Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

Yeah but you're forgeting the pullover of hypocrisy.

Combine that with the pockets of resistance in the pants of peace, and you have an incredibly dysfunctional wardrobe.

What I don't get is if the 7/7 bombings happened in central London, and the 9/11 attack happened in New York, then why are our armies 'protecting us' by hanging around in the desert several thousand miles away? Its a bit like amputating a leg to cure a dodgy ticker, terrorism happens right here in our cities, so why try to fight a losing battle in the terrorist's back garden, where they can out smart you every time?

I checked it out, we have 15,000 - 17,500 permanent and reserve soldiers, with something like 750 abroad. I couldn't find any DF released figures though for the last couple of years. Unfortunatly, that's nearly one soldier to two square miles of the country. So would all terrorists please refrain from bombing the crap out of us until we get out of this damn recession and start recruiting again. Kthxndbai

If only the UK also cut down military spending to reasonable levels ...

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

Terrorism can never be defeated, so fighting against it is pointless,

I'm not sure I get you right: aren't there plenty of examples of terrorism which were eventually resolved?

That said I'm completely with you and all the others that said terrorism has been instrumental in compressing freedoms for the ordinary private citizens (but not those of politicians and well-connected 'VIP's, not exactly the word I'd wanted to use but can't come up with anything better ATM)