The elephant in the room

LONDON (AP) - They had diverse backgrounds, coming from countries around the globe, but all shared youth and worked in medicine. They also had a common goal, authorities suspect: to bring havoc and death to the heart of Britain.

The eight people held Tuesday in the failed car bombing plot include one doctor from Iraq and two from India. There is a physician from Lebanon and a Jordanian doctor and his medical assistant wife. Another doctor and a medical student are thought to be from the Middle East.

You know, they had something else in common too. Anybody want to hazard a guess what that was?

I'll give you a hint. It starts with "I" and ends with "slam" and it is only the reason why they wanted to "bring havoc and death to the heart of Britain".

And until the West is willing to face that fact squarely and honestly and deal with it we are fighting with one hand tied behind our back.

The United States can sort of afford to fight with that kind of handicap since we are so big and so rich and so powerful, but Europe doesn't have that kind of margin.