http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGADZUTEBJD.html

Is Britain as big a target to terrorists as America? Are the suspension of flights going to effect the rebuild effort in Iraq? What's your opinion on Britians decision and it's implications or ramifications? Will this decision show that the extremists are winning by stoping us from flying their?

Edited to add: Also, is Saudi Arabia doing enough on their end to prevent terrorism in the context of this issue?

It seems that this has been spurred because Saudi Arabia caught several terrorists who had plans to attack British interests.

That being the case, it seems (on the surface, at least) that Saudi Arabia is doing its part AND that British Airways is being cautious.

Britain is just as much of a target as the US, since they can be seen as a proxy for the US. Hitting Britain would be tantamount to hitting the US, from an Islamist point of view.

I agree, but don't you think the terrorists could use the suspension as propaganda?

I think as far as Al Qaeda is concerned anyone who supported the U.S. in Afghanistan is a target. They have already attacked a French oil tanker, and Aussie tourists in a Bali nightclub. The recent bombing in Saudi Arabia also killed more Europeans and Saudis than Americans.

Is Britain as big a target? I'm not sure. We're certainly a target - and have been for a good deal longer and from a great many more sources that the USA (unless the IRA are a figment of the imagination). But from the point of view of Islamic terror, I can't help thinking that a hit on Britain would always be second-best to one on the USA, unless the target was so large or important (say, Tony Blair or the Queen) that it would be big news even for the USA's notoriously insular media.

I don't think the suspension of flights will effect the Iraqi rebuilding at all. One thing doesn't have much to do with the other, in my view.

I think that BA's decision is the caution of a commercial organisation (that's losing business and money hand over fist). I'm sure that this caution is based on the recommendations of our Foreign Office (equivalent to your State Department) that Saudi is a heightened risk at the moment, but I don't think it has much wider significance - flights to Zimbabwe are also suspended (I think - they certainly have been from time to time in the last fews years).

Will the extremists think it means they are winning? Who can say - they seem to take comfort in the strangest things.

Lastly, no, I don't think that the Saudis are doing enough. Just last week, they released a number of British "terrorists" that were accused of letting off bombs in the Saudi foreign worker compounds, because they were supposedly fighting over illegal alcohol like prohibition-era Chicago gangsters, when everyone else in the know was saying that the poor Brits were just patsies set up to allow the Saudi authorities hide the fact that they had a problem with extremist anti-Western terrorists. Personally I would love to see the Saudi regime overthrown - I sure , but maybe even a radical Islamist regime (a la 1980s Iran) would be preferable to the corrupt, hypocritical feudalism that they have there at the moment.

Britain is a target because they are helping us in the war on terrorism, or as the Islamic Extermists see it, the war on Islam. France, Germany, Yemen...anyone who assists us is a target. Just like regular Iraqis are targets of retaliation if they help our troops hunt down insurgents. Just like what Paladin mentioned



No. They can land into Kuwait or they can land at Baghdad International (formerly known as Saddam Airport) to deliver supplies & etc.



No. I don't see how they can use the suspension of a flight to Saudi Arabia as a propaganda tool.