What The Bloody Hell Is Tony Blair Smoking?

During the recent London terrorist attacks, scads of journalists and talking hairdos hailed the resilience of the British people, specifically noting the IRA bombings and England's stiff upper lip response.

Today, Tony Blair had an opportunity to condemn all forms of terrorism (at home and abroad), and what did he say?





IRA are not al-Qaeda says Blair
Al-Qaeda terrorism is not on the same par as the IRA, Prime Minister Tony Blair has suggested.

He said IRA political demands or their previous atrocities could not be directly compared to fundamentalists who carried out the 9/11 US attacks.

It was invidious to make comparisons because "terrorism is wrong", he said.

"I don't think you can compare the political demands of republicanism with the political demands of this terrorist ideology we're facing now."


Ahem.

Timeline: Past London Attacks

Here are some of the worst attacks on mainland Britain in the last thirty years. Most were related to the conflict in Northern Ireland.

February 1974 - Coach carrying soldiers and families in northern England is bombed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Twelve people killed, 14 hurt.

October-November 1974 - Wave of IRA bombs in British pubs kills 28 people and wounds more than 200. Several people are convicted but cleared almost two decades later.

July 1982 - Two IRA bomb attacks on soldiers in London's royal parks kill 11 people and wound 50.

December 1983 - IRA Bomb at London's Harrods department store kills six.

October 1984 - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's cabinet narrowly escapes IRA bomb which kills five people at hotel in English resort of Brighton during the Conservative Party's annual conference.

September 1989 - Bomb at Royal Marines Music School in Deal, southeast England, kills 11 and wounds 22.

February 1991 - The IRA fires mortar bomb at Prime Minister John Major's London office. No one is injured.

April 1992 - Huge car bomb outside Baltic Exchange in London's financial district kills three people and injures 91.

March 1993 - Bombs in two litter bins in Warrington, northern England, kill two boys aged three and 12.

April 1993 - IRA truck bomb devastates Bishopsgate area of London's financial district, killing one and injuring 44.

February 1996 - Two people die when IRA guerrillas detonate large bomb in London's Docklands area.

March 2001 - A powerful car bomb explodes outside the BBC's London headquarters. Police say the Real IRA, a republican splinter group opposed to the IRA's ceasefire, were behind the blast. One man was injured.

July 2005 - A number of people are killed in a series of explosions on London's transport system, causing chaos in the British capital.Several blasts hit the underground network and police say there have been at least three explosions on buses in the city. LINK

Terrorism is terrorism, Tony.

It's a tactic.

Tactics can't be patented by one group at a time, Tony.

And neither skin color nor religious affiliation is a prerequisite.

By the way, Tony...

Invidious may mean "hateful"...

But it's Latin infinitive means " to envy."

I hope the IRA didn't feel slighted by your lefthanded compliment.

The last thing we need is one group of bombers feeling slighted because the Prime Minister says they're not quite as scary ("on the same par") as another group of bombers.

And to think I used to believe that Tony Blair was smart.

What the bloody hell was I smoking?

File this under: Politics as usual.