Nothing to add other than I'm still wondering how many liberal religious and liberal secularist suicide bombers there are in the world.
While we're at it, how many gay suicide bombers are out there?
And again I'll quote Pascal whose words immediately sprang to mind as I watched the whole event unfold from the roof of my building:
"Men never do evil so willingly or so happily as when they do it for the sake of conscience."
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'...how many liberal religious and liberal secularist suicide bombers are [there]in the world? While we're at it, how many gay suicide bombers are out there?"
The answer, I suppose, is "We don't know," because motivation and sexual orientation are rarely obvious on the surface.
Look, of course Bin Laden is an "Islamicist," but he didn't kill 3000 people eight years ago to convert us to Islam. He wants our army bases out of the Arabian peninsula. He objects to our empire being in his back yard. This doesn't justify terror, but it's something no one ever talks about. Much easier to blame it all on Islam.
Terror isn't the weapon of the radically evil, but of the radically weak. It is a terrible consequence of our overwhelming military superiority. Of course no one's going to raise an army and attack the United States head on. (And I was reading T.E. Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" the other day, and realized with a shock how he had taught the Arabs how just a few could effectively use explosives against the Ottoman Empire).
So of course we should pray for the victims, and pray that no one tries to commemorate today's anniversary by making more. But we should also keep in mind all of the roots of the conflict.
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