US Forces Barred from Downtown London?

I don't even know what to say about this article [now updated above, link is outdated already] from the BBC. Apparently the approximately 12,000 American troops (mostly Air Force) based in the United Kingdom "have been banned by commanders from traveling to London in the wake of Thursday's bomb attacks."

Said an Air Force spokesman: "While it's important for some to carry on business as usual, the interests in keeping the Air Force out of harm's way until we have a bit more knowledge about what has happened is greater than the need to send them back into the city."

As the article notes, "details of the travel ban, enforced on Friday, emerged as US President George W. Bush said the US would 'not retreat in the face of terrorists.'"

I can only presume that this travel ban was a very short-term decision taken in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, and will be soon lifted, if it hasn't been already. I can see no reason for the Air Force to ban personnel from London when millions of that city's residents have done their best to return to life as normal after the horrific attacks perpetrated on their city. No such action would even have been contemplated after the attacks on 9/11 in this country (can you imagine the outcry if the military had ordered its personnel to stay away from New York and Washington?), and as anything other than a limited emergency measure this sends entirely the wrong message.