What's That About Global War?

From Glenn Reynolds comes this flash demonstration at Winds of Change graphically illustrating the attacks from al Qaeda since bin Laden declared war in 1998. It is something you will want to keep and bring out when questions about the rationale for war are raised. I hope that Messrs Roggio and Hutchens continue to update this as events warrant.

In a possibly related post (via Maggie) Brian Maloney reports on a terror attack in Trinidad that has been tied to al Qaeda. This illustrates, again, that terror forces are capable of hitting Western Hemispere locations and that often, favorite targets are those countries that afford ease of entry and movement.

Trinidad is an ethnically mixed country with a growing economy (I have some business connections there) which is among the world's leading producers of asphalt and a producer of Liquified Natural Gas.

And just to muddy the waters a bit more, read this account of an explosion in Beirut today which targetted Lebanon's pro-Syria prime minister:

A car bomb hit the motorcade of Lebanon's outgoing deputy prime minister Tuesday, wounding him and killing at least one other person, officials said. It was the first blast targeting a pro-Syrian politician in a string of bombings in Lebanon this year.

 

The explosion, in a district of embassies and diplomatic residences, left one vehicle a charred and twisted wreck and damaged several other cars in the motorcade of Elias Murr, who is also the outgoing defense minister. At least 12 other people, including the Mexican ambassador's wife, were also wounded, officials said.
President Emile Lahoud, Syria's staunchest ally in Lebanon, has been reportedly pressing for Murr — his son-in-law — to be given a position in the new government that anti-Syrian politicians are trying to put together. The anti-Syrian coalition that now controls parliament is trying to form a Cabinet without influence from Damascus' allies.

 

Murr has also been in conflict with Muslim militants after announcing last year the capture of a cell plotting attacks on foreign embassies and diplomats. One of the militants arrested in that sweep, an alleged al-Qaida leader, died in police custody.

Murr is not beloved of al Qaeda and Islamists, although with his ties to Syria he is of questionable reliability. This attack, however, demonstrates that this enemy will show little compunction to targeting anybody it deems is standing in it way. Politics isn't the only area in which we find strange bedfellows.

Comments

[Bill Roggio]

Yes, we will update this as future attacks occur, as they unfortunately will.

[Taran]

Nothing has been tied to Al Quaeda. This is why I blogged about it; Maloney has no facts. He's the ONLY ONE, and notably outside of the Caribbean region, who has made such a claim.