“Britain is not ‘burning with fear and terror.’”

Fabulous editorial by the Editors of National Review, called "Courage Under Fire," here.

When the bombs ripped through three underground trains and one of those familiar red London double-decker buses this morning, the first thought of almost everyone from the travelers who witnessed the incident to the G8 leaders assembled in Gleneagles, from Tony Blair to President George W. Bush, from the Queen of England to the new pope, was to denounce the bombings as acts of barbaric depravity.

And:

Yet Britain is not "burning with fear and terror," as the group claiming to have murdered these innocent people alleges on an Islamist website. That allegation represents what the terrorists hope and calculate will be the response of its victims. The victory of the Spanish socialists in last year's general election, two days after the Madrid bombing, at least seemed to validate that calculation. Spain withdrew its troops from Iraq shortly afterward in what the terrorists inevitably concluded was a concession suing for peace. Nothing like that has happened in Britain. In addition to the self-disciplined response of Londoners on the spot, the remarks of Prime Minister Blair, opposition Tory leaders, and other public figures have all struck a note of determined defiance.