Terrorist failure
In spite of the horror and destruction wreaked yesterday by a number of degenerate bastards, and the dozens of dead and hundreds of wounded, the terrorist attempt to disrupt the civilized (yes, civilized) world has failed again.
Londoners didn’t take to the streets in a state of panic.
By closing time, the financial markets barely noticed: U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index Rebounds; Kingfisher, Retailers Advance
Commuters, Targeted Yesterday, Use London’s Subway, Stations

In the long-term what matters is that we must win the war on terrorism. What the British do next will be crucial in this war. Mark Steyn states that The quiet-life option ensures that attacks go on

It’s the target that decides whether terror wins – and in the end, for all the bombings, the British people and their political leaders decided they preferred to regard the IRA as a peripheral nuisance which a few concessions could push to the fringe of their concerns.

Steyn points out,

This is the beginning of a long existential struggle, for Britain and the West. It’s hard not to be moved by the sight of Londoners calmly going about their business as usual in the face of terrorism. But, if the governing class goes about business as usual, that’s not a stiff upper lip but a death wish.

Christopher Hitchens (via The Daily Ablution is categoricallly and emphatically correct in stating that WE CANNOT SURRENDER

And, even as I detested the people who might have just as soon have blown me up as anyone else, I was aware there were ancient disputes involved, and that there was a potential political solution.

Nothing of the sort applies in this case. We know very well what the “grievances” of the jihadists are.

The grievance of seeing unveiled women. The grievance of the existence, not of the State of Israel, but of the Jewish people. The grievance of the heresy of democracy, which impedes the imposition of sharia law. The grievance of a work of fiction written by an Indian living in London. The grievance of the existence of black African Muslim farmers, who won’t abandon lands in Darfur. The grievance of the existence of homosexuals. The grievance of music, and of most representational art. The grievance of the existence of Hinduism. The grievance of East Timor’s liberation from Indonesian rule. All of these have been proclaimed as a licence to kill infidels or apostates, or anyone who just gets in the way.
. . .
The grievances I listed above are unappeasable, one of many reasons why the jihadists will lose.

They demand the impossible – the cessation of all life in favour of prostration before a totalitarian vision. Plainly, we cannot surrender. There is no one with whom to negotiate, let alone capitulate.

We shall track down those responsible. States that shelter them will know no peace. Communities that shelter them do not take forever to discover their mistake. And their sordid love of death is as nothing compared to our love of London, which we will defend as always, and which will survive this with ease.

Clarity of purpose will win us this struggle, and win we must.