Bin Laden’s Posthumous Fans

As for photos, those who believe that bin Laden isn’t dead won’t be convinced by photos. Ironically, many of them will simultaneously say that the United States didn’t kill bin Laden but the fact that the United States killed bin Laden is a crime for which revenge should be taken.

We should have learned this from September 11, since many say that al-Qaeda wasn’t responsible and it was done by the U.S. government and Israel while, at the same time, saying that it was an operation that made Muslims and Arabs feel proud and America deserved it.

Welcome to the Middle East!

Today — and for some years now — people in the Middle East haven’t hated America because of its policies so much as defining whatever it does as hateful because America is already an enemy. If you don’t want revolutionary Islamists to take over countries, repress all freedom, suppress women, wipe Israel off the map, and expel all Western influence from the region then you are their enemy. You can be a weak, contemptible enemy or a strong, bullying — enemy but that’s about the extent of your choice.