Monday, October 03, 2005
Why Bali?
The bombings in Bali have apparently got the Balinese thinking two things: first, they want to punish the bastards responsible for the attacks, and second, they wonder why they are being targeted. Sound familiar? It does if you live in America, where leftwingers have had one field day after another blaming terror victims, George W. Bush and his foreign policy (certainly not Clinton's).
Ed Morrissey points out the problems that arise as the leftist blame game runs smack into the reality of Bali:
* A policy of support for Israel? Well, Bali remains part of Indonesia, which can hardly be accused of being an Israeli ally. Like all Muslim nations, it opposes Israel's occupation of the West Bank and does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
* Supporting Middle East tyrants in order to steal the oil from the devout Muslims of the Arabian peninsula? Indonesia has plenty of its own oil.
* Occupation of holy lands? The Balinese do not have troops on Saudi soil, or anywhere else other than Bali.
* Occupation of Iraq? Not hardly.
We wait with baited breath to hear the left's rationalizations for the Bali attacks. I'm putting my money on it being a White House plot hatched in the mind of the eeevil George W. Bush, but The Captain points out that there could be another, simpler explanation, one the left has consistently refused to acknowledge because it would wreck their world view:
Perhaps the fact that Bali, part of mostly Muslim Indonesia, has a majority Hindu population could have something to do with Jemaah Islamiyah's obsession with bombing the Balinese. It provides the only consistent thread for AQ's attacks around the world: an all-out holy war against all non-believers, simply on the basis of their non-belief.
This should dispense with all of the blather about how our foreign policy of global engagement creates terrorism. Let's quit blaming the victims and start really fighting the war that the terrorists have declared on us.
Ed Morrissey points out the problems that arise as the leftist blame game runs smack into the reality of Bali:
* A policy of support for Israel? Well, Bali remains part of Indonesia, which can hardly be accused of being an Israeli ally. Like all Muslim nations, it opposes Israel's occupation of the West Bank and does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
* Supporting Middle East tyrants in order to steal the oil from the devout Muslims of the Arabian peninsula? Indonesia has plenty of its own oil.
* Occupation of holy lands? The Balinese do not have troops on Saudi soil, or anywhere else other than Bali.
* Occupation of Iraq? Not hardly.
We wait with baited breath to hear the left's rationalizations for the Bali attacks. I'm putting my money on it being a White House plot hatched in the mind of the eeevil George W. Bush, but The Captain points out that there could be another, simpler explanation, one the left has consistently refused to acknowledge because it would wreck their world view:
Perhaps the fact that Bali, part of mostly Muslim Indonesia, has a majority Hindu population could have something to do with Jemaah Islamiyah's obsession with bombing the Balinese. It provides the only consistent thread for AQ's attacks around the world: an all-out holy war against all non-believers, simply on the basis of their non-belief.
This should dispense with all of the blather about how our foreign policy of global engagement creates terrorism. Let's quit blaming the victims and start really fighting the war that the terrorists have declared on us.
