"The hotel bombing is another puzzle, unless you start with the premise that the puzzle has no answer."

The hotel was known as being popular with Jewish tourists. At the time of the explosion there were 40 Jewish tourists in the hotel, but none of them were harmed.

Stupid? Al Qaeda frets continually over the Israel/USA friendship, while driving us ever closer together. Good, I like it that way. When USA was trying so hard to be even-handed, it didn't feel good, it wasn't the right thing to do to a tiny nation that has been under continual attack for a half-century.

Makes all kinds of sense once you swallow the basic tenets of al Qaeda ideology.

These guys want a monolithic theocracy that unites the Muslim world, as they believe was prescribed to humanity by Allah through Mohammad. In their eyes, the borders between Arab/Muslim states as well the various governments of those countries are ipso facto illegitimate, and nominal Muslims who support said governments are "apostate." Hostility to the West is mostly derivative -- the cultural influences polluting what should be a pure Muslim society, the material/military support that allows those rogue governments to maintain their rule. As one analyst put it, those of us in the West are mostly caught up in someone else's civil war.

Lenin informed us: (1) The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize, i.e. destabilize; and (2) In a revolutionary situation "worse is better" -- when the object is bringing down a government, a primary aim is screwing up a society, and thus discrediting its leadership, as much as possible.

The Saud slave-o-crats have promised to co-operate this time...they'll give the al Qaeda bagmen really dirty looks while writing the checks.

That's a good chuckle, Noel, the 'dirty looks', and I guess you're right, Joe, who cares if you help your enemies to organize against you, making them respond is itself the object. Lenin knew his biz, that's fer sher. Always easier to break than to make. We can't lose, though, unless WE give up. The game is ours, to win or lose.

Let's not forget Kuwait, Qatar and (to a much lesser extent) Jordan. They are all Arab countries whose help was critical to the coalition's success. They are probably in the terrorist crosshairs now.

Erm, it wasn't an attack on Belgian interests - there was a Jewish owned something or other that was the target. The Belgian place was just nearby (most news articles on this story point this out...)

Joe! My man! Where've you been?

"These guys want a monolithic theocracy that unites the Muslim world, as they believe was prescribed to humanity by Allah through Mohammad".

Done any historical research on Mohammed? Do you know what he did for a living? This loonietunie SAID that Allah told him to do this shit. They are all nutcases, who are descended from the same tree. God told me it was okay. Oh wait, a minute. FLASH! Update. I changed His changed his mind. Anyone who doesn't believe me dies.

Good read Joe. Too bad it's falling on deaf ears.

I largely agree with the author's thesis, with one exception. Belgium is not Harpo, but Zeppo. Belgium talks, much to everyone's regret, and there's not really a good reason for them being part of the whole show. Russia can be Harpo. Even when they talk, all I hear is "Honk, Honk [crazy look]".

My belief is that Al Quaeda is currently going after low-hanging fruit. They have active cells in many Moslem countries, and it is far easier to grab headlines from there than to try to infiltrate into the US or Israel or Western Europe where they have to deal with intelligence and police forces. Although it is probable that another such attack is in the future, these attacks seem to be a realization that Al Quaeda in particular, and international terrorism in general, have been hurt by ongoing operations. I would expect attacks in Moslem nations to continue throughout the rest of the year.

I agree with the author that the net outcome of this will be more active cooperation between the West and these Moslem nations. The monolithic Islamic interest, like the monolithic Arab interest of the 40's and 50's, is a fiction. The breakup of the Arabists after the wars with Israel ended the latter. It is hoped that the war on terror will end the fiction of a united Islam, and that peace and rationality will prevail.

-BF

Here's something from Mark Steyn's column (http://www.steynonline.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=29):

"If you were to pick only one Western nation not to blow up the oil tankers of, the French would be it.... they got blown up anyway. And afterwards a spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden said, ‘We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels.’..."

