Ian wrote:

As a Brit and fellow Londoner, I feel I should say something.


.....
We just kind-off accept it. I like many, I think, feel that this has been
inevitable. ...

Yes, it was, but not for thd reason you ascribe, unfortunately...

For many people here, the idea of the war would be more palatable without
the religious connertation. [sic] ....

Well, the fact is that worldwide terrorism over the last 30 years has
been the (almost) exclusive territory of one specific religious group.
There have been local others (N Ireland comes to mind close to you
Brits), but globally, that is an unfortunate fact.

Cutting off fundiong for extremists, does not seem to work. It takes bugger
to buy a few Kilos of exposives, or even make your own. Sure, you can't
wage a war, but you can bring a city to a halt. The real battle has to be a
combination of avoiding the problem in the first place (!) and cutting off
access to recruites - which in turn means avoiding the extream
disenfranchising of the people in the first place. ...

Well, it will certainly put a crimp (eventually) in the large
organizations' ability to make large-scale attacks possible--I think the
reason it isn't obvious yet is more one of simply not enough time for
actions to have taken real effect and still lots more to be done to stop
the flow. As for recruits, eliminating the propoganda of the zealots
would go a long way...if the leaders in the ME were nearly as interested
in develping their peoples' lives as opposed to promoting their own
agendas it would (again, eventually) make a significant difference.