But having said that (and on the risk of going on a political rant that would be completely out of place on this site), surely what terrorists thrive on is making people reconsider their options. If they can get people to stay in their houses terrified, if they can get gigs and sports events cancelled, if they can stop people from living their normal lives - then basically it's half the battle won. Surely the way of sticking two fingers up to anyone trying to ruin our country is to just continue as normal and show them that it doesn't affect us.
Which is why the ludicrous decision by Inter Milan to cancel their English tour - comprising of matches against ourselves, Palace, Norwich and Leicester - is really a sad reflection on the way things are going these days.
In fact, it's not even that. It's a sad reflection on Inter Milan. Their official reason for pulling out of the tour is that they didn't want to add more stress to the emergency services in this country in a time when they already have a lot on their plate. Well surely that's for the police to decide whether or not they can't cope? We know full well that the police have an awful lot of control on the game in this country (witness kick off changes, Wigan's ground almost being closed, etc) so surely if they couldn't handle the situation they would announce it and inform the clubs themselves? I seriously doubt they need someone from outside the country to tell them they couldn't cope.
No, what it smacks of is a poor and lazy excuse to get out of a tour that, according to Italian football journalists, Inter didn't really want to come on in the first place. Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan (normally a Grade A pillock but useful for the first time in this situation) revealed that it was a couple of Inter's South American players who had thrown a wobbly at the thought of coming over here. Just yesterday, President and Manager said they were happy for the tour to go ahead. So why the sudden change?
The whole thing is made even more pathetic by the fact that today in central London, QPR hosted Iran. Now could those making the decisions at Inter honestly tell me that a match like Leicester vs Inter is more high risk than that?
The people I feel most sorry for are the clubs and fans involved who now have to scurry around and try and get a replacement match if they can. We're lucky - we've got just over a week - but the tour was meant to start on Monday meaning the other clubs involved are going to struggle to find different opposition in such a short amount of time, especially of the same crowd-drawing potential. And don't forget that with the other three teams in The Championship, getting in a big crowd and money in the bank is an important consideration. I can only hope that we add our voice to the legal proceedings being started by Norwich and Palace.
Inter - spineless cowards. I refer once again to Simon Jordan for the perfect summing up; "If their bravery on the pitch was a reflection of the bravery of coming over then perhaps it's just as well they weren't coming over anyway".