I only buy a paper on a Saturday and like to sit and read the Guardian. Much of what I read sickened me and brought back feelings of outrage, somehow more intense as I have read the words of others whom this has had a far more direct effect that on me.

I can’t imagine what can possibly make a person think that if he or she plants a bomb and murders people that it will do any good to their cause. How can it? What are these people thinking? Why should killing innocent defenceless people be acceptable to them and make them think things will change for them?

If anything, surely, acts like this further alienate them and harden any support there may have been towards their cause.

In the Guardian on Saturday David Clark makes an obvious point; ‘the war on terror is not working’. He suggests we need a new way forward, a way forward that ‘attacks’ the conditions that breed recruiting grounds:

An effective strategy can be developed, but it means turning our attention away from the terrorists and on to the conditions that allow them to recruit and operate. No sustained insurgency can exist in a vacuum.

I wonder if this is the correct way forward. We have allowed Bush and his advisors to push the world down one path to beat terrorism. The path that says seek and destroy. The path that says shoot and ask later. The path that says lock up people illegally on an island. These strategies all come from a bygone era, to counteract a bygone enemy that could be easily seen, identified and was connected quite strongly to an organisation or government.

It seems al-Qaida and others are far more diverse than that. They are not an organization as such, they are not easily indentifiable. They are underground,

Ironically, G8 which the bombs disrupted were looking at how the poverty and anger that causes such breeding grounds could be eliminated. People, like Bush, have expressed exasperation that while they were looking to save lives and bring poverty to an end, that this group were trying to destroy life.

On reflection I am not surprised. Could it be that the big fear of groups like al-Qaida is the end of poverty. End poverty, give Palestine a state, breed equality and understanding – if they all happened where would al-Qaida recruit? Surely if we seriously worked towards those goals the recruitment ground would dry up. Could it be that al-Qaida has realised this and so deliberately wants to prolong the conditions of poverty to be used in their own misguided interest?

I don’t know. It’s something to consider. The truth is, however, that Madrid, Bali and now London show ‘war on terror’ doe not work. Lets try ‘war on poverty’ instead.

Rightly our thoughts and prayers continue to go to the injured and bereaved. I note that Thursday at midday is to be a 2 minute silence of remembrance. The Red Cross have started to collect donations for the families of the victims – you can donate here.