Creating new terrorists

Killers’ last hours on film:

The video “is a very, very sophisticated part of Zarqawi’s information campaign, stamping him as the star of the new global jihad inspired by Osama bin Laden,” said Mr Ware.

…

“This is their power, it’s what they often say to me, ‘Our great advantage over you is that you’ve got the technology and you’ve got everything you want, but you are afraid of death and we are not’,” he said.

Hearts and minds, eh. Are you convinced that the events over the past year have made the world safer? I’m not.

In Bush and Blair’s grand plan to save America Great Britain the world Iraq’s people from Saddam Hussein, something has gone dangerously, terrifyingly wrong. It could be argued that it was to be expected, that those who were already terrorists (and their sympathisers) would make things worse before they got better, but surely having more Muslims cross the line into the ‘insanity’ category was not an outcome they were hoping for.

Osama bin Laden must be coming in his shorts (robes?), knowing that he’s inspired a new global jihad, recruiting men who are now not afraid of death, if only to bring death on to others.

What a mess. What a clean up job this is turning out to be.

• 6 Jul 2004