"And all across the Muslim world, "we" - the West, America, Israel - are fighting not nationalists but Islamists. And watching the martyrdom of Lebanon this week - its slaughtered children in Qana packed into plastic bags until the bags ran out and their corpses had to be wrapped in carpets - a terrible and daunting thought occurs to me, day by day. That there will be another 9/11."
Yes Mr Fisk, there will be. It is inevitable, but note this. The atrocity that was 9/11 occurred before the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. It had been planned when the comparatively peace-loving Democrat Administration of Bill Clinton was in charge of the United States. Al-Qaeda had already attacked the World Trade Centre on a previous occasion as well as other American targets abroad. The Israelis had been the victims of numerous rocket attacks, suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks notwithstanding having evacuated southern Lebanon in 2000 (which they had occupied in the first place because terrorists where using the country to launch attacks against them.)
The West might well have handled the "war against terrorism" in an inappropriate, even disastrous manner such that the conflict has now broadened and new recruits attracted to "the cause", but our enemies were always out to kill us anyway. All we have done is to exacerbate the conflict by seeking to eliminate them, directly or by proxy, before they strike us. There are any number of reasons why it can be argued that the West did "this" or "that" wrong, but the argument that we have brought it upon ourselves does not wash. Terrorists started the shooting war. Images of Hezbollah's human shield casualties can mask, but not change that. That we might become civilian casualties ourselves is something that we must bear, otherwise we are not worthy of the servicemen who are prepared to fight and risk their lives on our behalf.