Blasted Blasts

I’m supposed to have something intelligent to say about this morning’s blasts in London. It’s become one of those obligatory blog things – so much so, that people are emailing me today asking why I haven’t said anything about it.

Which angle to choose?

That the number of deaths in daily car bombs in Iraq regularly outnumber today’s casualties? Do I dare tally Africa in there? The ongoing death toll from Tsunami aftermath?

That every major global event seems to bring a new medium or application into its maturity? The moon landing on TV. OJ Simpson spurred live 24-hour news. 9-11 showed us email. The East Coast blackout revealed the power of cell phones. The Spain bombings and subsequent election disinformation was thwarted by SMS. Now this catastrophe seems to launch Flickr into the mainstream – with photo coverage on the site surpassing what we can see on TV. (Except for the stations that are simply broadcasting flickr photos.)

Or perhaps I deconstruct Tony Blair’s brilliant rhetorical flourish this morning – using the word “determined” in three different contexts – to emphasize both determination as willpower and determination as final outcome.

No – none of that cleverness will do, even though it’s the bread and butter for OpEd and blog writers alike. I don’t have the heart to spin off on these little tendrils, anymore. It’s the people who died and their survivors to whom my thoughts and prayers go out. This is a highly unnecessary war we’re in, and its extraordinary complexity only underscores how many points of attack there are for ending it.