We bought some time on the hotel's wireless internet connection so that we could get messages to friends and family, and watched the news reports on the BBC. When I saw Bush standing behind Blair, I began to get angry. Four years almost since September 11, and what has this man done to reduce the threat of terrorist attacks? Nothing. Instead, he has recklessly inflamed Arab opinion even further, he has created a terrorist training ground in Iraq, and he has still not brought Osama Bin Laden to justice. The man is a disgrace.

In the early afternoon we walked across Hungerford Bridge against an endless crowd of Londoners heading for Waterloo Station, hoping to find a train to take them home. By now the clouds had cleared, the sun shone brightly, the cool breeze continued: it looked and felt like the most beautiful spring afternoon of your dreams.

When we reached Charing Cross Station, the atmosphere became almost eerie. Very few cars on the streets, and no buses. Lots of pedestrians, but very little conversation. Every once in a while, a siren or a cluster of police and fire vehicles outside a tube station. At St. Martin's Place I looked up at the Edith Cavell monument and read the words "Sacrifice", "Fortitude", "Humanity".

As we walked up Charing Cross Rd., many shops were already closed, and most of the others were closing. Again, the near silence was disquieting, as was the lack of normal conversation among pedestrians. Lots of envious looks at the bicycle commuters. Lots of weary, footsore expressions on the faces of people who had to walk 2-3 kilometers just to get to a train station, not knowing what they would find there. Lots of cell phone conversations. "Yeah, we're heading down to look for a train, but so is everyone else, so I don't know."

We walked all the way up to Oxford Street. Most of the theatres had cancelled their performances. Almost all the shops were closed by 4:00 pm. As we walked down Regent Street, we saw the first buses back in service, packed with people. More taxis began to appear as well. At Leicester Square, the half-price ticket booth was closed, and the police were closing the park in the centre of the square. The pizza parlors were still open, but the streets were curiously quiet despite pockets of normal activity.

I couldn't help thinking how terrifying it would be to be an Arab in London today.

Now we're back in the hotel, watching the television news. Lots of eyewitness reports now. The stupidity, the senselessness of these attacks, of the needless deaths and injuries, overwhelm us. The perpetrators are vicious brutes. But the conditions in which vicious brutes are driven to such violence are to a great extent under the control of George Bush, and I cannot understand how he sleeps at night knowing that almost everything he has done and said since 2001 has increased the chances of more terrorist violence, instead of reducing them.