Is terrorism upsetting? Certainly. Is it to be unending? Who can say. In the United States, traffic accidents alone have taken over 40,000 lives a year and have not dropped significantly for almost half a century, but do Americans still plan to drive and enjoy a picnic on the 4th of July, their Independence Day? I should they will. Be assured, terrorism does not represent the end of our world and neither is it a hopeless battle. I am reminded of the advice of two great men who once faced their own apparent abyss and Dark Age.

"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself: nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." Franklin D. Roosevelt.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." Winston Churchill.

And if our culture should last a thousand years, will other imagine of us that, 'this was their finest hour'?

Elisha Moor, San Francisco, California, United States

Is this a reflection on current NHS standards? Five foreign NHS medical staff try three times to cause carnage and the only damage is that two of them end up in hospital with severe burns! Good job the NHS is not recruiting more competent staff overseas!

Kevin, Kent,

How safe are our airports?

I flew from Belfast to London on Sunday with the heightened security with the extra checks; everyone’s shoes were x-rayed and most people were patted down causing delays. I put my girlfriend’s lip balm in my pocket as she had forgotten the plastic ‘security’ bag and it was hence not discovered on my security check. This lapse was not my main concern. I passed through the scanner wearing not only a chunky steel watch but also a belt buckle and keys in my pocket, discovered the other side of the scanner, and neither caused alarm. There was enough metal on my person to be an object many more times lethal than a pair of nail scissors.

My point is that the extra checks are still fallible if a person were to place a metallic object such as a knife in ones sock as the scanner will not go off and it will not be felt on the pat down. These extra checks caused long queues and made us nearly miss the flight and they are still not secure.

Michael Bickford-Smith, London,

Ha - Ha - Ha

How ridiculous are "pickpocketing crimes" of Romanian and Bulgarian Rroma in the UK in the light of terryfying terrorist of "non-british descent"

Roman, Bulgar,

Only with the Anti-Terrorism Acts is there any chance of convicting these horrible men. Thank goodness politicians & officials had the foresight to pass these Acts. Imagine trying to convict terrorists under ordinary criminal law..!

Sudha Shenoy , Birmingham Gardens NSW, Australia

"They hate us because we're free."
"Attacks in UK have nothing to do with Iraq."
You guys still buy that?
The fact that Collation forces have declared "open season" on Iraqi civilians is pure coincidence. For Muslims, Islam is their uniting force. Attack one group of Muslims and you attack them all. World Muslin population: 1.3-1.4 billion. Smart move George and Tony. Stand by for payback. Nice neutral Buddhist country, anyone?

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

Will these doctors be 'suspended' by the GMC , and allowed to continue to practice in the UK in a few months time ?
We musn't ruin their careers, must we?

Ted Farley , Manchester, England

Britain is involved in the illegal war in Iraq where too many innocent civilians have lost there lives. Is it any wonder that people want to attack the UK.

An Iraqi life is just as important as anyone elses!

Get the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan NOW!

Good riddance to Bliar!

John, Preston, Lancashire

In August several thousand young post-graduate clinicians will become unemployed.How is this related to the presence in our hospitals of Jordanian and Iraqi clinicians,some of whom ,it seems,use their guest status to bomb their host country.
Why are they here? Their nations have manifest need of their skills on a grand scale.We do not need them here nor do we want them here in the UK.In view of the unemployment situation confronting our indigenous clinical graduates the ingress of foreign graduates is a deliberate threat to our graduates' employment and ,in this instance,to the safety of the Public. Is this another Hewett-based aberration?

John Peter Walsh, Woodford Wells, Essex

Anyone seen charles chamberlaine?

m reid, winnipeg,

I commend the UK intelligence and security for stopping these attacks. The unfortunate thing to realize is that this is now the world we live in, and for those liberals thinking the war on terror is just a bumper sticker, think again. These are real terrorists who wish to hurt the innocent, and the only way to combat it is to hurt them before they hurt us and stay vigilant. Giving up is no option and giving in is pure insanity. Keep up the strong fight and defeat world terrorism.

Chris, Tampa, USA

Paul in the Hague, how right you are, I have been shouting the same !
I dont know how many Muslims you have there in Holland but in Britain there around 2 million, & almost all of that 2million are silent. WHY ???
Can it be fear or approval ??? there are no other options.
As you say Muslims are so vocal when the smallest thing upsets them or insults Islam, maybe they could tell us why they are not upset at these outrageous acts in the name of Islam.
They do themselves no favours staying silent.

