THE BROTHERS TSARNAEV

It's pretty creepy seeing them in the crowd.

Mike and I were traveling yesterday and listening to Mark Steyn, hopeful of news of the capture of the second Boston bomber.  Steyn's great acerbic wit (delivered with a British accent) makes him a favorite.  He said that one side waits, sure the fugitive was a white, rightwing nutcase...while the other side waits, expecting a Muslim extremist.

In the end, he said they both were happy because the brothers were Caucasians (and you couldn't get more Caucasian than being from the Caucasus') AND they were Muslims.

Steyn went on to explain about a YouTube channel belonging to Tamerian Tsarnaev, which gives us a looksee into his head.  (That would be somewhat like looking at your Netflix history to see what is inside your head...except having a YouTube channel means you are promoting and not just viewing.)  Tamerian was promoting hateful radical Islamic videos.  He began posting them when he came home from six months in Russia.

This brings us to the reoccurring terrorism in our country.   Just a cursory look back tells us who our enemy repeatedly has been.  This administration has continued to play down the enemy, redefine the enemy, cleanse the nomenclature about the enemy, and choose not to pay benefits to soldiers at Ft. Hood who faced the enemy.  It's hard to know why.

Steyn sarcastically says:  "None of these guys, none of these lone wolves, none of these lone wolves stretching as far back as the eye can see, are ever typical of anything,” Steyn said. “We don’t know that any of these lone wolves belong to the United Amalgamated of Lone Wolves and Isolated Extremists. They’re all just one-offs — all jihad is local.”

Of course Steyn's sarcasm points out that they are NOT lone wolves and the common thread is their belief in the same worldview.  Contrary to tolerant pantheists, it matters what people believe.  The bumper sticker on the back of Tsarnaev's car said "COEXIST".  That's a good one.

We can connect the dots between the Ft. Hood shooter, the underwear bomber, the Christmas Eve bomber, the Little Rock Army recruiting station shooter, etc. etc. etc.  All are the product of global jihad; all have roots in hateful/harmful radical Islamic fundamentalism.

If Christianity can be reduced to the phrase "turn or burn", then that phrase is a plea to reason and a warning about destruction ahead.  But the believer is not the judgment agent.  

On the other hand, an Islamist says "turn or face the sword and Allah will reward me".  He's judge and jury and executioner...and thinks he will be a bountiful beneficiary.

Strangely, today people are hurrying to the microphone to illustrate their broad-mindedness and enlarge themselves as being viewpoint-tolerant concerning the Tsarnaevs.  Al Sharpton stepped all over himself in this LINK.

A more mainstream media example might be an essay from the NEW YORKER HERE.  Or the NEW YORK TIMES sympathetic piece about the brothers which later had words retracted ("far from war-torn homeland, trying to fit in").  HERE

These men were trying to fit in?  They pay back a government who welcomed them in and supported them...by putting a bomb beside a little boy and setting it off?  Does anyone believe the tripe that they had their feelings hurt and decided to become mass murderers?

No one is advocating a rush to judgment.  But so many things are already known about the Tsarnaev brothers that would put them in the suspicious file (their "religion" not being one of the reasons).  For starters, two years ago the Russians tipped the FBI about Tamerian and he was interviewed about a terror connection.  There was no evidence then to support the claim, but the claim red-flagged Tamerian's citizenship application.

It's very encouraging to see the way technology has come alongside law enforcement.  These pictures of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev getting into the boat are amazing...as well as the infrared picture of him hiding in the boat.

Government stands guard between us and global jihad.  I would feel more comfortable if they started acknowledging the enemy by using the correct words.  Take away the words "workplace violence" and lose the words "overseas contingency operation".  Say the words "radical Islamic terrorist".  It is NOT Islamaphobic to say America is in the crosshairs of radical Muslim fundamentalists.  We are.  And if profiling helps, profile!  Can't we be on our own side?  It's reverse profiling that Major Hassan put "soldier of Allah" on his calling card and no one called him on it.

The diluting of Al-Qaeda worldwide has resulted in smaller efforts centered on disaffected nationals to act as the new footsoldiers.  There may be no more big 9/11 operations, but it looks like with little money and a pressure cooker, the Tsarnaevs have put themselves on the front page.  Others will be attracted to do the same. 

Lord, make us alert and at the ready.