Not sure if you’re reading the same reports I am, but what I’ve seen so far is that Al Queda is claiming this is retaliation for US attacks on their group — not civilians (unless one accepts the view that even those who are armed to the teeth, trained in killing techniques and united in a formal organizational structure are to be considered civilians for lack of a uniform).

The way I see it, American military forces have aligned themselves with the sovereign government of Yemen to eliminate a den of psychotic terrorists that appear to represent no one except other psycho extremists. That Al Queda claims their next moves are “retaliation” are moot — they’re not supposed to be plotting attacks on anyone in the first place. These people don’t need to be negotiated with; they need to be put in the ground as fast as possible.

If my neighbor threatened to shoot me and my family, that would be enough proof to me that I was dealing with a dangerous maniac.

So, yes, assuming there were no cops around to deal with this psycho (which is a pretty unreal assumption, but again, this is all hypothetical), I absolutely would keep my family and friends indoors, away from harm. Next, given the opportunity, I would kill this idiot before he had a chance to do any harm to me or those I love.

Again, it’s a very unreal sort of scenario (where exactly did the cops go?), but it is absolutely applicable to the fight against terrorists. Those few countries that can prevent attacks on their nationals beyond their own borders will take every opportunity to do so, and this means shooting bad guys.

As a wise friend of mine once said in reference to Al Queda’s buddies in the Taliban, these people don’t want to talk with you. They want to kill you. The sooner we understand this, the quicker we’ll be able to deal with them.

I’m simplifying this a lot but I think we must urge our leaders to look at solving problems instead of just preventing what appears to be inevitable chaos. I’m sure they’re laughing at our civil liberties infringements right now.

The Islamist strategy is unique even among such homicidal ideologies as communism and Nazism. Their utopian (well, dystopian) world views at least made room for technological progress and the presumed happiness of the survivors once all their class or race enemies were murdered.

In contrast, both technology and joy are anathema to the Islamists’ agenda. It’s an inhuman ideology, in every sense of the word.

I suppose part of the media’s problem is that it’s tough to see how people are killing, or trying to, for an almost “Utopian” ideal, i.e. to see that the Jihadis are not part of some national liberation movement in the familiar postcolonial vein, not agents on behalf of any existing state, or realistically-potential state, and not even on behalf of their clans or tibes, but that they are killers on behalf of an ideology that is so completely at odds with worldly realities as they exist today. If you really take the jihadis at their word you realize you can’t appease them, you can only fight them; and that is truly scary, or incomprehensible, to to those raised in a climate of cultural relativism and pacifism. It is a hard reality that our essentially Gnostic population – who believe in some special knowledge that will end war, if only the special elect of “good people” are given power – will for a while yet seek to deny in various ways. Keep hitting back.