Of course, al-Zawahiri is almost a cartoon character, and one must wonder about the cultural depravity of the multitudes who seem to be taking him seriously – but take him seriously they do. His message, which is alive and well and getting young folks strapped up in cars laden with bombs and driving them into packed mosques, is effective, and the fires he is busy spreading will continue to rage throughout Syria and Lebanon, Egypt and now Iraq, too.
The trick to profiting from this sadomasochistic theater is threefold: first, the U.S. must overcome its impulse to stop people from killing each other – I’m talking to you, Mr. Kerry. If we did nothing else, only sat down and let the Arabs be Arabs – we’re already ahead of the game.
Next, we must handicap the races, make sure no one has an unfair advantage which could lead to a premature ending to all these blessings. Send an RPG here, a crate of M16 rifles there, folks tend to run out of those valuable things and if we don’t sell them, somebody else would.
Finally, as Israel has been doing quite well so far, with God’s eternal supervision, make sure the fighters don’t stray outside their killing fields. When they do: warn once then shoot.
I’m a religious man, and so I can recognize the unmistakable hand of God in getting our enemies to murder each other with such ferocity. But even if you’re an atheist, you must be familiar with the concept that when two of your enemies are killing each other, you don’t want either one of them to win.
Please, President Obama and Secretary Kerry, please don’t stop this.