"We don't know who did it, or why..."

The words of President Barack Hussein Obama in response to the Boston Marathon bombings, which the White House is calling "an act of terror". But why would "they" do that... to Americans??!! Walt will tell you why.

Let's assume that the bomber is not just one deranged Unabomber wannabe. There were two bombs, suggesting at least two terrorists acting in concert. And let's assume, from the somewhat lame and amateurish quality of the attacks, that they were amateurs, not professionals. Walt believe what we have, then, is an act of domestic terrorism with an international connection.

Putting it another way, if the identities of the bombers are ever learned, they'll likely turn out to be local Muslims acting in sympathy with their co-religionists in the Middle East and Africa. Lifetime pct .980.

Most of the ROTW (Rest Of The World) hates Americans, but none more so than the Muslims of Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Iran [That's enough. Ed.] Why? It's not just envy of America's riches. Other countries -- Norway for instance -- enjoy larger per capita incomes and better standards of living. But you don't see the Islamic extremists targetting Norwegians.

Walt suggests that the main reason why Muslims -- especially the Islamic fundamentalists -- hate Americans is because the government of the USA keeps trying to impose its versions of democracy, justice, "culture" and the other blessings of the American way of life on the Islamic society which rejects those ideals.

Worse, America keeps trying to extend its economic and cultural empire by force of arms. The USA keeps on bullying and attacking smaller and weaker countries -- every country other than Russia and China -- whose politics or social systems it disagrees with: Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Libya [That's enough. Ed.], yet Americans wonder why they are hated. 

Three Americans were killed yesterday, and the Prez promises those responsible will be brought to "justice". But just over a year, an American soldier decided to shoot up an Afghan village, for target practice or just for the hell of it. 16 Afghans, including women and children, were killed. Has he been brought to justice yet?

It seems to the ROTW that Americans regard non-Americans as some lesser form of life. If Americans kill unarmed civilians -- men, women and children -- in large numbers, it really doesn't matter, as long as they're foreigners, like "gooks" (Vietnam) or "towel-heads" (the Middle East).

Just one (particularly egregious) example of American disregard for others. This is taken from the chapter headed "Friend or Foe" in Christopher Dickey's recommendable book Expats: Travels in Arabia from Tripoli to Teheran (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1990).

Iran Air Flight 655 was a civilian airliner, an A300B2, flying from Bandar Abbas, Iran to Dubai on 3 July 1988. That's a 140-mile, 35-minute milk run. Conditions in the Gulf were such, at the time, that civilian aircraft were restricted to a 20-mile-wide commercial air corridor, within Iranian airspace. Flight 655 was flying right down the middle of that airway, at the correct height and in the approved manner, when it was shot down by a guided missile fired from the US Navy cruiser Vincennes.

All 290 on board including 66 children perished -- the highest death toll of any aviation incident in the Indian Ocean, and the ninth-deadliest disasters in aviation history. The ensuing enquiry determined that the crew of the Vincennes somehow mistook the jumbo jet, which was climbing, for a much smaller F14 Tomcat fighter diving to attack them.

The commander of the Vincennes was exonerated. American investigators -- Iranians had no say in the matter -- recommended that one junior officer receive a "nonpunitive letter of censure", the mildest reprimand in the US military. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US Secretary of Defense rejected that recommendation. Officially, no-one was to blame.

Dickey quotes Iranian Brigadier General Mansour Satary (who was trained in the USA) as saying that he didn't think the Americans actually intended to shoot down an unarmed civilian aircraft. They just didn't care enough to be careful enough not to do it.

It is that attitude -- that nothing matters except the security and prosperity of America -- that rankles the ROTW. It makes the ROTW feel threatened and insecure. In Walt's opinion, the goal of the terrorists is to make Americans feel equally threatened and insecure. As well they might.