Hijacker on Saudi Plane Thwarted!

Ok, how many people do you think, when they first saw this report, said to themselves, “Oh my God, some crazed Christian decided to get revenge on Islam!”

(sound of crickets)*

Let me start off by saying, of course Islam itself isn’t guilty for what its members do. I don’t think Islam as a religion is guilty. But Christianity has mostly lost the fervor that leads to mass murder. No need to go into history for times when Christianity was militant—we’re talking about today, people. And yes, Tim McVeigh wasn’t Islamic, but he was an anti-federal government chucklehead and not a Christian soldier. You have to admit, Islam does have plenty of fanatics today. That’s why nobody thought a Westerner had done the deed. Even if a Westerner had done it, the first impulse would not have been that some Christian had tried to hijack the plane. So there, ritual disclaimer finished.

Back to the lesson of the hijacking. Do people who think they have only to disagree with America’s war against Islamic fascism to become immune to said Islamic fascists? With terrorists striking in small attacks around the world, predictably some are saying this is so. “Just avert our eyes from Americans dying and refuse to help that madman Bush and we’ll sleep safely in our homes at night,” they seem to argue. Helping America didn’t get Australians killed in Bali. Being Western got them killed. The terrorists hit a French tanker despite their “sophisticated” criticisms of our war. And of course, the Saudis get hit too, because even they are not “pure” enough for the terrorists. The Grand Mosque seizure by fanatics over twenty years ago got the Saudis pretty darned nervous, but even their subsequent support for the Islamic fanatics has not earned them immunity.

A whole lot of people, including a whole bunch in San Francisco who think they protest for peace, need to understand that our enemies are granting no quarter. But these protesters get to protest, feel morally superior, and avoid the consequences of their actions because America is fighting the terrorists and their state sponsors and America will win. The terrorists will kill us until we kill them. Let’s get on with it, eh?

Fill up Gitmo. On to Baghdad.

*Ok, not original, but I saw Lileks do this once and it struck me as quite funny-not sure why.