LB's Ed Espinoza Reports From London On Transit Terror Attacks

As you know by now, we here in London were rocked by a number of explosions this morning coinciding with the opening of the G8 conference in Edinboro. The bombs ripped through several subway stations and above ground on a commuter bus at different intervals throughout the morning.

Because major subway stations were targeted, and due to the immenent danger feared in other places, most business shut down for the day by 11:00 a.m. and students were either guarded [in] campus buildings or advised to remain dorms until authorities could determine it was safe to travel in the city again.

I was asked to stay in campus facilities here at the London School of Economics. Those that were traveling earlier in the day moved in a rushed panic through the rainy streets. Had these attacks taken place earlier in the morning (they didn't start until about 9:00 AM), there would have been a lot more casualties.

By the afternoon most residents were back to going about their business - eating in restaurants and walking to the shops that were still actually open. So while the physical devastation and casualties were not not nearly comparable to that of 9/11, the number of incidents in sequence caused a similar psychological impact on the populous.

One could say that this serves as a blunt reminder that we probably haven't made much progress on the war on terror after all...

Edward Espinoza
DNC Member, California [for identification only]