About a week ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared to the United Nations that most people in the world believe the United States was behind the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
To many people in the West, the statement was ludicrous, almost laughable if it weren't so incendiary. And surveys show that a majority of the world does not in fact believe that the U.S. orchestrated the attacks.
However, the belief persists strongly among a minority, even with U.S. allies like Turkey or in the U.S. itself. And it cannot be dismissed because it reflects a gulf in politics and perception, especially between the West and many Muslims.
At one level, it is kind of funny. Bin Laden's greatest success from his point of view isn't even believed to be truly his work by his target audience, and he is reduced to grubbing for support by blasting flood response in Pakistan!
In a second audio recording in 24 hours, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden said governments of Muslim nations have not done enough to help Pakistanis hit by floods that killed hundreds and displaced millions.
This is pretty pathetic for a self-styled evil genius. Where's the "death to America!"? Where are the calls to overthrow Arab governments that once put autocrats into cold sweats at night?
No, now he is advocating food security and faster disaster response.
But what is really pathetic is how so many of our "reality-based" community have spent the last decade insisting that we have to understand why Moslems--who in large numbers think we carried out 9/11--hate us and that we must correct what we've done to deserve that hate.
The problem isn't America. It never has been. The problem is the Moslem world and the Islamo-fascism that poisons Islam.
And until the Moslem world addresses the cranks and nuttiness that pollute their societies, we'll have to fight and kill jihadis whose grievances against us bear no relation to the reality of what we do. Yes indeed, this is really a Long War.
