Mayor Bloomberg on Times Square car bomb

UPDATED
Statement by Mayor Bloomberg at a news conference early Sunday morning:

Terrorists around the world feel threatened by the freedoms we have in this country and want to take our freedoms away from us.  (That's why) they always focus on the symbol of that freedom, and that is New York City.  

The mayor then made the perfectly valid point that because New York City is a prime terrorist target, it deserves to get the lion's share of any Homeland Security spending.

But it's the first point that needs to be examined.  Mayor Bloomberg was echoing George W. Bush tonight;   Bush, who famously said, "terrorists hate us for our freedoms."  That kind of statement was nonsense when spoken in 2001, and it's bunk today.

UPDATE:
Reuters quotes a diplomat who suggests a far more plausible motivation for the attack:

"This is a blow back, this is a reaction" to the CIA drone strikes, Pakistani Foreign Minister told CBS News. "Let's not be naive. They're not going to sort of sit and welcome you to eliminate them. They're going to fight back."