"'Till Death Do You Part"

Steve Emerson, as reported on The Counterterrorism Blog, reflects on the intelligence victory that the recent capture of the female suicide bomber in Jordan provides. He makes the sobering observation, however, that husband and wife collaboration in such attacks has hitherto been an unconsidered possibility for counterterrorism officials.

Aside from being a scary harbinger of things to come, that husbands and wives would use their unique relationship for the purpose of such destruction is a sad thought. I heard on T.V. this morning, take it for what it's worth, that the woman had lost brothers in U.S. attacks on Iraq. This fact was probably introduced by my local new station to somehow suggest the root cause of her actions is U.S. policy in the region, but I thought it perverse that the response to such pain would be to inflict that very sort of pain on others, Americans or not (in this case, Jordanians). I don't even want to jump into the debate here about whether this is true Islam or Islam hijacked, but one can't help but note when confronted with so obvious an act of human (not inhuman) anger just how different the way of Christ is. Superhuman love and forgiveness stand in contrast to our anger and revenge.