Meanwhile, Major News Outlets Still Discussing Dung-Flinging Teenagers

Originally posted at on May 16, 2003, at Little Tiny Lies.

Dean Esmay blogged something really interesting today. Now that Al Qaeda is bombing other Muslims, Arabs have decided suicide bombing may possibly be a BAD THING. He found some Arab papers describing the bombers as criminals and expressing sincere fury over their actions.

Welcome to the party, boys.

There may be some bloodstained treasures to pick out of this hill of dung.

For one thing, it says a lot about the state of Al Qaeda. If these guys had really gotten it together, the way they claim to, they would never have done something this stupid. As Dean said to me tonight, "It smacks of desperation." And you have to wonder if it reflects the severity of the damage we've done to their leadership. When you cut a chicken's head off, it still runs, but it doesn't run anywhere important. Al Qaeda is still killing, but is it killing the people it needs to kill?

In my opinion, it's killing exactly the wrong people, if you look at it from Al Qaeda's perspective. Excuse me for being flippant about mass murder, but my summary of the Arab articles condemning the bombers was as follows: "This s--t isn't funny any more!"

Until now, there was an idiotic, unfazable current of Muslim pride that caused Muslims all over the world to back our enemies. They backed Saddam Hussein, who was the world's leading persecutor of Muslims. It didn't bother them when he gassed and machine-gunned Iraqis. Frankly, oppressive, brutal government is something Arabs expect. But look at them jump when Al Qaeda rips up innocent Saudis. Borderless terrorism that strikes Arabs in locations that can't be predicted? That's not cricket.

The terrorists aren't just Muslims. They're not just Muslim extremists. They're lunatics. Idiots. And armed idiots are bad for everyone; their destruction knows no direction, no method. In 2001, it was us. Next week, it may be a column of pilgrims walking toward Mecca, saying prayers Al Qaeda hasn't approved.

Whoever planned this thing, he is not deserving of the usual term, "mastermind." He blew up people whose relatives support terrorism. He may have blown the biscuit wheels right off his own gravy train. Though he harmed us in the short run, he may have done something we could never do on our own. He may have united Arabs and Americans in a sincere battle to slaughter his troops and jail their supporters until the average Saudi would rather donate money to the B'nai Brith than Al Qaeda.

This act reeked of stupidity. As I told Dean, the tone-deafness was "Hillaryesque."

Read the story. I think you'll agree, this tragedy may carry inside it the seeds of an alliance we could never have forged on our own.

Posted By The Right-Wing Piston at May 17, 2003 01:15 PM | TrackBack