Islamic entente strategy closely follows the teachings of General Erfurth who stressed that the integration of new weapons systems must be deployed en masse to effect a decision. While shooting down a civilian airliner in the States would be a spectacular coup, such an act does not win the fight for the outgunned entente forces. If anything it would only harden American resolve to annihilate the opposition.
In Britain the case is quite different where Blair is still under fire and Islamic entente forces have smuggled dozens of MANPADS. Many of these units purchased in Prishtina in October and successfully infiltrated via ferry to the Muslim community in the UK. Heathrow and Gatwick still not operationally effective in extending their security perimeters and a half dozen smaller British airports with virtually no defence versus this style of attack.
Whether the European purchasers were fronting for al Qaeda is now hotly debated within the British intelligence community but that really does not matter. The fact is these units will not be used against America but are allocated to elements within the UK as part of a larger strategic move within the Third World War. A successful shootdown (or even a miss) in Britain paying much larger long term dividends than one in America.
The Brits need to keep their eyes peeled in this time of the shortest days of the year...
The forces of freedom on the move. Europe trembles.