So where are all the protests over the killing of bin Laden? The Hamas boss in Gaza seems to have complained; that’s about it as far as protests from Arab leaders are concerned. And I can’t find any reports of public protests except for one in Quetta, the Taliban’s hometown.
And the sovereign government of Pakistan, whose territory was violated? President Zardari is claiming that the Pakistani government helped by providing intelligence; not a word of complaint about the incursion. Of course, I don’t believe for a second that elements of the military and the ISI didn’t know perfectly well who was occupying a mansion in a military-dominated area that had no phone line and admitted no visitors. But for public consumption Zardari’s stance is strictly anti-al Qaeda.
Maybe Muslims aren’t really fans of mass murder after all. Someone tell the neocons.
(Mark): “Maybe Muslims aren’t really fans of mass murder after all.”
Some are. Remember the celebrations in the West Bank after the 9-11 event? Maybe people like to cheer winners. In 2001 al Qaida was the Ravens. Today they’re the Bengals.
The Palestinian situation is really sui generis. Not only are the Palestinians suffering more than most other people in the Middle East, but the culpability of the West in their oppression is far more direct and explicit than it was in, say, Egypt.
The manner of the attack probably matters greatly.
To those in honor cultures, going in with commandos is a proper way handle 9/11, but bombing from afar would be a cowardly act needing its own vengeance.
President Zardari is claiming that the Pakistani government helped by providing intelligence;
“Success has a thousand fathers. failure is an orphan.”
“Not only are the Palestinians suffering more than most other people in the Middle East…”
Occupation, on the one hand, and blockade, on the other, certainly cause pain. Nevertheless this is an entirely disputable claim.
“…but the culpability of the West in their oppression is far more direct and explicit than it was in, say, Egypt.”
One of the most hopeful strands in the current political upheavals in the Arab world is the rejection of infantile self-exculpations in which one’s problems are always due to someone else’s agency. The Palestinians are certainly suffering. The fundamental cause of their suffering is their lack of political development and leadership.