very safe," said Nancy LaMantia, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., business owner. "But then again, on a day-to-day basis, I feel fine."...

Comment by a British reader (Comment #61):

"Just a word. My sister was at Tavistock Square at the time of the explosions, and my daughter and nephew were also in central London. We had some anxious moments, the more so because the cell-phone system was down (probably due to overloading), but we've all spoken now by land-line and email and they're all safe and well.

"For those of you who are anxious to know how the UK will react, we've been bombed for years by the IRA, and no-one spoke of quitting. Half of London and much of Coventry was flattened by the Luftwaffe a generation or two back, and no-one ran. Before that, in my grandparents' time, we were bombed by Zeppelins and didn't give in. We gave up appeasing after Czechoslovakia. There's no panic today, and there won't be, but we, all of us, are bloody angry. Al quaeda may think we're going to run up the white flag, but I promise you nobody else does. "

-- Curt, mudvillegazette.com/archives/003125.html

Ghost of Churchill, Edward Longshanks, and Rumsfeld (not a ghost)

Greyhawk had a great post yesterday about a glimpse or two of the Ghost of Churchill. Mmmm. Me? I had more visions of the ghost of “Edward Longshanks” and what his plan would be right now for the English people. It would be a hoot to see him walk into Parliament or walk the streets of London right now, I think he might have a broadsword with him though.

Speaking of London. One of the best quotes coming out yesterday in support of the Brits came from my boss: Secretary Rumsfeld. What a great quote machine.

"If these terrorists thought they could intimidate the people of a great nation, they picked the wrong people and the wrong nation. For generations, tyrants, fascists, and terrorists have sought to carry out their violent designs upon the British people only to founder upon its unrelenting shores," he said in a statement.

"Before long, I suspect that those responsible for these acts will encounter British steel. Their kind of steel has an uncommon strength. It does not bend or break."
Longshanks would approve, though he most likely would call it a tad weak.

Hat tip Greyhawk for the flag.

-- CDR Salamander, cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2005/07/ghost-of-churchill-edward-longshanks.html

THE 7/7 ATTACKS: HITCHENS VS. MOONBATS
By Michelle Malkin · July 07, 2005 02:13 PM

Christopher Hitchens delivers a strong antidote to the moonbats blaming the 7/7 attacks on Bush/Blair/Iraq:

My son flew in from London at the weekend, and we were discussing, as we have several times before, why it hadn't happened yet. "It" was the jihadist attack on the city, for which the British security forces have been braced ever since the bombings in Madrid. When the telephone rang in the small hours of this morning, I was pretty sure it was the call I had been waiting for. And as I snapped on the TV I could see, from the drawn expression and halting speech of Tony Blair, that he was reacting not so much with shock as from a sense of inevitability.

Perhaps this partly explains the stoicism and insouciance of those Brits interviewed on the streets, all of whom seemed to know that a certain sang-froid was expected of them. The concrete barriers around the Houses of Parliament have been up for some time. There are estimated to be over 4 million surveillance cameras in the United Kingdom today, but of course it had to be the Underground—"the tube"—and the good old symbolic red London bus. Timed for the rush hour, and at transit stations that serve outlying and East London neighborhoods, the bombs are nearly certain to have killed a number of British Muslims. None of this, of course, has stopped George Galloway and his ilk from rushing to the microphone and demanding that the British people be removed "from harm's way" by an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. (Since the Islamists also demand a withdrawal from Afghanistan, it surprises me that he doesn't oblige them in this way as well, but perhaps that will come in time.)

...It is ludicrous to try and reduce this to Iraq. Europe is steadily becoming a part of the civil war that is roiling the Islamic world, and it will require all our cultural ingenuity to ensure that the criminals who shattered London's peace at rush hour this morning are not the ones who dictate the pace and rhythm of events from now on.

Read the rest and then compare the response from some of Hitchens' deranged fellow countrymen (hat tip: Jeff Quinton, who has thorough, ongoing coverage of the attacks).

More from the blame-Iraq crowd at Angry in the Great White North.

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