The first thing I saw when I got in front of a TV yesterday was an interview with two black guys, one of whom had been helped out by another when he'd been trapped.
The guy who was trapped said "I was crying out and scared and praying to Allah to save me".
I thought that was brilliant, as it displays very clearly this is not so much about Islam, or race, but about terrorism.
I will conceed that certain ideological elements in the Islamic world are supporters of terrorism.
But how many Americans contributed money to or vocally supported the IRA?
How many Roman Catholics, or Serbian Orthodox members(I think that's the denomination), or Church of Ireland members or Zionist Jews have supported acts of terror? Any one remember Bader Mienhof (sp?)? You can have atheistic terrorists too.
How often is the religion just a modifying factor in the act or terror, but gain, politics or history are the real motivating factors?
A civilian target is a civilian target, and when it is not even unavoidable collateral damage but a deliberate attempt to kill as many civilians as possible, peoples' justifications for acts of terror are varied and irrelevant.
I think this will cause a schism in the Arab world. You either defend the indefensable (and only Iraq has thus far), or condemn it. There is no fence left to sit on.
In a way, it is a threshold event in a 'New World Order', where it will become acceptable to act against terrorists in a way that suspends normally held ideas of justice and due process, on a 'do it unto them before they do it unto you' basis.
I believe the US will use this opportunity to search out and seize, or kill in the process of trying, many more terrorists than are involved. They will, quite justifably, regard themselves as having the right to detain people on suspicion of terrorism, and then worry about trials and due process, and punish governments who harbour suspected individuals.
A Possible Scenario;
Let us assume it is decided to get the Saudi terrorist leader that is assumed to be behind it.
The Taliban reigeme would not let him go straight away.
I think the US will possibly use 'called shots' as retribution for this. They will inform the government concerned that in 24 hours such and such a place will be destroyed, and quite possibly leaflet the area from the air.
Thus, any civilians will have ample opportunity to leave (although there is a possiblility that the Taliban would use its citizens forcably as shield as Saddam Hussain used Western hostages in the Gulf Conflict).
This would minimise civilian casualties, and allow the US to slowly dismantle Afghanistan's infrastructure and governmental buildings.
Eventually, the Taliban would spit up the terrorists like a hairball, or their reigeme would fall and the incoming reigeme would serve him up on a platter.
This would serve two purposes, the capture of the suspect, and quite possibly terminal destabilisation of the psychotic Taliban reigeme, followed by International invovlement to rebuild the coutries infrastructure and human rights.
And it would set a precident for immediate and terrible retribution of anyone associated with acts of terror that would actually push the world from the transitional post-cold war period into a second transitional phase which would eventually evolve into some form of World government, with strong regionalisation but a hand of iron wielded against anyone breaking the 'Pax United Nations'.
People once spoke of a 'Pax Romanica', or a 'Pax Britanica', at the height of those Empires, where there was peace enforced by the centre of the Empire. Until such a time that a form of World government, I think we are going to see the start of a 'Pax Americana'.
Isolationalism and aversion from extra-territorial involvement will no longer be a viable option for American politics.
If you leave dens of vipers alone, they breed...
