Live from London

The Jonah G show:

Obviously, modern terrorism is a psychological weapon more than an overtly military one. Its aim is to persuade civilian populations to surrender where military forces never would.

And, alas, it often works. Europe has become steadily more pro-Palestinian in no small part because of Palestinian terrorism. The French abandoned Algeria because of terrorism. The IRA has had mixed success from terrorism. And of course the most strikingly successful terrorist attack in recent years was the Madrid bombing, which — with the help of some political incompetence — resulted in the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq.

And here in the United Kingdom, there are those who believe Tony Blair should have followed Spain’s lead into similar retreat. George Galloway, the British MP who has been embroiled in the U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal, immediately called on the British to follow Spain’s example and respond to the bombings by immediately pulling all of its troops out of “harm’s way” in Iraq. It was unclear whether he thought Tony Blair should bend over and let Osama bin Laden smack him with a paddle while the prime minister shouted, “Thank you, sir! May I have another?”

The Brits didn't want to fight Hitler either.

At first.