The Islamist offensive

Al Qaeda tapes have been claiming tht new attacks were coming. Shortly after al Zawaheri made his latest posturing to a tape recorder, al Qaeda affiliates made an attack on a hotel lobby in Indonesia.

Recently elements of the Taliban have been attacking police stations in Afghanistan, while bombers in Iraq have been targeting infrastructure. Today a cement truck loaded with explosives blew up another hotel in Baghdad. Also today a human bomb exploded on an Israeli bus murdering several people including children.

As tragic as these deaths are, for an offensive, it is pretty lame. Militarily the attacks are insignificant. Politically, time will tell whether Democrats in the US will be routed by a weak islamist offensive.

In the menatime, significant progress has been made against the Islamist and the Iraqi Baathist. Saddam's vice president Ramadan has been captured in Iraq. Suspects have been named the the battle of the hotel lobby in Jakarta. The mastermind of the ploy has been pickup in Thailand. Over all it has been a very bad week for the bad guys that may be overlooked because of the distraction of a few explosions.And the bad news keeeps coming for the bad guys. Morocco has just sentenced four people to death who were involved in bombings in that country.

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