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August 22, 2006
Germans Shocked at Subway Plot
The failed bomb plot in Germany's subway system has the same response as the foiled plot in Toronto and to the successful attacks all around the world; Germans are in shock. But where people in Australia, Spain, the United States, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and countless others were shocked at terrorism period, according to the New York Times many Germans can't possibly imagine why out of all nations Germany would be the target of an attack.
Still, the case has rattled Germans, many of whom have clung to the belief that their government's opposition to the war in Iraq would insulate them from attacks like those in London or Madrid. The trouble-free World Cup in Germany last month reinforced the sense of security."People thought for the longest time that Germany would be safe because we didn't send troops to Iraq," said Johannes Schmalz, the president of the agency for the protection of the constitution -- a rough equivalent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg.
"This presumption is wrong," he said. "The enemy of violent Islamists is the Western world as a whole."
While Schmalz is at least on the right track, he's wrong. The enemy of Islamists is anyone who doesn't follow their lead and bow down before them. We've seen countless times the targets in these plots are not just Westerners and, numerically speaking, more Arab Muslims have been killed than anyone else. It is this reason why it continues to baffle me why people can still be shocked they might be the target of the next radical Islamic terrorist attack, not to mention why Arab Muslims are not completely incensed over this ideology that destroys more of their lives than the lives of others.
Now cartoons, yes, that's enough to firebomb embassies over. A suicide bomber walking into a crowded market using their own religion as justification for murder, that's just a random act of violence and "the damn West!"
It is also rather important to note that, at least according to the NYT, Germans felt their decision not to support the war in Iraq would keep them safe. This is the same rationale I read concerning the plot in Toronto, though presumably this opinion was far less in Canada than in Germany, and even the American Left was beside themselves wondering what was going on. What perfect little dhimmis ready to cave into unknown pressures to keep the Islamists ire on others, except of course that Iraq has very little if anything to do with the 20th and 21st Century Islamist movement. It's an excuse, much like any other, and it should be treated as such. We should not be shocked because that excuse isn't in the Islamist playbook.
Excuses Islamists use to murder and push their fascist goals upon others are entirely misguided, but even worse are the excuses given by those of us in attacked nations as to why plots and attacks occur. There is only one excuse. It's called a fanatical ideology named radical Islam or Islamonazism.
In this plot at least one of the men is from Lebanon; he was arrested this past Friday. The other suspect is still at large. Below is footage of both men in the subway terminal, presumably with their explosives in tow.
Notice what the men look like both in attire and appearance. Do they look like terrorists? I certainly don't think so, but neither did I think the 19 hijackers on 9/11 did either (take that, Richard!). Would profiling have stopped these men? I doubt it.
The rationale, or at least the perceived rationale, for this attack is about as logical as at least some Germans believing they were immune to terrorism.
While the extent of the plot is still shrouded in mystery, prosecutors said it was unlikely that the would-be bombers were acting alone. The men may have been motivated by anger over the war in Lebanon, in which the German government has agreed to play a limited, peacekeeping role.
But there's a huge problem in this theory. The war in Lebanon as an excuse is just as ridiculous as believing Iraq is the end-all, be-all of terrorism; in this case even more so. The bombs were found barely more than one month ago which would have been a mere days after Hezbollah attacked Israel and only a couple of days before things really escalated. Is a matter of days long enough to construct propane bombs yet fail miserably in a detonation device?
The only plausible scenario of the war in Lebanon being an excuse was if they were not acting alone, and if they weren't acting alone it must be perceived they had higher instruction or directions from some higher ranking person. Is this yet another instance of the 'peaceful' nature of Hezbollah? Germany is one of the key three EU members who have relentlessly tried to negotiate over Iran's nuclear program, and it's certainly clear Iran had a major hand in the Hezbollah attack. There isn't any other plausible reason Lebanon would have been an issue other than Iran wished to attack Germany through their proxy; just because one of the suspects is Lebanese means nothing.
All of that is merely conjecture on my part, but it's worse than conjecture to believe anyone is immune to radical Islamic terrorism. The only people that are immune are not immune to missiles and the Marines. No matter how many times Islamists and their apologists want to paint things as complicated, it really is black and white. Either you are with the Islamist movement or they want to kill or subjugate you. It really is just that simple and there's no foreign policy that can be done to appease the Islamonazis. The only internal policy that can be changed would be a complete conversion to radical Islam and the hoisting of a Sharia law flag over your government's buildings.
How much longer will people try to explain things in terms of why they hate us as opposed to just realizing they do hate us? Until then, the only shock I will be able to muster is shock at why too many people just don't get it.
Posted by Chad at August 22, 2006 12:29 PM