"It’s the same with Bali. As a way of making a point about Zionist occupation of the West Bank, it’s a little convoluted, to say the least. If it’s intended to warn America’s allies off supporting Bush, it seems perverse and self-defeating to kill and maim large numbers of citizens from countries who haven’t supported him. So, instead of trying to fit square pegs into Islamic crescents, why not take the event at face value? It’s a mound of dead Australians and Scandinavians and the non-Islamic Indonesians of Bali: no problem, they’re all infidels. A Bush-voting social conservative from Mississippi or a gay peacenik from Denmark, they’re happy to kill both. If, as some of us maintain, the real ‘root cause’ of Islamofascism is Islam’s difficulty coexisting with modernity, we shouldn’t be surprised that an infidel-friendly, pluralist enclave in the world’s largest Muslim country would be an abomination to the Islamists, and the perfect target."

And what happened in Morroco and Saudi Arabia is more of the same.

Suddenly I can't recollect the difference in the two theories...one is that the killers are madmen, the other is that the madmen are killers...maybe it's just late, and my brain is winking out.

Fantasy ideology. They don't care, if what they do makes sense or not. They care about what kind of story it makes.

If they wanted to shut down this country, they could blow up a Wal-Mart every Sunday. But in 300 years when the Caliphate covers the globe, the poets won't sing about blowing up Wal-Marts. It doesn't make a good story.

Blowing up the WTC was something that sensible people would not do--it would only happen in a book or a movie.

So, really, you and Joe are both right. Any big killing or symbolic-structure destruction is automatically better then nothing. Beautiful. If these people don't change or die out, then within a generation they will have turned us all into hunter/killers. Among the more cruel results even now of Arafat's career, is the slow turning of Israel into Sparta. The Israelis have had a helluva choice shoved onto them...the pity is, it never had to be this way, this is a situation constructed by the conscious decisions of individuals. KGB gold was so much cooler than starting a produce farm, or studying engineering. When you look at what Israel has done economically, despite this mess, and realize that the Palestinians could have been a part of it, too, all this time, with only ordinary humane leadership, it's enough to make you cry. The Pals could have auto plants, an electronics industry, anything--a prosperous middle class, politicians accountable to voters, real lives in other words. The red flag is just so romantic, and ordinary life is so mundane in contrast, that Arafats have an upper hand, where no institutional liberties have become the tradition. Just decisions by bad individuals keep this grinding hell alive. Wot a shame.

The Belgian Consulate was across the street from a Jewish restaurant. So the terrorists know who are their terrorist scum friends.

Doobie Dave,

This goes back to Elvis' poem/song to the tune of the Kennel Ration commercial.

"It's OK, cause my bible (Koran) says so..."

The Branch Davidiots don't deserve to be compared to these muslim shiiteheads. The weren't going around blowing up civilians, were they?

The Branch Davidiots don't deserve to be compared to these muslim shiiteheads. They weren't going around blowing up civilians, were they?

Oops! Dooble post. Sorry.

Maybe, ThrobbingJohnson, you ought to start posting two-handed.

Gabe,

Maybe TJ was trying to play pivot man in this electonic circle jerk. :-)

In this grand B movie we call life, there is always a girl.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (Click here should you choose to sign out.)

As you post your comment, please mind our simple comment policy: we welcome all perspectives, but require that comments be both civil and respectful. We also ask that you avoid the extensive use of profanity, racist terms (neither of which we consider civil or respectful), and other boorish language.

We reserve the right to delete any comment, and to prohibit you from commenting on this site, if we feel you have broached this policy. As a courtesy, we will first send you an email noting a violation so you understand the boundaries. This will occur only once, however, and should we ban you from our comment forums we expect that ban to be permanent.

We also will frown upon those who suggest that we ban other individuals for voicing unpopular opinions, should those opinions be voiced in a civil and respectful manner. The point of our comment threads is to provide a forum for spirited though civil and respectful discourse … it is not to provide a forum in which everyone will agree with your point of view.

If you can live by these rules, welcome aboard. If not, then we’re sorry it didn’t work out, and thanks for visiting The Command Post.

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments: