A survivor’s account of an underground train bombing in London, broadcast by the BBC World Service, did more than any casualty statistic to evoke the horror of Thursday’s coordinated wave of terror attacks in the British capital. The woman, deathly pale beneath a mask of soot, spoke haltingly of a deafening bang, showers of glass and a blackout as the disabled train ground to a halt. As she sat terrified in the total darkness, she began to hear the screams of stricken commuters in other carriages.
At the time of writing, it was still unclear who was responsible and what drove them. The German magazine Der Spiegel reported that “al-Qaeda in Europe” had claimed responsibility on a website popular among Islamic militants. This is not conclusive, but the planning and ruthlessness of the attacks, the fact that they coincided with the G8 talks and United States President George W Bush’s arrival in Britain, the suggestive similarities with last year’s bombing of a Madrid train, and the choice of target — a country with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan tend to point in one direction. At a time when all the major Western powers were assembled at Gleneagles, Scotland, and the world’s attention was focused on Britain, maximum impact was assured. And although the casualty toll is significantly lower than that on 9/11, the economic disruption was far more telling.
As we have repeatedly said in relation to al-Qaeda attacks and suicide bombings in Israel, nothing can justify terrorist violence against civilians. But the real question is: How does the world stop it happening?
If al-Qaeda or a similar group is to blame, the lesson is surely that Bush’s “war on terrorism” has failed. Four years and two invasions later, all the West’s massive military and surveillance capability, and all the battery of anti-terror laws passed under US pressure, could not prevent Thursday’s outrage.
Al-Qaeda is more an idea than a formal organisation, and as long as Muslims feel humiliated and affronted by the West’s actions, the pool of potential recruits is endless. As soon as one terror cell is broken, another springs up to fill its place.
The advocates of the mailed fist response to terrorism have failed. What is notably missing from the war on terror is any systematic political attempt to lower boiling temperatures in the Islamic world. Until the Western powers withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, and until there is just settlement of Palestinian demands for land, freedom and statehood, innocent people like the woman in the London underground will continue to suffer.
Going beyond eight white men at Gleneagles
What is it about the view down the fairway that calms the anxious breast of a world leader? It cannot be the chill wind whipping across the North Sea to carry firmly struck intentions into the rough. Nor can it be the sand traps circling the putting green, or the thick gorse waiting to punish a weak follow-through.
Perhaps it is just that the gentlemen who run the G8 will allow each other as many mulligans as it takes to record a par score. This club specialises in giving itself another crack at the problem.
The leaders of the world’s richest countries, plus Russia, are once again discussing the consequences of development, a steadily warming atmosphere, poverty, disease and despair.
It is easy to be cynical about the limited deal on debt cancellation already announced, but if one simply accepts it for what it is — a step in the right direction — it is worth cheering.
Aid is going to be a lot harder. Much is made of how damaging aid can be, distorting economies, creating dependencies and rewarding bad behaviour. And some donor countries are just as addicted as their clients are to the bad kind of aid, the kind that is tied to procurement from favoured firms, designed to maintain colonial ties, or that disappears into the pockets of corrupt elites. But there is no question that better designed and managed aid flows are still critical for Africa.
The most urgent objective, and the one with absolutely no meaningful chance of success, is radical trade reform. The question of agricultural subsidies will be deferred to the World Trade Organisation, which will continue to nibble around at the edges of the problem for years.
Neither the European Union nor the United States, for all its protestations to the contrary, is politically ready to deal with its agricultural lobby.
And real reform will hurt some developing countries badly at the outset.
Exhaustion in the face of yet another global beanfest is understandable, but the G8 is an important foundation on which to continue building momentum behind the idea of trade reform. While we are waiting, however, African countries need to keep working on their short game — the tough, incremental changes that really matter at home.