Not Quite Such Pure Evil as Some Others We Might Mention

To those who have learned all necessary lessons from the Iraq crusade, the Afghan quagmire, the Libyan débâcle and other humanitarian ventures, the possibility that the Mogadishu truck bombing may have been blowback from an air raid by the forces of righteousness will no doubt come as a considerable surprise. One of the deadliest terrorist incidents for many years, the bombing seems to have resulted from the complex system of clans and alliances which constitutes Somali society's civilisationally-challenged substitute for patriotism and family values. An American operation in August was so carelessly carried out that some civilians were killed, and investigators believe that the bombing was motivated by a desire for revenge, despite the vanishingly rare occurrence of US-inflicted civilian casualties in the mainstream of respectable reportage. Since no Britons were hurt, that mainstream is even now tactfully sparing the attack's eight hundred victims any burden of excess publicity.