Editorial: We shall never bow to terrorism

Opinion

Those responsible for the London bombings will be congratulating themselves today on a great victory. In truth they have achieved another defeat.

They will be hugging themselves with the thought they have reduced one of the great cities of Western civilisation to paralysis. They have added yet more bodies to their grim scorecards. They will believe they have demonstrated their ability to outwit the most rigorous anti-terrorism measures. After all, London has long known it was a prime target. For most who live there, such an outrage has been regarded as an inevitability, with the only question being when it would be inflicted rather than if. With that knowledge and their previous long and bitter experience with urban attacks, the British security forces have been on their guard. But the bombers still slipped through.

The timing reduced to bitter ashes the fires of euphoria over the success of the English capital's Olympic bid and eclipsed the G8 agenda to deal with poverty. Newspapers and television bulletins the world over will be filled by shocking images of the carnage.

But the idea that this is a triumph for the bombers is an illusion. What the attack and the response to it actually shows is the strength and resilience of the values which underpin Western societies. Even in the confusion and with the prospect of the attacks continuing, Londoners were trying to reach work and carry on their lives, as in New York and Madrid and as they had throughout the long IRA bombing campaign.

It was to be expected that Tony Blair would respond defiantly. What politician could not? But it was abundantly clear that the most humble Londoners of whatever origin were determined not to be cowed. Within hours they will pick up the threads of their lives.

The reaction to this and to previous attacks has also demonstrated another failure by the bombers. One of the classic aims of terrorism is to provoke counter-terror, repression that recruits more warriors to the holy war. With few exceptions, the British public has proved perfectly capable of separating the majority of Muslims and the institution of mainstream Islam from those who use it as an excuse for slaughter. There have been no waves of wholesale attacks on mosques. The Western political system insists on tolerance and the courts have shown continued vigilance in resisting anti-terrorist measures being used as an excuse for stripping away individual rights. In March a British judge released eight terrorism suspects from prison, dissatisfied their human rights were observed.

The London attacks have also provoked a unanimous display of support from the leaders at Gleneagles. Men divided by huge political and personal differences reacted as one in resisting terrorist intimidation.

The terrorist delusion that they are brave heroes evokes only contempt. They choose not the hard heart of the West but the softest of targets, civilians on their way to work, a revealing demonstration of the moral bankruptcy of their values.

Their work is murderous but it is the egotistical and petulant rage of children against an adult world they don't understand, sound and fury signifying nothing.

Eventually, faced with unflinching resistance by the people of Britain, the IRA realised their terror campaign was a political dead-end. The new bombers may be slower to learn. There will be more attacks and more victims. They will be defeated again.