Silk purse from pig's ear?

I hold no brief for anyone who attacks my country or countrymen. Black, white or khaki – immaterial. However, despite this I am a little amazed by the sort of outcry we now have that the guys who did it were British, How could they etc. What has gone wrong de dah. My thinking is that nationality has absolutely nothing to do with what they did. Had they been young lads in red tunics who died attacking the evil Mahdi we would have said they died for their country. Had one of the F1 drivers at a Grand Prix had his last sudden pit stop, we would say he died doing what he enjoyed most. How do we know that any of the four did not think they were doing it for their country or were enjoying their self-imposed martyrdom?
What is worthy of debate is the way they attained their nationality. Being born in a country does not make children representative of their birth-place any more than kittens born in a laundry basket are dirty socks. This is where the ‘do they play cricket’ test comes into play. British nationality is something to be earned and not dished out to the progeny of any woman who can drag her distended belly ashore at Dover. There must be proper assimilation into the British culture and way of life. Maintaining a, say, Pakistani life style in the middle of Manchester will only ensure that the characteristics merge and we have some sort of mongrel that is neither Pakistani nor English. The deaths of the bombers emphasise that they had no idea of the English attitude that suicide is wrong. We, the British, are mostly surprised that they thought their deaths would influence anything or anyone.
All this said, what happened does require reasoned thought and action. Just exactly why did they think they needed to do anything? Were they influenced by some older and more evil master? Did they form their own opinion that what they did was the only course of action open to them? If Iraq was the root of things, we need to get some better propaganda out into the public mind. Even – heavens forefend – admit that it was a genuine mistake. My own experience is that, in the end, terrorists win. Kenya. Cuba. Rhodesia. Northern Ireland. Aden – the list is long. They may not get all they want but they make gains. The government realises it cannot defeat terror without taking such extreme measures as will lose it popular support. The terrorists admit that they will never defeat the armed forces against them. They negotiate and both sides compromise. That must be our agenda. What is the position that both sides can accept. Formalise it. Implement it. And then get on with living together – if needs be, even in mutual distrust that does not degenerate to conflict. There are far better things to do than carry bombs about or opening fire ‘to defend one’s self or comrades’.
There is an interesting point of view here.