Britain's long learning curve

The Brits have finally realized that terrorism is both real and bad. I honestly can't understand how they could have thought allowing Muslim clerics to preach the overthrow of Western civilization was anything but bad.

Britain has formally barred Omar Bakri, a militant Muslim "cleric" who fled to the Middle East when he saw the heat coming. This is the same crackpot who preached death and destruction (including the overthrow of the British government, the U.S. government, and spoke in support of killing children if it served to promote jihad) on the street in front of a London mosque. Bakri was there nearly 20 years, and by all accounts he was soaking up welfare (British dole).

Now that he's gone from America's ally, I hope CIA agents assassinate him in whichever mud hut he decides to call home.

I believe the once-great Brits are beginning to understand that multiculturalism is great only up to the point at which innocent people get ripped apart while sipping coffee, walking to the grocery store, or riding a tube car on the way to the office.

Fore many years I've discussed the pattern that Britian now fits: A country either disavows terrorism as a serious global problem or merely goes through the motions (like Poland joining the coalition to oust Saddam Hussein). Then the country gets hit very hard by terrorists. The US, Russia, and now Britain fit this pattern. After the major attack, civil liberties are curtailed slightly in favor of security, and a doctrine of preemption is adopted.

Spain is the somewhat cowardly exception to the rule. Spain gave in to terrorist demands by pulling out of Iraq early (and the public was never highly supportive of their role). In fact, they changed to a left-of-center, anti-Iraq government as an immediate response to the Madrid bombings March 11, 2004.

It's extremely unfortunate that a country must be terrorized, even brutalized, before it takes seriously the threat from terrorism. Led by John Howard, Australia may be the sole exception.