Can we stop the conspiracy theories now?

The British police investigating the alleged plot to blow up several transatlantic airliners using liquid explosives have, in the past few days and hours, made two important discoveries. The first was the discovery of a suitcase containing bomb-making materials in a wood near High Wycombe where several of the alleged conspirators were arrested. The second, and much more important, has come in the last few hours: the discovery of martyrdom videos, reported to include some of the accused, in one of the suspect's houses.

I think it's fair to say that there may justifiably be continuing questions about whether or not the timing of the arrests was influenced by the US administration in order to produce political benefits. Having said that, some of the conspiracy theories flying around, even here on DKos, accusing the British government of manufacturing the incident, perhaps in the manner of the "Miami 7," can be put to rest.

I personally found it quite odd that so many people found it easier to think that this incident was a fabrication than the obvious reality that terrorism is a real and continuing threat. It was only a little over a year ago that a major plot by British-born Muslims succeeded - the 7/7 attacks on the London underground and the No. 30 bus. I think that at a time like this, given the fact that we're between a rock and a hard place as regards the Bush administration and our quite real and deadly enemies, it's rather too easy to rationalise the threat away without accepting the harder reality that as corrupt, moronic, misguided and self-serving the administration is - we do have a "war on terror" to win.

Having said all that, the amount of people suggesting outright fabrication here on DKos was quite low, and the debate has focused much more upon whether the British security services were pressured into early arrests by the Bush administration. If true, this is a very serious accusation and very damaging to the independence of the security services and the British state as a whole. I sincerely hope it doesn't turn out to be so, but I think that the discussion should centre firmly upon that now - not some idiotic notions of conspiracy, which given the state of British politics, would not really serve the government of Tony Blair at all.

By the way, I'm very tired writing this, so forgive me my lack of fluency and coherency.