Explosions rock London

July 7, 2005

A horrifying morning in London.

Near simultaneous explosions have rocked London, killing several people and injuring dozens in what UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said was an apparent terror attack coinciding with a meeting of G8 leaders in Scotland.

A series of four explosions caused mass panic and brought the London transit system to a halt early Thursday, killing at least two people, police said.

The explosions rocked the city’s subway systems and up to three more hit buses in the city, all at the height of rush hour.

The blasts caused chaos and panic across the city, with dazed and bloodied survivors emerging from stations. The mobile phone network was overloaded, and many struggled to let others know that they were safe.

In the first report of casualties, City of London police told CNN there had been two fatalities at Aldgate east station. At least 90 people are reported to have been injured.

Blair said: “It is reasonably clear there have been a series of terrorist attacks in London.” There have been casualties, he said “both people that have died and people seriously injured.”

“It’s particularly barbaric that this has happened” on a day that people are meeting to deal with world problems at the G8 in Scotland.

Though initial reports expressed uncertainty about whether these were, in fact, terrorist attacks, subsequent reports have shown little doubt.

Our hearts go out to our British friends and families.

Not to be a crab, but I notice that, while Bush was expressing our sympathies with those who were injured in London, he couldn’t help but draw a contrast calling attention to his personal “war on terror” — we were there in Scotland trying to find ways to aid Africa and clear the environment (true, everyone except Bush that is); others were plotting ways to kill people (um, about those 100,000 Iraqis). He also still seems compelled to explain everything by the evil in other people’s hearts.

  • I noticed that too. Bush couldn’t just pass on condolences, he had to plug his own agenda.

    How long until the rest of the GOP is exploiting this for their own gain?

  • I’m with Gary. The man’s narcissism knows no bounds. He can’t even step outside himself long enough to simply offer condolences and support and then STFU, as any reasonably sensitive human being would know was appropriate.

    Nothing is outside the bounds of politics with this creep. The London bombings are apparently just more grist for his perpetual campaign.

  • I was interested in how Blair said, in a Bushian way, that the explosions were obviously keyed to the opening of the G8 summit, as if, by such an association, they must therefore be in protest of the summit, not in protest of Britain’s involvement in Iraq, which we now know to be the case. Did he learn nothing from the Spanish leader’s attempt to dissemble in a similar way after the bombing of his country’s trains?

  • On Air America’s “Morning Sedition” one of the hosts (Mark – there are two) just referred to Bush’s attempt to turn the focus from the Brits’ suffering and heroism to his own resolve (“what about me?”) as Bush’s “pathological narcissism”. That’s a good expression and we ought to repeat it whenever we can.

  • Over on Pandagon, Jessie recalls that the reason US (and British) troops are in Iraq is “so we won’t have to fight the terrorists at home.” Did someone forget to pass that message on to the terrorists?

  • I hope there wasn’t anybody that didn’t expect Bush to exploit this for political gain.

    The question that I hope people are asking themselves is, do you feel safer now than you did 4 years ago?

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