If you consider the principal effects of their violence, the 19 guys rank as monumental fools:
1) closer cooperation between the two old superpowers, Russia and the United States, explicitly against Muslim countries;
2) increased popularity for President George W. Bush;
3) the canonization of Rudolf Guiliani, who got elected twice thanks to the other· party’s uncompetitive candidates and was on the verge of retiring in ignominy when the attacks occurred;
4) the previously unlikely election of overnight “Republican” Mike Bloomberg as New York City mayor;
5) the gratuitous bombing of Muslim Afghanistan – a country unable to defend itself;
6) persistent criticism of Saudi Arabia’s favored relationship with the United States;
7) greater sympathy for Israel as the lone democratic out.., post in the Middle East;
8) increasing sentiment for New York City unity;
9) increasing difficulties for otherwise law-abiding Arabs and Muslims residing in the United States;
10) the incarceration, often on flimsy grounds, of scores of Arabs residing the United States who can’t even get civil- liberties support and publicity;
11) increased support for more aggressive intelligence agencies, both international and domestic, particularly in the surveillance of Arabs and Muslims;
12) a stock market that rose, after a decline, to levels higher than before the WTC sabotage;
13) generous economic assistance to Muslim nations that oppose terrorism;
14) increased federal aid to New York City, which has always thought it paid Washington more than it received back.
For these results alone, their 19 faces should be defaced in red with the word “fools” and then burned in effigy, at least by Arab-Americans, perhaps by Arabs and Muslims everywhere.
All violence inevitably produces results far different from those intended, for the antagonists as well as the victims.
