Tuesday
(1)USAF personnel in the UK have been told to stay out of London because of the bombings. Sorry but this is not just a propaganda gift to the enemy, it is just plain daft.
Firstly, the US was not the target of these bombs, Londoners were. Secondly, London is always full of American visitors and US military folk do not really stand out from the crowd all that much. In fact Americans are probably more likely to form identifiable 'target clusters' in the rural communities around the US bases in the UK.
It was a terrible atrocity but we have seen it all before in London at the hands of the IRA, so please, telling US service personnel to avoid London is foolish and plays to the often held stereotype of Americans as easily scared by such incidents. I am sure USAF people are made of sterner stuff and more than capable of assessing the risks for themselves.
They've rescinded it today - common sense seems to have prevailed.
Posted by Longrider at July 12, 2005 02:03 PM
I think they were afraid that Londoners would lynch them because Americans are at fault for this war, or so some think... maybe they were afraid of a backlash.
Posted by Gabriel Mihalache at July 12, 2005 03:02 PM
I think they were afraid that Londoners would lynch them
More likely it's the usual American over-reaction to events. Nothing sinister or paranoid.
EG
Posted by Euan Gray at July 12, 2005 03:04 PM
I think they were afraid that Londoners would lynch them because Americans are at fault for this war, or so some think... maybe they were afraid of a backlash.
That is just about the most off target notion I have read in quite some time. If anything it will pull us together. It certainly reminded me that we are on the same side regardless of what the idiotarian-class might think.
Posted by Old Jack Tar at July 12, 2005 03:32 PM
I have just come back from a business meeting full of American fund managers, who clearly are made of stern stuff, all of them praising the sang froid of we Brits. Many of the U.S. guys flew over to London today determined to show they were not afraid. Good for them.
Posted by Johnathan at July 12, 2005 04:25 PM
Fair enough, after all, we pulled our troops out of Washington in 1776 for their own protection (after we had burnt the place down).
Posted by Guido Fawkes at July 12, 2005 04:52 PM
That'd be 1815, I guess, what with Washington being nothing but a swamp 40 years earlier.
Posted by Guy Herbert at July 12, 2005 05:20 PM
Are you suggesting it isn't a swamp there now? Have you been there in the summer? I would prefer to be in Miami.
Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge at July 12, 2005 05:28 PM
I was an American Airman who enjoyed a wonderful two-year assignment in England (RAF Bentwaters, Suffolk, 1987-89). I would assure Mr. de Havilland, et alia, that my peers were - and current incumbents certainly are - possessing of the sterner stuff necessary to see through the latest unpleasantness.
Oh, one more bit - Gabriel's opening salvo was pure pap.
Posted by James at July 12, 2005 06:03 PM
I guess the fear of reprisal is less surprising when you learn that on this side of the water, at least some media have gotten sound bites from George Galloway and let them appear to represent mainstream British opinion. Fortunately, most coverage over here is more accurate.
Posted by Midwesterner at July 12, 2005 06:11 PM
As I have spent a good chunk of the summer on a consulting job in DC, I can relate the swamp remark. I'm working outside the beltway just a stone's throw from the canal and river.
I must admit I was a bit surprised by hearing about such a silly order btw. Very bad PR and I hope the officer responsible has been suitably chastised by those of the Right Stuff fraternity.
Posted by Dale Amon at July 12, 2005 07:16 PM
James, I sympathise. One of my cousins-in-law, served at Bentwaters and Woodbridge on the A-10 tankbuster aircraft in the late 80s. Those guys are not wimps.
Posted by Johnathan at July 12, 2005 07:36 PM
