Maureen Dowd on the Death of bin Laden

With all the whining about the death of bin Laden in various quarters, from complaints about celebrations to the usual blind, legalistic nonsense questioning the legality of the operation, Maureen Dowd's New York Times' column yesterday was a breath of fresh air. It starts with the outstanding title: "Killing Evil Doesn’t Make Us Evil." Although Dowd is a liberal partisan and can't resist some opening shots at the GOP and George Bush, she goes on to make excellent points.

In another inane debate last week, many voices suggested that decapitating the head of a deadly terrorist network was some sort of injustice. ... I leave it to subtler minds to parse the distinction between what is just and what is justified.

With regard to the illogical clowns who put forth the false analogy linking celebrations of 9/11 and celebrations of bin Laden's death, Dowd writes,

Those who celebrated on Sept. 11 were applauding the slaughter of American innocents. When college kids spontaneously streamed out Sunday night to the White House, ground zero and elsewhere, they were the opposite of bloodthirsty: they were happy that one of the most certifiably evil figures of our time was no more.

You might think this would be obvious. But unfortunately it must be pointed out. She goes on,

The really insane assumption behind some of the second-guessing is that killing Osama somehow makes us like Osama, as if all killing is the same.

Exactly. The person who is killed, the reasons why, and the circumstances all matter greatly. This is something I've pointed out numerous times with regard to torture. I wonder if Dowd would apply her same logic to the torture debate? But since I'm praising this particular column I won't go there any further. Dowd concludes,

Morally and operationally, this was counterterrorism at its finest. ... We have nothing to apologize for.

We had something to celebrate, and we did.

Bad News from the Muslim World

World Public Opinion recently completed a poll in various Muslim countries, surveying attitudes toward terrorism, Al Qaeda and the U.S.  Full results can be found at their site, worldpublicopinion.org. I'm highly skeptical of polling in non-democratic countries, but if you take the results at face value, they aren't encouraging.

Let's just look at some of the responses from two of our supposed allies, Turkey and Egypt. 8% of both Turks and Egyptians actually approve of attacks on U.S. civilians inside the U.S. At first glance, that doesn't seem too bad. Pretty small percentages.  But 40% of Turks, supposedly our strong allies, support attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, as do an overwhelming 83% of Egyptians. The same percentage of Egyptians supports attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan (apparently Turks weren't polled).

And then there is the question of the U.S. and Islam. 82% of Turks and 87% of Egyptians think that to "Weaken and Divide Islam" is a U.S. goal. 79% of Turks think spreading Christianity is a U.S. goal (Turks not polled).  With all the fanatical Jew-hating among Muslims, it's no surprise that 78% of Turks and 86% of Egyptians think that "Expanding Israeli Borders" is a U.S. goal. I'm sure the Israelis would be surprised to know that the U.S. wants to expand their borders.

Only 8% of Turks and 11% of Egyptians think the U.S. "mostly shows respect to the Islamic world." That's pretty funny. The Islamic world deserves far less respect than we've shown it.

Trutherism is of course rampant in Muslim countries. Only 23% of Egyptians, and 39% of Turks think that Al Qaeda was behind the 9/11 attacks.

There are various other questions as well. These are just some of the lowlights. This poll, if at all accurate, illustrates the futility of attempts to reach out to the Muslim world. How do you reason with people who think that spreading Christianity and attacking Islam are major U.S. policy goals? How many times did President Bush bend over backwards to avoid associating Islam with terrorism? Unfortunately, although there are some decent, rational people in Islamic countries, most of them have to keep their mouths shut because they are surrounded by backward, ignorant, religious fanatics. And that's true of the countries that are supposedly U.S. allies. A full 11% of respondents in Jordan are actually willing to admit that they support attacks on U.S. civilians within the U.S., with another 15% having "mixed feelings." Naturally the more hostile areas, like the Palestinian territories, hate us even more. But hey, let's give them 900 million dollars. I'm sure they'll appreciate it and not spit in our faces like every other time.