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I fear days that involve turning on turning on 1010Wins-AM in the bathroom after I wake up and hearing the words “breaking news” and “latest terror attack” in the same sentence.

7/7/05 will go down in history as another failed attempt by radical Islamofascists to scare the free world into coming under their reign. Londoners, like the people of New York City before them, have shown that they will not be scared by cowardly terrorist acts, nor will they submit to their pyschotic and muderous ideology. Free people will never succumb to the demands of terrorists, no matter how many of us they kill, hurt, maim before we erase their pitiful existence from this earth.

This morning I sat intently staring at the screen as the Dow Jones lost nearly 100 points in seconds. Right before my eyes. Because of the hysteria caused by monsters. Eerily, today was the loudest day yet on the trading floor where I work. The free market will never succumb to terrorists either, as the markets made a nice recovery and even ending on the positive side.

How can you tell the free world is winning the global War on Terrorism? Firstly, the terrorists have only been able to put together a handfull of large scale attacks sucessfully. While each death is too be mourned, the truth of the matter is that it could be much, much worse. How many attacks have the NYPD, New Scotland Yard, the FBI and their colleagues across the globe stopped that we don’t even know about? The terrorists may have snuck one by us this time, but it was no where near the scale they probably wanted (or even tried for - there are still reports of unexploded bombs being discovered in London).

We are winning this war, and we will win it. Democracy and freedom will never perish to the cowardliness of terrorism.

Final words, from the Londonist:

Yeah, they hit us. But we didn’t go down. Londonist’s sympathies go to the victims, and we like to think of the hot sweat that is breaking out across the brows of a fair few terrorist nutters right now - we’re coming for you, you fuckers.

Nobody has claimed it yet, which is frequently the case with terrorist acts, but there have been a number of explosions in London. Some are saying it is a power surge that has led to the train and bus explosions. Blair will speak around 7 am Eastern.

The Corner is on it, as is the Times. Here is CNN’s coverage. AP is mentioning the possibility of terrorism aimed against Israelis.

More as it comes.

Claudio

UPDATE: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is calling the explosions “a series of terrorist acts.”

Commentary: First, prayers and condolences go to the families of those injured in the blasts. I think this is definitely a time where Americans, and indeed all the people of the world, should sternly condemn terrorism in all its manifestations.

That said, and somberly moving forward, I am led to wonder how this will effect the British will and resolve in the war on terrorism. As we saw with the Madrid train bombings, when compared to the after-effects of 9/11 in the States, a terrorist attack can either unify a nation against terrorism or against fighting terrorism. Will Mr. Blair be able to unite his people against the threats that wish to destroy their nation? Or will the attacks push British national opinion even further against entanglements abroad, inciting a Spanish-like isolationism?

UPDATE: The BBC has photos here. They also comment on Blair’s resolve. The AP slideshow has more photos of the attack.

Commentary: These attacks are definitely an attack either on the Israelis supposedly nearby or one aiming to take advantage of the diverted attention of the world (and authorities) towards Gleneagles, Scotland and the G7+Russia Summit. The Olympics announcement was just yesterday, not nearly enough time for such a coordinated attack to be planned and executed in response.

UPDATE: An unknown group is claiming responsibility for the blasts in the name of Al Qaeda. Here is a screenshot of the letter purported to claim responsibility.

UPDATE: My friends in DC say that the Capitol is on alert; bomb-sniffing dogs and extra police presence as expected. Pat can’t blog from work but he says that his commute this morning was also as would be expected. Bush’s remarks on the terrorist attacks are available. Highlights:

The war on terror goes on. I was most impressed by the resolve of all the leaders in the room. Their resolve is as strong as my resolve. And that is we will not yield to these people, will not yield to the terrorists. We will find them, we will bring them to justice, and at the same time, we will spread an ideology of hope and compassion that will overwhelm their ideology of hate.

UPDATE: An anonymous U.S. official is saying the death count will be over 40. Now, although I am sure that the death count will prove to be far more than the 2 deaths confirmed already, I am taking this with a grain of salt. Whoever this anonymous U.S. official is far from the center of the action. I’ll wait for the British to releast their own official results. CNN now has the death count at 33.

This morning, I turned on CNN as I readied myself for another day at work here in Budapest. On the screen were Bush and Blair in a morning news conference. They had just had a private breakfast before together to work out some differences before going to the bargaining table with the other members of the G7 (and Russia).

From what I heard, it doesn’t sound good for us conservatives. Bush sounded wishy-washy on climate change: he said that he accepted climate change was man-made and that “something must be done.” Although he trotted out the normal line on action against climate change (China and India have to do something first), the scary part was that Blair immediately jumped in. “I will be welcoming a delegation from China shortly.” Hmmm. I hope Bush isn’t walking right into some BS Kyoto-wannabe…he didn’t sound too firm about “staying the course” on emissions.

I checked the net and the news outlets to see if this had made any headliens or there was any commentary. Given the hour back in New York (4:30 am) I doubt I’ll see any big commentary on this morning meeting between Bush-and-Blair until later in the day. But I would keep my eye on this summit. Blair is pushing for something big, and Bush might just cave on something huge.

Heritage’s Nile Gardner shines some light on the path most here in the States would prefer Bush take:

President Bush must resist efforts to tie the U.S. to an artificially set figure on foreign aid spending as a percentage of GDP.The U.S. is already the world’s biggest international donor, providing $19 billion in official development assistance in 2004, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).[2] The President should also oppose any declaration that commits the U.S. to supporting the principles of the Kyoto Protocol.

The President should though work closely with his British counterpart on debt forgiveness, trade liberalization, and economic and political reform in Africa, while insisting that any deal on debt be offered only to fully democratic governments that guarantee political and economic rights for their citizens.

The U.S. and the UK should form a powerful alliance at Gleneagles calling for the abolition of artificial trade barriers by Western nations. President Bush and Prime Minister Blair should jointly call for the scrapping of Europe’s £33 billion ($60 billion) per year Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the biggest barrier to free trade in the world and a vast welfare system for uncompetitive European farmers. French farmers alone receive a staggering £7 billion a year in CAP payments, 21 percent of the total.[3] At the same time, the U.S. must pledge to end its own (albeit far smaller) system of agricultural subsidies.