In a column today in the Financial Times Phillip Stephens explains how resolve and resilience are the proper answer to terrorism. Not opportunistic, partisan finger pointing at political rivals:

There has been dissent. George Galloway, the former Labour MP who now leads Respect, the anti-war party, surprised no one with an ugly assertion in the House of Commons that the victims of the atrocity had “paid the price” for Mr Blair’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Others have bitten their lips. Anger about Iraq runs wide across the political spectrum. Scarcely a week seems to go by without Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, calling for Mr Blair to resign for embroiling Britain in an illegal war. London’s liberal intelligentsia will never forgive the prime minister for backing George W. Bush. Parts of the BBC are still obsessed with proving that Mr Blair misled the nation into war.

Such anti-war voices have thus far had little resonance. They must have been sorely disappointed in the first response to the attacks of Ken Livingstone, the London mayor and a staunch opponent of the war. Mr Livingstone made the important point that responsibility for the carnage lies solely with the perpetrators. There are no ifs or buts.

The liberals keep pretending Bin Laden and his violent cadre would never harm a single infidel if only we could find a way to appease them. How sadly wrong.

Linking last week’s attacks to Iraq misunderstands the guiding purpose of al-Qaeda. For the jihadis, ridding the Middle East of foreign troops is but a small step on the long march to an Islamist hegemony in which all vestiges of western culture, democracy and religious faiths are eradicated. These are people who planned a second atrocity in Spain after a new government in Madrid had withdrawn its troops from Iraq.

Sad thing is, what the terrorists want is a strict, islamic, dedicated human race so their views on reality, life, love, purpose, art, etc are proven to be the right views. Never mind that tolerance and diversity – ideals now lost on the left – require there not be one view. All that matters to liberals and islamic fanatics is their view is superior in every way.

And why do they both want the same thing? Well, they are not going to get it.

The answer is not, as those who opposed the war now argue, unilateral withdrawal. To leave Iraq to certain civil war would be to multiply past mistakes and to invite further terrorist blackmail. To suggest that appeasement would make London safer is a grotesque fantasy.

Yet doing nothing is not an option. What is needed now is a ferocious international effort to demonstrate that the west’s interest in the Middle East lies in promoting the freedom and security of Muslim nations. That, in turn, demands of the global community – not just of the US and Britain – a redoubling of efforts to help Iraqis defeat the insurgency and reclaim their destiny with a new constitution and elections. It requires, simultaneously, an intense focus to ensure that Israel’s planned withdrawal from Gaza next month is the beginning of a process that leads to Palestinian statehood.

This requires the left to join forces with Bush and the right to help Bush succeed….

Unfortunately the left cares less about the suffering of humanity when the choice is trying to win politically. Which, ironically, is why they are losing politically. Anyone who would sacrifice people to win politically are not worth salvaging politically.