On the part of the government, it may be understandable that we wish to fight a war one part of the enemy at a time. There are more than a billion Moslems in the world and we would rather, if we had he chance, to destroy that part of that culture that wants to destroy us and leave the other part alone. The question before is: “can we do that?”
The question remains.
On the cultural level, the chattering classes are setting up a smokescreen as rapidly as possible. No cartoons of Mohammad. Repeated references to the “religion of peace” even as members of that religion are the overwhelming perpetrators of terrorism. Learned discussions of the meaning of “Jihad” even as men, women and children as strapping on bombs and killing innocent civilians in the name of “jihad.”
And Updike, the quintessential child of the 1960s is creating fake terrorists in the image of the people who deny that they exists.
Death to the Great Satan, eh?" That's far creepier and novelistic than Updike's opening: it's someone who appears perfectly normal until he gets in the subway car and self-detonates. As for the revulsion at navel studs, compare Ahmad with Assem Hammoud, recently arrested in a real-life plot to blow up another New York tunnel -- the Holland. Mr. Hammoud said he had been ordered by Osama bin Laden to "live the life of a playboy . . . live a life of fun and indulgence." That way he would avoid detection. Pretty cunning, huh? Just to show how seriously he took his assignment, there was a picture of Assem with three hot babes (all burka-less) on a "mission" in Canada. "I was proud," declared Mr. Hammoud, "to carry out my orders" -- even though they required him to booze it up and bed beautiful infidels all week long. But it's okay, because he was nailing chicks for Allah. So he gamely put on a brave show of partying like it's 1999 even though, as a devout Muslim, he'd obviously much rather party like it's 799.
Updike is someone I have avoided till now. I may read him just to laugh - at him.
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