Right On The Right

Since I was right in the middle of my blogging break when all of the big news came out of the U.K., I wanted to give my readers a full rundown of what happened. To your right, you'll see a simple news breakdown of the event. For more details, keep reading.

From the website Hot Air- On Friday, June 29th, two cars loaded with gasoline, canisters, and nails were found. They were basically rigged to be grenades that would explode and send shrapnel (nails and chunks of metal) flying to kill those near the car.

“An eyewitness said a man had crashed the vehicle into bins near a nightclub and then ran off.” Gasoline, gas canisters, and that old favorite — nails — were found in the car, along with “a potentially explosive device.”

Using London's closed circuit television program, a man-hunt began for the man seen parking one of the cars. There was immediate talk that the attack was linked to Al-Qaeda, and of course people were looking for a muslim man. Their assumptions would be confirmed the next day, as an airport in Glasgow Scotland was rammed with a flaming car filled with canisters of gasoline. This time, let's turn to Little Green Footballs:

Eyewitness on Sky TV: Car was full of gas cans. Driver and passenger were throwing gasoline all around the scene after they crashed the SUV into the terminal door. After ramming an airport gate, the guy charged the terminal with flames beginning to burst from the vehicle, angling it in order to best ram through the glass terminal door and kill passengers inside. One man from the vehicle burst into flames. Amidst the fire and chaos, the terrorists were wrestled to the ground by taxi drivers and passengers.

Initial reports were confusing, with some saying it was some sort of sick car accident, but it became pretty clear pretty quickly that this was a terrorism attack. The "asian men" (as described in British news) that they captured turned out to be muslim terrorists. Who would of guessed? A video, from Sky News:

Finally, going back to Hot Air, more details on the Glasgow Bombing. One of the most shocking things to come out of the entire incident is the photo to the right. It shows the terrorist, wearing a boiler suit and having plastic bags over his shoes, which is a uniform designed for a flaming suicide attack. The photo appeared in The Sunday Mail. Terror in Britain.

What's It Mean to Us?

Simply put, these types of suicide attacks and car bombs are bad news for the West. We all know that Al-Qaeda wants to attack the United States, and we've managed to foil some spectacular attacks in the past few years. Instead of huge attacks though, could we stop dozens of smaller attacks, like car bomb attacks? That's the new thing to look out for.

When I walked into my third period class in 6th grade, my teacher was staring at the television. I suppose I knew something was wrong because no teachers were monitoring the hallways like they usually did in-between periods. The office door was shut and the administrators were huddled next to the secretary staring at a television. Still, when I finally got into that room and looked at the television, I was confused. A building I was unfamiliar with was on fire, and the folks on NBC news seemed just as shocked as my teachers. Then it happened. Just seconds before the bell rang to start my third period class, and seconds after my gaze landed on the television screen, a second airplane flew into the second tower, and every inch of my being screamed "War!" I was 11 years old and my interests, thoughts, and motivations would never be the same. I didn't lose any friends, but I lost fellow Americans. The events of that day single-handedly shaped what I wanted to do in life.

Not every teenager saw the carnage of 9/11 and became a political junkie, but the impact was widespread. All of a sudden, young men and women who swore they'd grow up to be doctors, firemen, engineers, or lawyers were considering enlisting in the military and putting four years of their life aside for military service. Kids that spent their free time playing sports games started playing games where they fought terrorists, just for that extra sense of satisfaction. Our nation was attacked and a quiet rage boiled in the blood of every American, young and old. Most importantly however, many teens saw 9/11 and were awakened to the realities of our world, and began thinking about politics, their future, and the future of the United States.

It didn't end on September 11th either, because that was only the beginning of what would be a long series of revelations for our generation. Anthrax scares, train bombings, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and American terrorists would keep our generation awake. All of a sudden the 11 & 12 year-olds who were barely old enough to understand what happened on that day were indulged with news about soldiers dying, bombings in foreign places, and the need for more action against rogue states. Current event articles in history classes featured a steady diet of news from the Middle East, and debating the Iraq War became the norm at some of the lunch tables frequented by political junkies like myself. Even the kids that struggled in school seemed to know something about the war, and about the terrorists, and wanted their say.

Fast forward to 2007. Today we're looking at an entire generation of kids that have spent years in a post-9/11 world and spent years looking at events in the Middle East. Some of these kids have gone soft, falling back in line with the popular youth "peace" movement. Others are quiet but adamant defenders of the War in Iraq. Finally, there's the rare breed which actively argues in support of further military action. Our generation now needs a reminder about what 9/11 was, and what the terrorists did, because we're going to be the decision-makers in a few short years. We'll be the voters, and soon after be the lawmakers, and many in our generation will decide to be the actual soldiers fighting the war. It's a shame that September 11th seemed to have a temporary effect, because the work isn't done, we need to stay awake, and we need to stay on the offensive against terrorism. I suppose those of you against fighting terrorism need more reminders, and I'm not ready for the day in America when those deadly reminders come...

Michael Yon is reporting from Iraq on the battle for Baqubah. For those of you that follow Yon, you can get a personal look at some of the struggles he's going through embedded there from his piece. On the battle, he seems relatively optimistic, and gives some limited details about how they managed to lock down the city quickly. Read the entire thing. Excerpt:

The combat in Baqubah should soon reach a peak. Al Qaeda seems to have been effectively isolated. The initial attack on 19 June achieved enough surprise that al Qaeda was caught off guard and trapped. They have been beaten back mostly into pockets and are surrounded and will be dealt with. Part of this is actually due to the capability of Strykers. We were able to “attack from the march.” In other words, a huge force drove in from places like Baghdad and quickly locked down Baqubah.