Amateur Analysis

I decided to take a little time today to post up an analysis of the attack on London yesterday. I am no expert, and I do not claim to be one. I am an amateur, but even I can make some suppositions based on a bit of research this morning.

First, the group claiming responsibility has me thinking. They claim to be a "secret" arm of al-Qaeda in Europe. Whoops. You are not a secret any longer. Second, the claim of responsibility popped up on an Islamic website, with a number of mirror sites, where many claims of al-Qaeda responsibility has been announced. But experts are not convinced that this might have been al-Qaeda. Mostly this speculation comes from how the claim was worded, and the misquote of the Quran at the end of it. Even if they are not al-Qaeda, there are other militant wings of Muslim terrorists in the world. The claim cited repeated warnings against Great Britain, as well as, Denmark and Italy to leave both Iraq and Afghanistan.

But I would like to focus on something else. Al-Qaeda has been a thorn in our side for many years, going back to the early 1990s. But since 2001, they has instituted four brutal attacks on the world, as a whole. Obviously, my first stop is 9/11. Almost three thousand men, women, and children die in the most brutal attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor. The attack is well-coordinated with little or no warning of the strike itself. The terrorist strike started officially at 7:58 that morning, and ended as of 10:10 when the final plane—during an attempted retaking by passengers—crashed into a Pennsylvania field. Standing death toll over 2800 people.

In October of 2002, three bombs are detonated in Bali. The first was a backpack bomb in "Paddy’s Bar." The second was a car bomb—a white Mitsubishi van—parked outside of the "Sari Club." The third was a car bomb parked outside of the US consulate office. In the end, 202 people died, and over two hundred were injured in the worst case of terrorism to ever strike Bali. Investigators later discovered that the bombings were targeting those there on holiday, especially Australians, who are a primary ally in the Global War on Terror. The majority of those that died were Australians.

In March of 2004, Madrid, Spain was targeted. Ten bombs were detonated in a series of coordinated attack during the height of rush hour on four different commuter trains. A total of thirteen bombs were believed to be in the plan, but only ten exploded. 191 people died and over 1800 were injured in the worst attack Spain has ever had to endure. The end result was Spain announcing that they would pull their troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan; appeasement which has since been proven ineffective as Spanish authorities have thwarted at least two more attempts by al-Qaeda to bomb their nation since then. The Madrid attack was done in a matter of three minutes, starting at 7:39, and ending at 7:42.

In July of 2005, London rush hour is targeted, again by a coordinated series of bombings on three commuter trains and one double-decker bus. The bus bomb, though not confirmed through Scotland Yard, may have been perpetrated by a suicide bomber. Witnesses at the scene that were on the bus prior to its explosion reported a suspicious man fiddling around with a backpack. The idea is not new, as we know our animal well enough that he/she likes to martyr themselves. The London attack started at 8:51, and stopped at 9:47 when the bus exploded just up the street from the British Medical Association building. Scotland Yard has stated that the bombs used high-explosives, and each one had no more than ten pounds of materials involved in their construction. As of right now, the death toll is right around fifty, with seven hundred people injured; twenty-two are classified as critical. Scotland Yard has also assumed that the coordination was not as good as other al-Qaeda operations, as the goal of the bombings might have been to get the trains into the stations, then detonate them.

Point being, after 9/11, the ability of our enemy to strike around the globe is not completely diminished, but its abilities are. The death toll has gone down significantly since 9/11, and the tactics are becoming redundant. The war being taken to these people is having more of an effect than the MSM cares to admit. I am not a journalist. I am not in the military. I leave "intelligence analysis" to Thomas, and try to stay as far away from it as possible. I am just an eighteen year-old girl in college that noticed something interesting about these bombings.

Our enemy is either: A) Weaker because they are being hunted and engaged around the globe, and their network is falling apart, or B) Is not gathering the intelligent, and highly-motivated individuals the media and the Left claims they are.

The London blast was a failure, as Tony Blair put it yesterday. It was a failure in its execution, and in its paltry death toll. I do not mean to sound aloof about the deaths in London; it is sad, and I pray for the souls of those departed, and I pray for the recovery of those injured. But if this is all al-Qaeda can muster for an attack then we have either hit them where it counts, and even their best efforts are dampened beyond what they can recognize, OR they are recruiting from amongst the lowest common denominator, and these are people that do not have the patience or the imagination to be anything further than an annoyance.

Either way you look at it, it seems as though this organization is in its death throes. So, let us finish them off. A wise man once stated that, "When your enemy is on his back, put your boot on his throat, and finish him off." Or something to that effect. I believe the quote comes from Lee Atwater, but the wisdom is sound. Especially in the face of this enemy.

The Bunny ;)