This week nearly 200 Indians were killed by bombs aboard commuter trains in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). These weren’t soldiers in the war on terror. They were simply innocent men and women coming home from a long day’s labor to see their families. They were crowded by the hundreds onto train cars thinking about their evening plans instead of the War on Terror. They were helpless victims of a vicious enemy that follows no rules of combat and shows no mercy. Yet our own Supreme Court recently granted al-Qaeda prisoners the rights of the Geneva Convention, a treaty that terrorist organizations have never signed and certainly weren’t following when they videotaped beheadings of innocent people.
Even American adults are unable to comprehend this degree of irrational hatred, though we spend hours listening to experts and pundits explain the complexities of the terrorist mindset.
Perhaps we could learn from our youngest citizens. Perhaps there are people out there who simply just hate us. Sometimes it really is a simple as it first seems.
The images of the Mumbai bombings are on the television now and it’s impossible for children to miss them. I wish I had a better answer five years later. Our enemies still don’t like us and that won’t change. In fact, this is a war that our children -- and our grandchildren -- will probably have to wage as well. For their sakes, we must never try to rationalize the hatred directed against us.
Jonathan Garthwaite is Editor-in-Chief of Townhall.com