For those of y’all who don’t (but should) read Kos, Steve Gilliard wrote the following:

What you have to understand is this: Paul Johnson was a dead man when they took him. The Saudi version of Al Qaeda is especially hard core and vicious. They are not into concessions and general humanity. They are the outgrowth of a fundamentalist society riven with hypocrisy. Think about this, in a country where the religious police forced girls to burn alive rather than escape a fire in their school, these guys think that they have to make the country more fundamentalist.

But religion is only the mask for a change from the Saud family to the Bin Laden family. Al Qaeda may talk about some kind of Islamic revivalism, but their real goal is forced political change. Whereever democracy or even civility fails, AQ sprouts up as an answer.

And this is where the Bush Administration has failed. Instead of undermining AQ by forcing political change, they bolster these corrupt oligarchies and foster the growth of AQ as the solution to their political problems. Setting bombs is a lot more glamorous than canvassing for votes. And since the elections are rigged anyway it doesn't matter much. AQ is only an answer because the question is if you can accept more of the same.

It's horrible that people think they can solve their problems by murdering the innocent. Paul Johnson wasn't the problem. He wasn't going to make Saudi life better or worse. But his murder sends two messages, one, the Saudi version of AQ is a bunch of ruthless fucks who kill the innocent, and two, no one is safe in Saudi. As oil historian Daniel Yergin said "imagine if America was called Rockefeller America". Well, that's our ally of 70 years.

I was sweltering on my futon, sweating profusely in nothing but my underpants and a pair of slippers, when a little 40-watt bulb appeared above my head: we have globalized our problems. Consider America’s blights of the 80’s and 90’s [culminating in the publication of The Bell Curve (’96)] – gang warfare, ghetto crime, institutionalized racism, increasing income disparity, and endemic demonization of the poor. A pitched battle was waged between social scientists, progressives, and meat & potatoes “lock-‘em-up-&-throw-away-the-key” types. Now this same dynamic is apparent on a global scale. This time, the stakes are higher. Bridging the gap is John Walsh, the most vindictive man in America. Virtually unchallenged (indeed praised) in his one-man crusade to purge the world of “scumbags”, Walsh is the living embodiment of America’s appetite for revenge. Does forgiveness have any role in the affairs of state? Does charity have any role in the affairs of state? Does love have any role in the affairs of state? I hope so. Were individuals the only intended audience of prophets? I hope not.