Hard to beat Goldblog's assessment:
There are more than five million Muslims in America; a tiny handful of them have committed, or have tried to commit, terror attacks in recent years. Many more Muslims serve faithfully in the United States military than serve jihadist ideology. Still, ignoring the infiltration by jihadist ideologues of certain marginal circles in Muslim America serves no purpose, either, except to advance the argument that the Tea Party is worse than al Qaeda, which, I fear, is what some on the left actually believe. Blaming Islam, or the mass of law-abiding American Muslims, for the acts of men like Faisal Shahzad will only lead to segregation, prejudice, and radicalization; ignoring the problem entirely will lead to more terror attacks.
I am relieved by the incompetence of the attempt and the flawed but still successful work of law enforcement to get him. The potential for real intelligence is also enormous - since the bomb did not go off and the suspect is captured and is not being tortured.
For me, the case offers several mysteries: why haven't there been far more of these attempts these past few years? How half-assed are these Taliban training camps? Does this act suggest that the aggressive war in Pakistan and Afghanistan might actually increase terrorism at home and in the region - or does it imply we should keep up the military pressure in Afghanistan?
I suspect at this point that so many of these things are inter-locking and figuring out what caused what is close to pointless. This is what war does. In the end, it sustains itself.
Posted via web from Firesaw
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