MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: We can defeat terror with a quiet resolve
The discovery of a plan to unleash death, maiming and terror amid VJ Day commemorations demonstrates beyond all doubt that the direct risk to this country from Islamist fanatics is real and urgent.
This criminal conspiracy – revealed today by The Mail on Sunday – threatened to endanger the Queen and other members of the Royal Family, senior military and political figures and – of course – the ordinary, defenceless men and women who are always the coward’s favourite target.
It was cynically aimed at disrupting a ceremony to mark the longed-for return of peace after many years of bitter war. Its originators, who are fond of proclaiming that they love death more than life, clearly also prefer war to peace.
![Plot: This criminal conspiracy threatened to endanger the Queen and other members of the Royal Family](http://web.archive.org./web/20170714181553/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/08/09/01/2B367BC200000578-0-image-a-2_1439079026630.jpg)
Plot: This criminal conspiracy threatened to endanger the Queen and other members of the Royal Family
Even now, we cannot be sure that the would-be killers have abandoned their scheme simply because it has been made public. Enhanced security will now be needed during the VJ Day events, inevitably robbing them of some of the serenity and dignity which their participants will be seeking.
We know from the many frightful injuries at the Boston marathon bombing in April 2013 that the terrorists’ intended weapon – a pressure-cooker bomb – could only be chosen by people intent on causing as much human misery as possible.
Against this level of active and dangerous malice, the British state and British people must deploy several weapons. Above all there must be constant vigilance, accompanied by clear and unequivocal condemnation of this sort of crime from all quarters.
But above and beyond that there must be a permanent, determined resolve to defeat, with ideas as well as with weapons, the cruel and immoral movement which hatched this plot, and which will hatch many more until it is at last thoroughly beaten.
![Courageous: Leah Washington today](http://web.archive.org./web/20170714181553/http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/08/09/01/2B3658AF00000578-0-Courageous_Leah_Washington_today-a-4_1439079138511.jpg)
Courageous: Leah Washington today
Brave Leah inspires
The stoicism, courage and resolve of 18-year-old Leah Washington are an example to us all and a reassurance that these British virtues are as strong as they ever were.
It is a hard thing at any age to know for certain (and see with your own eyes) that you are terribly hurt, that you are also trapped, and to endure searing pain not quite bad enough to make you lose consciousness.
To undergo such things on the threshold of adulthood, knowing that your whole life ahead is likely to be altered out of all recognition, is harder still.
Yet Leah endured the pain and fear with calm patience, and waited without complaint as others less badly hurt than her were (necessarily) rescued from the dangerous, unstable, tangle of steel in which they were imprisoned.
Those who came to their aid, experienced in pain and trauma of many kinds, and used to all kinds of reactions to these things, concluded that Leah was the bravest person they had ever met. From such people, this is no mean praise.
It is an inspiring story and gives great hope for her life ahead which – with her sort of determination and bravery – can undoubtedly be fulfilling and complete.
The tragedy also contains another good reason for optimism. The speed, skill, technological brilliance and effectiveness of our emergency services on this occasion should be a source of national pride.
Once, it was war that often showed us in our best light. But in peacetime our quiet, enduring strengths are now evident as well.
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