A new poll shows that
A new poll shows that (surprise!) most folks in the Muslim world don't like us Americans. I was particularly amused by the bit that characterized us as “easily provoked.” Let's see...in 1979 there was that Iranian hostage thing...1982, some folks blew up our embassy in Beirut...in '83 241 U.S. soldiers were killed, again in Beirut...in 1985, it was deemed good politics to kill crippled American Leon Klinghoffer aboard a hijacked cruise ship...in 1988, there was Pan Am 103 (270 dead)...in 1993, we had the first World Trade Center bombing...1996, an Air Force barracks in Saudia Arabia was bombed...in 1998, our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed...there was the USS Cole bombing in 2000...and then (lest we forget) 3,000 dead at the World Trade Center just six months ago.
And what had our response been up to that point? A few carelessly lobbed cruise missiles that did squat.
Perhaps the fact that Muslims, by and large, are used to shorter life spans, higher infant mortality rates, and young suicide bombers makes them think that mass death is really no reason to get upset.
As far as doubting whether Arab folks were behind 09/11…well, I suppose from an epistemological point of view we can't really be sure of anything, can we? Radical skepticism and all that. But in that case, Atta and his boys certainly were in the wrong places at the wrong times. What luck!
