It is reported that coalition air-strikes in Helmand province, Afghanistan on 30 June 2007 may have killed between fifty and eighty civilians. This tally - whose exact number is yet to be confirmed - caps a month when more than 200 Afghan civilians died at the hands of coalition troops, "far more than are believed to have been killed by Taliban militants" (see Jason Burke, "'Up to 80 civilians dead' after US air strikes in Afghanistan", Observer, 1 July 2007).
Paul Rogers is professor of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He has been writing a weekly column on global security on openDemocracy since 26 September 2001 A United States military operation in the Sadr City district of Baghdad on the same day is reported to have killed eight civilians in their homes (among twenty-six Iraqis killed), and two US soldiers were charged with the premeditated murder of Iraqi citizens (followed on 2 July by a third). This follows the death of at least twelve Palestinians in Israeli raids on targets in Gaza on 27 June, itself a prelude to further killings on 30 June.
Also on that fateful Saturday, 30 June, an attack was mounted on Glasgow airport when a jeep loaded with petrol and gas-cylinders was driven towards the terminal. The vehicle, fortunately, was jammed on its route and thus could not enter the building; it was ignited but did not explode, and there was no loss of life. This abortive attack followed two failed car-bombings in the entertainment district of the west end of London on 29 June. A wealth of forensic evidence was gathered in London and Glasgow, incidents which the authorities are seeing as linked, and seven arrests (at the time of writing) have followed.
The security services, and the new British administration under the leadership of Gordon Brown (who assumed office only on 27 June), have been quick to connect the incidents in London and Glasgow. But the major changes in the government still do not extend to recognition of the connection between these events and the continuing violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. This is fully in line with British government statements during the Tony Blair era.
Beyond relief
At the same time, two aspects of these latest attacks and the response to them are indeed significant. The first is that the perpetrators appear at this stage to have direct links with the middle east, rather than being drawn (entirely, or at all, remains unclear) from British Muslim communities.
In addition to his weekly openDemocracy column, Paul Rogers writes an international security monthly briefing for the Oxford Research Group; for details, click here
Paul Rogers's latest book is Global Security and the War on Terror: Elite Power and the Illusion of Control (Routledge, July 2007). This is a collection of papers and essays written over the last twenty years, with two new essays on the current global predicament This alone may suggest a closer and more direct link between the group and the international jihadist movement. This, if confirmed, could anchor the intentions of the bombers more firmly to George W Bush's "war on terror" in a way that would make it impossible to deny the relationship between Britain's role in the conduct of the wider war and the risk of attacks in the country.
The second aspect is the perceptible though subtle shift in the reporting of the incidents in the establishment media, especially the BBC (both radio and TV). In major news broadcasts, one of the corporation's most experienced and thoughtful security correspondents, Frank Gardner, has been able to develop the theme of linkage between the radicalising effect of events in Iraq and Afghanistan (in particular) and jihadis' operations against Britain.
Such an analysis has been common enough in newspapers such as the Independent and Guardian, as well as in this series of columns in openDemocracy, but has been extremely rare on the BBC. The fact that Gardner could report in this way could well mean that, after the departure of Blair from Downing Street, some space is at last opening up for a more open discussion.
This line of reportage or aInalysis in no way entails even the remotest sympathy for the would-be bombers in London or Glasgow, or for those behind the 7/7 attacks and comparable incidents (although to pursue it in the interest of understanding the reasons for radicalisation risks the instant charge of being "soft on terrorism").
Indeed, there has for some time been a widespread view inside the British police and security forces - notwithstanding the permanent denial of the Blair government - that there are definite connections between British security policy (especially its close affinity with the George W Bush administration) and the kind of threats to life and security made evident in the bomb-plots of July 2005 and June 2007. This perception is even more widely shared among citizens.
The relief that has accompanied the failure of the three (known) attacks will be tempered by the threat of a subsequent attempt that proves (in its own terms) successful. The security services have been granted, and are making use of, a windfall of intelligence and arrests. But the more lasting positive factor of these days of tragedy in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine, and near-tragedy in Britain, may be this: that the advent of the Gordon Brown administration may just allow for the intense debate about Britain's involvement in the war on terror that is desperately needed.
