rvg, some couple of years later?

[rvg]

You REALLY need to look up the IRA bombing campaign in the mainland, and the casualty figures.

So, we're back to "not enough people are dying to warrant a proper response."

Which has nothing to do with torture of Civil Liberties - that's soldiers in a warzone fighting irregulars.

The 7/7 victims weren't in a war zone, but they are still dead.

Top tip: If everyone you meat wants to kill you, you need to ask if you're on the right side.

Who is everyone?

Winning against terrorists is about more than numbers of lives saved, it's about not being terrorised. If they kill twenty people on a bus and you pass a law that you can only ride the bus naked they win.

If you do nothing, they also win.

I'm not sacrificing my country's principles, our laws, our traditions and our collective soul for the sake of trying to acquire intel. The terrorists are the ones killing people, and torture is neither a viable tactical or strategic option. It produces unreliable intel, taints the prisoner, taints the Service, prevents him being properly prosecuted later - possibly leading to a post-disaster backlash because we have trouble convicting him.

You are putting the lives of the guilty above the lives of the innocent.

A successful terrorists attack is one that makes you scared, the IRA was able to scare people without killing anyone, or by killing a few hundred.

And the more they kill, the scarier the result.

I'm more afraid of you than Muslim terrorists - possibly afraid enough to consider killing you if you looked likely to gain any real political power.

Nah, you'll be too worried about violating my rights. At worst, you will send me a strongly worded letter.

Anything relating to due process, detention or confinement without trial, house arrest, use of tainted evidence, use of torture, use of military tribunals, anything relating to illegal rendition, anything relating to the summary execution of political targets. So, "lots."

I'm not talking repealing American laws, that's beyond your reach. I'm talking about British laws.

Certainly not to invade a secular nation whose leader is on the wannabe caliphates hit list. That would be an absolutely stupid move to attack my worst enemies enemy.

You are quick to state what you won't do, but not so quick about what you would do. Another do-nothing approach, is it?