LONDON 7/7 REVISITED

A survivor covers her head with a newspaper.

I am posting this very important article on the reaction of Tony Blair to the terrorist bomb attacks in London on July 7, 2005. It was written by Arthur Weinreb, the Associate Editor of the Canada Free Press.

"Greater London has around eleven million people, and every day about 400 of them die of natural causes. Yesterday closer to 450 died, and almost 10 per cent of the day’s deaths were due to terrorism. Today another 400 Londoners will die, none of them from terrorism."

Media / Media Bias:

CBC mocks Tony Blair's reaction

to terrorist attacks and minimizes casualties

By Arthur Weinreb, Associate Editor, Canada Free Press Tuesday, July 12, 2005.

In a CBC Radio commentary that aired the day after the horrific terrorist attacks in London, journalist Gwynne Dyer described British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s reaction by saying:
"…the sounds that came out of his mouth were unmistakably British. Yet the words were not. They were George Bush-style rhetoric about how British values and the British way of life are under attack by these terrorists. Only they’re not, really, and most people in London know it."

Dyer, like the network that he provided the commentary for, likes to blame George Bush for any and all acts of Muslim extremism. Dyer mentions that London was attacked because that country has troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. In his effort to minimize and excuse the actions of Islamic terrorists, the commentator completely ignores the fact that acts of Islamic terror; the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the bombings of two American Embassies in Africa in 1998, the attack on the USS Cole in 2000 and 9/11 all preceded the presence of coalition forces in either Afghanistan or Iraq. Then again, facts are not important when it comes to attacking George Bush and Tony Blair for standing up to terrorism.

Dyer goes on to make ridiculous comparisons between the IRA and the Islamic terrorists. He says that the IRA never wanted to end the British way of life; they only wanted British troops out of Northern Ireland, as if this fact was somehow proof positive that Muslim extremists are not attempting to destroy the Western way of life.
And what does Gwynne Dyer have to say about those who were killed or maimed in the bombings? He seems to view the deaths in much of the way Joseph Stalin, undoubtedly one of his idols, would. Stalin once said, "One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic". On speaking of those who lost their lives in London’s transportation system on July 7, Dyer said, "Greater London has around eleven million people, and every day about 400 of them die of natural causes. Yesterday closer to 450 died, and almost 10 per cent of the day’s deaths were due to terrorism. Today another 400 Londoners will die, none of them from terrorism."

The fact that a commentary would air on the CBC the day after 7/7, blaming George Bush and the West for the attacks is hardly surprising. But even those Canadians who think that Bush and U.S. foreign policy are to blame for the acts of Islamic extremists should be outraged at the rendering of the innocents who died on July 7 to a mere statistic; nothing more than a slight blip in the ordinary cycle of birth and death.

Canadian taxpayers shell out approximately $1 billion a year to fund the CBC. We could find a better use for that money than to have it fund nonsense like this. One billion could sure feed a lot of starving Africans.

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. His work as appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, the Drudge Report, Foxnews.com and The Rant. He can be reached at letters@canadafreepress.com