Absolute Malice in Mumbai

Rich Lowry:

Coming just weeks after Barack Obama’s election, the massacre explodes the Left’s most reductive explanation of Islamic terrorism: that President George W. Bush and his provocations, including the Iraq War, dangerously inflamed Muslims and fueled terror. With a security agreement setting a goal of a U.S. exit from Iraq by 2012 and Bush leaving office, jihadists are still at their monstrous handiwork. They have an ideological goal larger than any one conflict or any American president.

And the absolute malice of the Mumbai terrorists is a reminder of a piece of supposed Bush/Cheney alarmism: that should these as-yet low-tech killers — armed with guns and grenades — ever acquire weapons of mass destruction, they will use them without hesitation.

Mark Steyn, Tim Rutten. Killers without mercy, murderers of all human decency. This is what we face. And in this most sacred season for Westerners, say a prayer for all who died, and for all who live and embrace life not death.