A Deadly Combination

What some of us first feared has now been confirmed: At least three of the four terrorists who struck London were not foreign-born, but were homegrown.

This is important for two reasons. First, the predictable canard that terrorists hate us because of Western "imperialism" can be put to rest. These terrorists were not poverty-stricken, or living in occupied territory, or victims of American bombs. They were long-time residents of England, surrounded by the very people they planned to kill indiscriminately. It was not American foreign policy that drove them to kill; it was their own ideology of hate.

Second, the revelation that it was homegrown British Muslims who carried out these attacks is a scathing indictment of the self-loathing, multiculturalist blather that has allowed virulent, radical Islam to fester in the midst of Western societies, especially in Europe. When cultural assimilation is viewed as inherently racist, it removes any reason for immigrants to integrate into Western culture. Minorities become increasingly isolated and alienated. Throw the religion of peace into such a cauldron, and you have a breeding ground for terrorism, right in your own back yard. In London, the combination of feckless multiculturalism, open borders, and radical Islam proved to be deadly.

Elsewhere in Europe, one terrorist is coming clean as to his motivations. Was it allegations of Koran-flushing at Gitmo? US support for Israel? The invasion of Iraq? Abu Ghraib? The Crusades? US support for the Shah? His impoverished conditions? Was it any of a million excuses apologists for terrorism always give after each atrocity?

No, the terrorist claims it was his religion, of all things, that drove him to kill. Imagine that.

As long as the West continues in the delusion that the terrorists have tangible, legitimate grievances that can be appeased by anything other than total capitulation, it will handicap itself in a war against an enemy that has no such self-imposed inhibitions.