Heretics' almanac: Not a good weekend for the good guys in the war on terrorism

While Norway is celebrating its dubious soccer victory over Scotland, Israelis and Egyptians are trying to identify the remains of victims from the terrorist bombings in Sinai. The New York Times reports that Israel is anxious about the nuclear threat from Iran. At least 17 people were murdered by a car bomb in Baghdad yesterday, and most of us have given up counting terrorist deaths there.

Debka reports that the bombings in Sinai were a joint production of Al Qaeda, Hizballah, and Iran, made possible by a "Palestinian weapons smuggling network."

Imshin is pissed off at Gideon Levy for scoffing at warnings that things weren't safe in the Sinai over the Sukkot/Simchat Torah holidays, and you'd hope that the same Gideon Levy feels some shame.

I don't know about you, but I don't think the war on terrorism is going that well.

I want to be fair: with no clear fronts, it's hard to measure progress. Pushing Nazis out of Algeria is measurable success; American tanks in front of the Hotel Palestine tells you something has changed. But it's hard to know whether "insurgency" in Iraq means there are more terrorists or that existing terrorists have a place to go.

I don't particularly buy into the notion that terrorism is a result of desparation. I think terrorism is a tactic employed by psychopaths in the service of immoral ends. But I do think that the political movements that support terrorism can be galvanized by external events. The fact that "resistance" to American occupation of Iraq is now confused with terrorism against a liberalization of Iraqi society, is a very bad sign.

As much as Bush speaks of "moral clarity," the mess in Iraq is in fact creating moral confusion. Leftist critics of Israeli and American policy love to blur the distinction between pitched battles in Fallujah and bombings of vacation resorts in Taba - both, they say, are a result of a "brutal occupation."

I still don't see a coherent strategy against terrorism, and I'm worried about signs of increased and more extensive collaboration among the terrorist groups.

Nordic perspectives

General rolls