Why Glasgow?

Some people have been asking why terrorists would try to strike Scotland, and if so, why not Edinburgh. Far from mysterious, their motives show them to be politically savvy, even it they are armatures with explosives.

Some people linked the attack in London to Salman Rushdie's. Prior to that attack, the London Times recorded the recent wave of anti-Rushdie sentiment here. But a far sounder motive can be found in Gordon Brown's appointment as Prime Minister on June 27, just two days before the London and Glasgow attempts. Brown, after all, was born in Glasgow and his constituents are Scots. An attack on his political base might force him to blink. Like Madrid in 2004, a series of attacks that, it is hard to dispute, led to the the Spanish departure from our Coalition, these attacks were intended to make the British reconsider their commitments. A move that, under Blair, could have even led to increased troop levels and at least hyped-up rhetoric, just might have the opposite effect under Brown. Brown's new foreign minister reportedly has a none-too-favorable outlook on Iraq.

We Americans should be wary of this. Our six years of terrorist-free living could be due simply to the fact that, under Bush, it makes no political sense to attack us. As the situation changes, either with a withdrawl from Iraq or a new administration, look out...