After nearly eight years of war with al Qaeda, the Taliban, and other Islamist extremist groups, some reporters still can’t understand that these groups commit acts of violence with the goal of driving foreigners out of Muslim countries and that they feel free to kill anyone they deem to be infidels. Take this report from the Associated Press on a bombing in Kandahar that killed 41 people yesterday.
Sure it is clear: the company was Japanese owned, and the Taliban hopes the Japanese firm will leave after determining the price to pay to stay in Afghanistan is too steep. And if the AP is questioning why the Taliban would target a firm staffed by Pakistanis, the answer is that the Taliban will call them agents of the West. The Taliban and al Qaeda don’t give one whit about killing Muslims to achieve their goals. In fact, the overwhelming majority killed in terror attacks are Muslims, not Westerners.
