Another Battle Of Britain

The London attacks by al Qaeda "graduates" appear to have been just the beginning:

Witness James Edgar told Sky News he was in the [Glasgow, Scotland] airport during the incident.

He said a four-wheel drive, believed to be a Cherokee Jeep, tried to drive into the building, but was stopped by security barriers.

"I was in the airport booking a holiday, suddenly people were running as if they were missing their flight, but then we were told to get out of the airport," he said.

"A four-by-four had rammed into the building and caught on fire.

"Police were scuffling with a gentleman."

Yeah, it doesn't sound like much. But that didn't last for long:

U.S. law enforcement officials received intelligence reports two weeks ago warning of a possible terror attack in Glasgow against "airport infrastructure or aircraft," a senior US law enforcement officials tells the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

The intelligence reports also warned that airports and aircraft in the Czech Republic could be the targets of al Qaeda-connected terrorists....

A US official told ABCNews.com that the intelligence reports led to the assignment of Federal Air Marshals to flights into and out of both Glasgow and Prague.

The Glasgow attack wasn't limited to just a single crank, either:

Early Sunday, after a day of fast-moving developments, the London police announced that two people had been arrested in Cheshire, in northwest England, “in connection with the events in London and Scotland.”

The arrests were in addition to those of the two occupants of the blazing car at Glasgow Airport. A witness to the attack said on BBC television that one of the car’s occupants had been ablaze from head to foot, and as he struggled with the police, “was throwing punches and shouting ‘Allah, Allah.’ ”

Britain’s threat level is now at “critical,” meaning another attack is considered imminent. The threat has not been as high since last year, after authorities discovered what they called a plot to attack trans-Atlantic airliners with liquid explosives.

A British security official, who like many other officials who disclosed information insisted on anonymity, said Saturday that the heightened level reflected an assessment that the London and Glasgow cases were “linked in some ways and, therefore, there are clearly individuals who have the capability and intent to carry out further attacks.”

The links relate to the way the London car bombs and Glasgow airport attack were planned, using vehicles and gasoline, the official said.

Obviously, if the quality of these attacks is any indication, al Qaeda has, shall we say, lost a few MPH off their fastball. If the original Blitz had been comparable, the Luftwaffe would have been flying bombers powered by wound-up rubber bands.

This has led to the predictably dismissive attitude from the wacko Left, who are already saying that this "proves" Islamic terrorism is "no big deal" and should be left to "law enforcement" and therefore there really isn't any "war on terrorism" and it's all just the cover for the "Nazification of Amerika" that raving neoBolsheviks like Keith Olbermann have claimed all along. In which regard the "Brownification of Britain" fits all too snugly.

And that 9/10-esque, cavalier complacency will last right up until the attack that doesn't fizzle and kills more hundreds, or thousands, of civilians, in which case raving neoBolsheviks like Keith Olbermann will shriek that this is the direct result of George Bush's invasion of Iraq and the solution is to impeach him and Cheney, install Hillary Clinton immediately regardless of when the 2008 election is scheduled, withdraw from the Middle East and the rest of the world at once, and send a high-level delegation of Democrats to whatever cave Osama bin Laden currently is holed up in to throw themselves at his feet, weep in repentence to Allah and beg for his forgiveness. And then go to Tehran and do the same thing for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Don't want the Shiites to think we're playing sectarian favorites. Call it the New Shuttle Diplomacy.

Either Islamic terrorism "doesn't matter" or "we brought it on ourselves." Yet another liberal one-sided coin.

Except that there is no such thing in this case, because our enemies won't permit us that fantasy. This is the face of the enemy. This is what they want to do throughout Iraq, Israel, Europe, and right here in the good ol' US of A. The one and only reason that the old Islamic reaper ain't what he used to be is that we've been massacring his leadership, financing, command & control, and thousands upon thousands of his rank & file "fighters."

Now is not the time to take our foot off his throat. Not in Afghanistan, not in Iraq, not anywhere. And it would behoove us to start hosing him in Syria and Iran as well and finish this war once and for all. Can't have a return to "normalcy" until the war is actually won, after all.

Besides, if Keith Olbermann is any indication (and he is), those "good old days" (i.e. the first Clinton detour) weren't all that hot anyway.

UPDATE: Say, can we use this development to kneecap the Donks on their obsession with nationalizing health care? Isn't everything fair game in time of war? Stopping the Dem juggarnaut may be our only means of staving off defeat. I'd say that justifies using "any means necessary," wouldn't you?

UPDATE II: Strategy Page echoes the conclusions about the state of al Qaeda drawn above. Brother Hinderaker then echoes my addendum:

The whole picture will likely change, however, if al Qaeda succeeds in driving the U.S. out of Iraq.

Or, rather, if the Democrats succeed in driving the U.S. out of Iraq on al Qaeda's (and Iran's) behalf.