Maggie Millington, Brittany, France

I wonder if this clear demonstration of the perversity of jihadi ideology – five doctors involved in the terror plot- be enough to make a difference in the British mind. Or are they going to answer with a spate of anti –Israeli boycotts?

Mladen Andrijasevic , Beer Sheva , Israel

Brown is getting kudos for his behaviour etc but don't forget he was at Blair's side since 1997, totally abandoning border controls in favour of immigrant cheap labour and who knows what else, let alone shielding extremist preachers while they spread their hate.

Why is it even necessary to admit doctors(?) such as these when there's a glut of UK junior docs ? Makes no sense at all.

Stan(expat), USA,

Assuming that the doctors' involvement can be proven, one would have to conclude not only that they prioritise religious this-n-that over (innocent) human life but also that they happily discarded the hippocratic oath that they took in one form or other when they graduated. A sad day indeed.

udo schuklenk, kingston, ontario, canada

So much for terrorists being poor, uneducated and oppressed.

S. Delaney, London,

This is a disaster for race relations in this country,if professional men are coming here to murder,what chance for the rest of the muslim population?
It is time for muslim leaders to stand up and expose the evil in their midst.

Edwina Rigby, Chorley, Lancs, England

All this could end if we rejected immigration and rejected multi-culturalism.

Kevin Smith, London, England

So one is from Iraq then. I wonder why? What have we ever done to iraq and why on earth do Iraqis hate us? Answers on an envelope please.

Khan, aberdeen,

We have to hold religion responsible for this.
As long as people of all religions continue to indoctrinate their children into whatever their religion is,we can expect this madness to last until we're all blown up.
With doctors possibly involved in this,we have to conclude
that religious faith trumps intelligence and education.,
which means that it's time for the great debate on the veracity of ancient superstitions.
At the currant time we are considered rude if we are critical of religious thinking. We cannot continue on this tack.
Religion must be confronted for the spooky nonsense that it is,before we all become dust.

colin nicholas, Vernon BC, Canada

Where did all these policemen come from? What are they doing the rest of the time?

With this sort of presence we'd have very little crime anywhere!!

Roger Ely, Lanteglos, Cornwall

I'm curious to know where all the police presence suddenly comes from. Perhaps if we have prevention rather than reaction. Too much police time is spent in offices studying videos AFTER the event, instead of preventing crimes in the first place. Police presence is reassuring for us your customers (yep Ian Blair used the word customers).

kt, london,

So the seven suspects that have left the country can lie low for a bit, and then what?? I think there needs to be some communication between the UK and the suspected country that they have fled to!

Amy Williams, Oxford,

It is sad that on the same day the media reported the failed terrorist attacks at home, news broke of a US air assault on Helmand province, in concert with the British, which left over 80 civilians dead. The Afghan slaughter hardly made the news.

Murder is murder, be it committed by crazy men driving jeeps, or clever men dropping bombs from 30,000 feet. I despair for humanity, where have all the civilised people gone?

Haroon Abbasi, London,

Why does the BBC talk about "terrorists" in this case, when fortunately nobody is killed or injured, but when British soldiers are maimed and murdered by roadside bombs in Basra and Helmand, or arab shoppers are blown up by suicide car bombs in Bagdad, the use of this label is deemed by the BBC not to be polically correct!

Eely Baboon, London, England, UK

What is particularly upsetting about this and other plots is that freedom loving people all over the world will constantly be under attack for what could be eternity. Who can honestly tell themselves that they can see an end in sight to senseless violence against innocent bystanders? Me neither and it's a sad way to live life. And if you think it's just the UK and US under attack, think again. Catastrophic episodes have played out in Asia and Africa as well.

roy, sacramento, California

When Salman Rushdie gets awarded an honour, the muslim community is up in arms. Now we see three foiled attempts at mass murder by so-called muslim "extremists" and I hear no complaints at all. Their silence is deafening. If the muslim community wishes to remain welcome in the West it would do well to be the first and the loudest to protest when members of its community attempt mass murder in the name of their religion.

Paul, The Hague, The Netherlands

The question that must now be asked is: how many terrorist cells are working within our hospitals? The answer many be none, in which case there is nothing to worry about. But what if there are other cells working within the NHS? Would this not place us, as patients, at risk? How difficult would it be for terrorists working as doctors to kill patients through poisoning or maltreatment? And what of the risks of rogue doctors getting hold of radioactive isotopes from radiology departments to use in 'dirty bombs'?

Michael Anthony, Birmingham, UK

So, where does the Hippocratic Oath figure in all of this?

E J Murray, Kerry, Ireland