Summits of the Group of 8 are considered hugely important in our complicated world. Every year the leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, the UK and United States meet to make decisions that normally affect the world in one way or the other.
Given the political, socioeconomic, cultural and military clout of the eight powers, G8 decisions have wide-ranging impacts.
It is said that all countries have little choice but to accept the decisions come out of the annual sessions.
The July G8 meeting in Scotland was overshadowed with bomb explosions in London and Tony Blair had to abandon the important negotiations to rush back home.
Although, the consultative meetings and negotiations of various committees were in progress, several areas in London not too far from each other were hit by four terrorist attacks.
The ominous act is much too similar to the 9/11 attacks in the US or the serial explosions in Madrid on Sept. 13, 2004.
Needless to say there still exist serious doubts about the criminals behind 9/11 while the Madrid blasts were attributed to Basque separatists. However, certain points deserve mention regarding the bloody events in the British capital.
Blair’s Britain is America’s closest European ally. The two powers have formed their own ’strategy’ for the past 3 years to fight terror and in the process invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
Also bear in mind the so-called ’no-fly zone’ which was imposed by 10 Downing Street and the White House for almost 15 years and caused the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
Both western states have expressed equal concern about the threats posed by international terrorism in general, and Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda in particular. If we assume 9/11 was the brainchild of the US and UK spy agencies in a bid to prepare the pretexts for their governments to go inside Afghanistan and Iraq, then it can be added that after the twin invasions and bombing of northern Sudan (where several Al-Qaeda members may have been based) the issue of US-UK role in 9/11 was being forgotten.
So, some ominous development had to emerge somewhere in the world to help justify US and UK worries about global terrorism.
Moreover, the breathtaking rivalry between London and Paris for hosting 2012 Olympics ended when London won following its extensive lobbying since early this year. It could be that a European rival wanted to scare the Brits by unlashing terror in London.
However, given the scale and scope of the blasts it is clear that some long-term planning would have been necessary for this and it highly unlikely that in less than 24 hours after London was announced as the venue of the games the political heart of Europe could be rocked like this.
Today Britain has more than its share of serious problems. Blair faces challenges in his relations with the Irish, in his dealings with the strong opponents of globalization, domestic political and economic tussles, serious problems associated with the European constitution, and finally the non-stop crises in war-torn and pauperized Afghanistan and Iraq.
These are largely the consequences of Blair’s unholy alliance with Bush’s America and Britain’s clumsy double standards in dealing with the European Union.
Each of these issues could be separately analyzed in terms of their playing some role in the attacks on London.
Terrorism is an ugly and portentous phenomenon, which all governments and peoples abhor.
Technological advancement, the precision of satellite systems, accuracy of sophisticated security systems, the huge dangers of conducting risky operations in other countries, as well as the ostensible US-UK sensitivity towards terrorism are factors that make guesswork about the perpetrators of the London blasts very difficult, if not entirely impossible. Perhaps only time will tell.
The bottom line is that terror has struck at the heart of Europe. No organization or group, save for the unauthentic statement posted on the web by some hitherto unknown group said to be linked to Al-Qaeda, has accepted responsibility for the cruel London bombs that killed more than 50 people and injured 200.