From AP (via SF Gate):

A suspect in the failed London transit bombings admitted Saturday to a role in the attack but said it was only intended to be an attention-grabbing strike, not a deadly one, a legal expert familiar with the investigation said…

He also reportedly told investigators the bombers were motivated by anger over the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

Let’s review:

  • We’re fighting the terrorists in Iraq so that we don’t have to fight them here at home.
  • However, we are fighting them in London.
  • The ones we’re fighting in London are fighting us in London because we’re fighting them in Iraq.

Therefore: We’re fighting the terrorists in London because we’re fighting them in Iraq so that we don’t have to fight them here at home. Also: These terrorists that we’re fighting in London are fighting us in London only because we’re fighting them in Iraq (so that we don’t have to fight them here at home), given that the ones we’re fighting in London weren’t fighting us before that. Presumably, they feel that they weren’t fighting us in Iraq before we went to Iraq, and this has caused them to fight us in London rather than fighting us in Iraq so that we don’t have to fight them here at home.

What have we learned from all this? Beats me. But if we keep running this War on Terror as though the terrorists are a fixed number of radicals whose ranks will neither be swelled nor diminished by our actions, well, then we’re going to have to keep fighting them over there so that we don’t have to fight them over here which will make them want to fight us in some other place.

To me, the terrorists are like Doritos. Remember Jay Leno’s series of commercials for the tasty tortilla treats, which inevitably culminated in the slightly frightening tag-line “Crunch all you want, we’ll make more?” It was a simple (albeit creepy) statement of supply and demand. Substitute “terrorists” for “Doritos,” and for “crunch,” substitute “continue to aggressively attack targets in the Arab world that are widely perceived to have had no direct connection to actual terrorism while admitting no errors so that your nation looks like a hegemonic and unstoppable force of violence and cultural imperialism.”

It’s not as catchy as Leno’s slogan, true. But it seems to be effective.