The bombings in Africa

There are two senses in which acts of terrorism such as the bomb blasts that ripped through the United States' embassy complexes in Kenya and Tanzania on Friday (Aug. 7) are senselessly indiscriminate. For one thing, although the targets of Friday's attacks were obviously American, the vast majority of the victims were not. Instead, they were local African office workers, shoppers, commuters and passersby. Innocence, however, has never been a defense against terrorism. Why? Because the more blood and mayhem an act of terrorism can generate, the louder the message of the terrorist can be driven home.

Their real strategy is not so much to drive Americans out as to immerse them more deeply in the murky waters of regional politics. If it could be proved, for instance, that Arab terrorists were behind the Kenyan and Tanzanian bombings, the U.S. might be tempted to come down hard on certain Arab groups or governments. The instruments with which to do so tend to be blunt. The hope of those behind the original act of violence is that the effect would be to heighten anti-American feeling in the Middle East and drive more people to their cause.

-- The Sydney Morning Herald