Another One Bites the Dust...

Sheik Sa'id al-Masri, Al Qaeda's third in command, has died from the complications of old age, mental illness, and American-supplied high explosives (but mostly from Amercian-supplied high explosives).

Excellent...

Seven Years Ago...

Seven years ago today, Osama Bin Laden's evil followers attacked the U.S. They succeeded in destroying the twin towers of the World Trade Center and damaging the Pentagon. Thousands of Americans (and dozens of peope from other countries) died that day, including the passengers and crews of the four passenger jets that Al Qaeda hijacked and used as weapons. On one airliner (United 93), they failed – we believe because the passengers fought back, including Todd Beamer and his famous “Let's roll!”.

“Never forget!” is the rallying cry on this day. But I fear too many Americans already have forgotten, in the sense that they no longer see the existential threat that Al Qaeda (and radical Islamic fundamentalism, more generally) present to this country. We have had seven years without another successfull attack on our homeland, and many Americans see this as evidence of Al Qaeda's weakness (or even non-existence!), as opposed to American strength. We now have many adult Americans who really don't even remember 9/11, as they were too young when it happened.

For me, these are all pieces of the only issue I am really worried about in the upcoming election. It boils down to this: when the next Al Qaeda attack comes (as I think is likely), would I rather have Obama or McCain as President? Or, for that matter, Biden or Palin? As best I can tell, the Democrats would instinctively react by withdrawing and retreating, by preemptive surrender, and they'd wrap those actions in flowery words of moral equivalence, America's sins, and multinational agreement. I cannot even imagine them reacting as I would want to: with an aggressive offense, stomping the perpetrators out of existence and making an example that would give the next jihadis some doubts about the wisdom of their actions. I cannot be sure that McCain (or Palin) would react that way, but it seems likely.

So McCain and Palin will get my vote. I will vote on this one issue alone; the rest are irrelevant by comparsion (to me).

Not that it actually matters how I vote here in California. We're a “winner takes all” state, and the Democratic lead is insurmountable (or so conventional wisdom says)...

End Times...

Today's Day-By-Day perfectly captured a happy thought I've had more and more frequently over the past couple of months:

Chatter

ABC News is reporting that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has an intelligence document warning of an Al Qaeda "summer spectacular" -- and that the situation is reminiscent of the "chatter" we have all heard about in the summer of 2001, just before 9/11. The report also contained specific warnings about Al Qaeda plans to attack Glasgow and Prague airports and airport infrastructure, and this report was passed along to UK and Czech officials two weeks ago. U.S. officials are not denying the report, though Secretary Chertoff has said that the DHS has no specific information about attacks aimed at the United States.

In Czechoslovakia, the UK, and Germany, the terror alert level is now at its highest level. The failed Glasgow bombing appears to have been timed for a moment when the airport was full of women and children. Two of the perpetrators (including the leader) were doctors, and UK residents.

The usual multi-cultural/politically correct/liberal line is that the West brings terrorism on itself by fostering despotic regimes with citizenry mired in hopeless poverty. Oops -- that line doesn't seem to fit the facts here. Let's see if we can figure it out -- what is there about these UK doctors that might have provoked their terrorist activity? Hmmm, let me think now -- could it have been the fact that they were radical Islamic fundamentalists who believe that all infidels must die?

There have been many reports from independent credible sources that the damage we have done to Al Qaeda is extensive -- many of its senior leadership has been killed or captured, and the rest are in hiding or on the run. The war in Iraq has been a huge drain on Al Qaeda, both in blood and treasure. Nevertheless, they are an enemy who will fight to the death, and these things that we would see as defeats and setbacks are seen much differently by them. They believe that each jihadi we've killed has gone to his glorious reward for his service to Allah -- and it drives them on all the more. So the recent "chatter" isn't inconsistent with a damaged Al Qaeda at all -- it's exactly what we should expect from a culture that emphasizes glorious death in jihad, and believes in both divine intervention and magic. A "summer spectacular" is just the sort of thing you'd expect them to cook up -- and they really don't need all that much of an organization left to pull it off. Remember, 9/11 was perpetrated by 19 men armed with box-cutters and some minimal flight training -- and a set of religious beliefs that encourage them to kill themselves in the course of killing "infidels".

"Infidels" would be you and me, of course.