London is a reminder

On July 2, London played host to a free concert, attended by over 200,000 people and watched by an estimated 9.6 million British television viewers (BBC, July 3, 4), with the express goal of pressuring the leaders of the world's seven wealthiest countries (and Russia) to do more to help poor and starving strangers living on a distant continent. Five days later, this same city came under attack by minions of al-Qaida, who killed over 50 innocent civilians just for commuting to work.\nI want you to remember this.\nI want you to remember this for the next time that Time or another news magazine runs a large feature story on how one of the Guantanamo Bay inmates was "tortured" by having a cold cell, or listening to Christina Aguilera, or being in the presence of a woman. \nI want you to remember this for the next time someone says we should cut and run from Iraq. The Iraqi people -- not just the 60+ percent who voted in favor of democracy, but even, increasingly, the local Baathist insurgents (New York Times, June 21) -- are battling the London bombers' comrades in their backyards.\nI want you to remember this for the next time Michael Moore, MoveOn.org or some other leftist activists try to tell you that our enemy is akin to the Minutemen of the American Revolution, or that we should show "restraint" in fighting back.\nI want you to remember this for the next time a couple of American soldiers do something stupid, like abuse detainees at Abu Ghraib, and are quickly exposed, tried and condemned to prison terms -- while the enemy cheers on operatives who behead reporters, use the mentally-handicapped as suicide bombers or beat people for listening to music.\nI want you to remember this for the next time you hear one of Noam Chomsky or Gore Vidal's acolytes comment that we in America are an evil "empire" for endorsing free markets, promoting trade or supporting democratization -- while our adversaries, whether terrorist groups like al-Qaida or mass-murderers like Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic, are merely expressing their people's will.\nI want you to remember this for the next time politicians from the Democratic Party comment that money spent to rebuild roads in Iraq should be used on roads in America; or call our allies in Britain, Australia or around the world "the coalition of the bribed and coerced"; or grouse about how President Bush won't stop mentioning Sept. 11; or otherwise offer cheap political zingers instead of conviction or strategy.\nI want you to remember this for when our fair-weather allies in Spain, France or Germany talk about \nappeasement.\nI want you to remember this for the next time it happens to innocent people in Israel, Russia, India, the United States or another country -- and someone tells you "they deserved it" because of their government's policies.\nI want you to remember this -- because we can't afford to forget.