A War on What?
If you have been reading the news today, you probably already know most of the details about the three car bombs targeting Americans, Western nationals, and a business which was a joint US/Saudi venture. As the bombs went off, terrorists got into a gun fight with security guards trying to make entry into the buildings. The attacks are assumed to have been timed in conjunction with Colin Powell's visit to Saudi Arabia, and the first (and only suspect that is being reported about) is al-Qa'ida. Ananova reports that over 40 people have died, and The Hindu reports that the death toll may rise to over 100. CNN interviewed a woman who lived in one of the targeted compounds, and she makes a statement that should tell us how powerful these car bombs were: "My villa, which is about 4,500 square feet of concrete, shook like a cardboard box. [The] power [was] cut out. Windows [were] blown out. I ran for cover."

Certainly, this is nowhere near 9/11 and the strength that al-Qa'ida showed that they had then, but if this is the work of al-Qa'ida (I see no reason to believe that it's not; then again, I'm no expert on terrorist organizations within Saudi Arabian borders), then it looks like the government is going to have to start questioning its tactics in the "War on Terror". If the War on Terror was accomplishing its goals of ridding the world of terrorism, then we shouldn't have a sizable terrorist attack targeting Americans less than two years after 9/11. And I don't want to use a tragic situation before it's 24 hours old to hammer down a point, but if we are to believe the Bush administration's line that we were in Iraq because they were a terrorist state, how does one explain the latest terrorist attack? Could this latest attack be in response to our war with Iraq? If the members of the right wing media who have been assailing doves about how the wars are working, how we have not seen terrorist attacks since Bush bombed Afghanistan, how safe Americans are because we are keeping the terrorist groups from retaliating; if these people do not question their said beliefs since the attacks happened in Riyadh, then there is no question that they are lying to us. (As an avid Loaded Mouth reader knows, I already have no question about this.)

Some people will read that last paragraph and accuse me of blaming America for these attacks. Well, if it turns out that the car bombs and building raids in Riyadh were in response to our wars in Iraq in Afghanistan, then yeah, I am. What is it now, a month since the war in Iraq ended and we removed Saddam's administration from power, an administration which we said had weapons of mass destruction and supported terrorism, yet we did not have proof to back up either claim, and now there's been another terrorist attack targeting Americans and Westerns? If somebody can't look at this situation and question the military tactics of the Bush administration, then they are being foolish.