It's a bit alarmist, but this piece by Marc Shephard reminds us that al Qaeda has been planning to go after 'soft targets' for some time now. Those soft targets include US schools--and we are talking elementary schools here. The brave mujahidin wouldn't want any one fighting back.

I'm convinced that al Qaeda proper would not hit a school. Why? Because it's bad PR. After the Beslan massacre I think al Qaeda figured out that it is not in their best interests to target children. Trust me, these guys follow the media closely.

They didn't stop beheading civilian hostages in Iraq because they thought it was wrong. They stopped because they realized it looked bad. You'll recall Zawahiri's letter to Zarqawi urging him to drop his favorite method of dispensing with hostages because it alienated Muslims.

So, too, would attacking school children.

But this does not mean that a self-directed homegrown al Qaeda 3.0 cell wouldn't hit a school. In fact, it's a much more likely scenario.

Why? Because these jihadis are fed a non-stop stream of propaganda which convinces them that the US and its allies target school children. That is, they actually believe that we kill children on purpose.

And given that another theme of jihadi propaganda is that attacks against US civilians are only a response to US attacks against Muslim civilians--yes, they really believe that we started this war---then it is no stretch to imagine some enterprising young jihadi and his buddies from the Bronx trying to kill as many school children as they can for "revenge".

I'd be less worried about Arab foreigners driving school buses than I would about the sons of Pakistani doctors and lawyers convinced that the US routinely murders women and children throughout the Ummah. Remember, the filthy murderers at Beslan were not foreigners from Arab lands. They were Russian citizens.

Thanks to Larwyn.

UPDATE: Has it begun already? A bomb outside a school in Liverpool.

Posted by: Rusty at 09:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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