''London calling''

"The question should be how to interrupt that cycle -- not only how to stop the terror attacks, but how to stop the military operations that presumably help inspire them. Capturing Osama bin Laden alone won't do it; Al-Qaeda and allied groups are a web, not dependent on bin Laden or any other single leader. President Bush's abandonment of the hunt for bin Laden in favor of the war in Iraq is shameful, but bin Laden's capture wouldn't have ended the War on Terror.

In the current situation, it's clear that the war in Iraq is what's providing the recruits and the ideological fire for Al-Qaeda's operations and any public support it enjoys among Muslims. Exactly the sort of sustained economic and political support the G-8 is attempting to show Africa is the sort of evidence Muslim countries would require of the West's good will. In order to end terrorism, public support for it must be eroded; and for it to be eroded, the West, and particularly the United States, must do far more not only to promote democracy, but to prevent the sort of devastating poverty that plagues much of the Muslim world.

A military approach alone will never end the War on Terror, and it will never prevent the sort of attack London suffered Thursday. So long as the British and American governments insist on such a limited approach, they will continue to be at risk for periodic, devastating attacks -- with all the counter-attacks and indefinite war that implies."-from Geov Parrish's post today on Working For Change.