The last time military operations were conducted on the territory of Great Britain was during the revolution of Oliver Cromwell's "Roundheads." Since then, the United Kingdom, which has fought many righteous and unrighteous wars, has never seen an enemy on its own territory. Even Hitler's plan "Sea Lion," developed for the capture of the British Isles, remained on paper. The fascists lost the air battle over the southern counties of England and Wales, after which they were forced to abandon the hope of conquering the indomitable islanders.
War came to Great Britain on July 7, 2005: four bombs, exploded one after another at three London Underground stations and on a route bus, destroyed the myth of British security. At the moment, not much is known about the explosions: they occurred during the morning rush hour. Data are reported on the deaths of more than 50 people, up to 1,000 were wounded. Rumors that the terrorists used gas bombs filled with ricin have not been confirmed: although several people did suffer lung burns, these injuries were the result of thick smoke and combustion products of insulating rubber in the subway cars.
The explosions were timed to coincide with the Scottish G8 summit that began that day at Gleneagles. The "heroes," "martyrs" and "warriors of Allah," as always, did not even think of attempting to get to where the meeting was held. It is much easier to attack those whom security experts call by the dry professional term "soft targets" - passengers on ordinary buses and subway cars. The same kind of people as most of us. By the way, another rumor - that the bus explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber - has not yet been confirmed.
If we draw certain parallels between the latest terrorist attack and the Madrid one, which occurred in March of last year, we can assume that we are still not talking about suicide bombers. European mujahideen are not burning with desire to sacrifice themselves on the altar of Islam, no matter how they assure us otherwise.
However, between the explosions in Spain and the terrorist attack in London there is one very striking difference that catches the eye of any journalist reporting from the scene. While the residents of Madrid were seized by panic, crowds of passengers who had lost control of themselves out of fear flooded squares and streets so that the police had difficulty controlling the situation, the Londoners, by the general admission of all reporters, displayed enviable composure.
Even the most biased observer would not have found traces of panic on the streets of the British capital. Londoners heeded the police instructions, broadcast within 5 minutes on all television and radio channels, and remained in their places - at home, at work - wherever the terrorist attack caught them. Troops were brought into the city center to prevent panic, but there was nothing to prevent. A couple of months ago, Londoners took part in large-scale exercises conducted by the police, firefighters and civil defense units specifically in the subway - the British authorities had long realized that the oldest underground in the world is the most vulnerable target for terrorists. After all, a group of Islamists arrested last year at literally the last moment was preparing to explode gas bombs right there. In addition, the sad experience of the explosions in the Moscow subway, apparently, also taught the British guardians of order something.
Today's explosions, alas, with terrifying inevitability proved another fact: it is absolutely impossible to completely prevent such terrorist attacks. At airports, you can strengthen security and install a bunch of electronic devices - and still somewhere someone will carry a pistol, disassembled into parts and hidden in the insoles of sneakers. At train stations, you can establish round-the-clock patrols - nevertheless, somewhere a concrete block will be dragged onto the rails. The subway is practically beyond control altogether.
Last Thursday, an Arabic-language letter appeared on the Internet in which a completely previously unknown group, "European Al-Qaeda," claimed responsibility for the explosions in London - this, they say, is revenge for the active actions of the British in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, by evening it became clear that such a group simply does not exist: specialists know of a group that called itself "Al-Qaeda in Europe," but "European Al-Qaeda" was not and is not. Realizing that no one takes them seriously, the impostors removed their anonymous letter from the Internet. Perhaps simply out of fear of being discovered, because for such "innocent jokes" considerable prison terms are due.
As for possible ways to find not so much the direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack as those who stand behind them, British specialists are already asking themselves a simple question, known since ancient Rome: "Who benefits?" Moreover, we can be talking about benefit not in the political or religious sense, but in the most down-to-earth sense - monetary. Immediately after the explosions, stock prices on European exchanges fell seriously - especially affected, as usually happens in such cases, were shares of travel and insurance companies. There is a version that brokers who, on the orders of their clients, immediately took advantage of the situation and began to buy up collapsed shares, received a small insider tip in advance. So British investigators are already talking to some of them in the hope of clarifying the situation.
Nevertheless, we should not only recognize, but also properly internalize that "Al-Qaeda" is not a familiar organization with a vertical management structure, and the notorious Osama bin Laden (if he even exists) is not a guerrilla commander or a business leader. Rather, he can be compared to the head of a certain training center, a kind of "university of terror," as cynical as it may sound.
Al-Qaeda distributes video courses around the world teaching anyone who wants to make bombs from readily available materials. Al-Qaeda churns out propaganda materials that absolutely do not have to be printed somewhere in the Hindu Kush mountains or in the Iraqi desert. It is enough to write them by hand (or put them on a USB stick) and hand them to a courier who will deliver them, for example, to the Palestinian Authority, where everything will be reproduced in the best possible way on the latest equipment bought with humanitarian money from Europe, and distributed via the PA's diplomatic mail around the world... Al-Qaeda also trains a certain number of fighters in professional guerrilla warfare skills and allows both them and any madman, any fanatic and any terrorist in the world to use its "trademark".
It must be admitted that the ramblings of some homegrown political scientists, supporters of the "conspiracy theory," who with aplomb assert that all terrorist attacks in the world are from the devil, that is, from the USA, have no basis. Rather, they are the results of implicit indoctrination by the same bearded "public relations specialists" in robes...
Let us also acknowledge another fact. The war is not waged by the military and not against the military. Its main targets have become ordinary people - you and us. And no matter how any of us may feel about America or Iraq, about bin Laden or Bush, about Islam or Judaism - the exploding bomb does not care...