Everyone has already heard the news this morning: terrorists have struck London. They’ve struck buses and the subway with the result of at least 45 dead and hundreds more wounded, not to mention the very real economic damage that a shutting down the entire subway system for a day is likely to have on the city.

Their message from the “Secret Group of Al Qaeda’s Jihad in Europe”, aside from the implicit threat to European governments that have lent support in Iraq and Afghanistan, is this:

“Rejoice, Islamic nation. Rejoice, Arab world. The time has come for vengeance against the Zionist crusader government of Britain in response to the massacres Britain committed in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said the statement, which was translated by The Associated Press in Cairo. “The heroic mujahedeen carried out a blessed attack in London, and now Britain is burning with fear and terror, from north to south, east to west.”

As I said yesterday: the kind of culture that believes that this is honorable and good is not a culture that can ever peacefully co-exist with our own. We can’t simply build a fence around the Islamic extremists and say, “Here’s your playground. Now be good.”

Hopefully, the terrorists are wrong, though. Hopefully, Britain burns with righteous anger and a renewed resolve that, at the end of this larger war, theirs is the side that will be victorious. Threats aside, withdrawing from the world and withdrawing from the conflict won’t keep the terrorists away; isolation and retreat will only convince them that the West can be bullied because Allah is blessing the suicide bombers.

In other news, Al Qeada may have killed Egyptian diplomat, Ihab al-Sherif. Again, this marks the kind of action that sets the terrorists apart from the civilized world and from the moderate Islam that co-exist with the West (perhaps not always in the most friendly way, but certainly in less of an openly combative way).

Their message, aside from the threat to Middle Eastern governments to never stray from the righteous path of Allah as defined by the Godly men of Al Qaeda, was to not do business with, help, or even acknowledge the government that is being set up in Iraq.

“We announce in the Al Qaeda in Iraq that the verdict of God against the ambassador of the infidels, the ambassador of Egypt, has been carried out. Thank God,” a written statement in the Web posting said.

That the terrorists are increasingly targeting what are, ostensibly, their own people is good news for us. It means that we have made headway in bringing Islamic governments into the process of rebuilding--we have “buy in” from those governments and that makes our success more likely. It may not be quite as supportive or helpful as we’d like, but it’s more supportive and helpful than the terrorists can stomach.

This morning is a sad reminder: it’s a damned long road ahead of us.

Update: Bryan has his usual excellent round-up of responses and adds his own thoughts. Be sure to read the response from the British Council of Muslims. Wizbang has extensive information on the attack.

Across the Atlantic has a timeline of events as they watched them unfold.