I'm pretty sure they don't hate us because we're beautiful

As bombs explode in London, in Egypt, and of course, in Baghdad, a question on many minds is, or should be, what motivates Islamic jihadists to believe suicide bombing is an appropriate course of action. Do they hate us because of what we do, or because of who we are?

Today the ever reliable Christian Science Monitor provides a good over view of the to main responses to this question:

For some experts, the attacks - whether in London or Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt - are aimed at the West for what it is doing: in other words for its policies, like the war in Iraq. Others insist that the perpetrators are more at odds with the ideals of the West and "who we are."

That is, do they hate us because we are generally egalitarian civil libertarians, or do they hate us because we invade Arab countries and prop up Arab dictatorships?

Or, as with so many things, is it a little of both. The redoubtable Juan Cole explains:

Michigan's Professor Cole says he agrees that the Iraq war is "irrelevant" to the leaders who formulate and profess the Islamist ideology, but he says it is not at all irrelevant to the local constituencies that would act as the leaders' foot soldiers.

"The ideology is a kind of software that can be installed in certain people's minds," he says. "The question is whether we are helping or hurting the recruitment drive."

It may be that the young Muslim men who are willing to carry bombs for a cause are not so much full of hatred of Western values, but disappointed that they have been drawn to them - only to find, whether they are in Cairo or Leeds, England, that the door is shut. In any case, says Cole, the war in Iraq is "poor" counterterrorism. In his view, it is creating more foot soldiers for global Jihad rather than fewer. [Emphasis mine - CK]

Which brings up a point about current US policy. Does BushCorp™ actively oppose the War on Terror it's supposedly prosecuting (by, let's see, I dunno, EXPOSING NOC CIA AGENTS?!) or are Bush and his merry band of chickenhawks, as Professor Cole's analysis suggests, MERELY INCOMPETENT?

Now that's an either/or question I'd like to hear at Scotty McClellan's next smoke and mirrors show.