Of course the rush to compare the London attacks to the Madrid bombings inevitably steers the debate to the erroneous conclusion that the carnage was prompted by the British presence in Iraq. Kate McMillan was quick to point out today that the CBC wasted no time to push that particular notion forward and Christopher Hitchens is equally clear about it:

It is ludicrous to try and reduce this to Iraq. Europe is steadily becoming a part of the civil war that is roiling the Islamic world, and it will require all our cultural ingenuity to ensure that the criminals who shattered London's peace at rush hour this morning are not the ones who dictate the pace and rhythm of events from now on.

Again the origins of the violence we are witnessing today predated the 2003 Iraq war, in fact the radical strains that have fueled al-Qaeda go back to long before even the first Gulf War. If there hadn’t been an Iraqi conflict we still would have faced the same enemy. And if there hadn’t been an Iraq to focus on, the enemy would have gladly taken Israel as their pivotal cause. And if there hadn’t been an Israel they surely would have found other targets to vent their grievances on. The murder of Theo van Gogh more than anything else epitomizes the deep tensions between liberal democracies and Islamic fundamentalism. To think that a swift withdrawal from Iraq would cure that rift is not just preposterous, the message it would sent will likely set us up for even more bloodshed down the road.

Important to bear in mind when the political point scoring gets underway in the days ahead.