It is clear that al-Qaeda’s pummeling over the last few years since 9-11 has shown that organization to be mostly hot air with the ability to blow up innocent people, but not topple governments. It failed in Iraq and Lebanon, and is failing in Afghanistan. Pakistan is one place I would hesitate to say is out of reach, but the elections today are a sign it just may be. In Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and even in Pakistan, polls show vast majorities disapprove of Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. But that does not mean Islam is finally turning from brutal thuggery as a way of political expression.

But it just might be coming soon. The assassination of long time Hezbollah terrorist Mughniyah in Damascus Syria this week brought another groups of thugs into the limelight and political debate in the Middle East. In response to the assassination Hezbollah is preparing for war with Israel, being the country Hezbollah thinks took out their head thug:

The Lebanese newspaper A-Safir reported Saturday that the Lebanon-based guerilla group Hezbollah has deployed 50,000 “activists” along the southern border with Israel and declared a state of high alert in southern Lebanon.

According to the report, the organization has also evacuated all buildings in the area designated for social or political purposes in recent days, in preparation for a confrontation with Israel in the wake of the assassination of Hezbollah terror chief Imad Mughniyah.

Mughniyah, the organization’s deputy secretary general, was killed in a blast in an upscale Damascus neighborhood late Tuesday. On Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for the assassination and vowed to retaliate. Israel denied any involvement in the incident.

As I noted in previous posts Mughniyah was apparently meeting with Iranian, Syrian and Islamic Jihad elements to plan an attack on a neighboring Arab State. I believe this would be Iraq as a last ditch attempt to destabilize that budding democracy in the heart of the Middle East. And this collusion appears to be continuing, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claim Hezbollah will soon destroy Israel:

Mohammad Ali Jafari, whose cadre is the elite force of Iran’s ruling mullahs, said in a letter published Monday that last week’s assassination of Hezbollah’s terrorist commander Imad Mughniyeh was the beginning of the end for the Jewish state.

“In the near future, we will witness the destruction of the cancerous existence of Israel by the powerful and competent hands of the Hezbollah fighters,” Jafari wrote.

Of course the Surrendercrats under Pelosi in The House of Representatives picked now to blind our intelligence capabilities in the NSA by putting a judge in the role of commander-in-chief or general to fight our war on terror and protect our forces in Iraq and our ally Israel. Given Iran’s nuclear program now is not a good time to lose track of whacked Hezbollah martyrs lining up on the border of Isreal. Something is coming to a head in the ME – and we all know what the Surrendercrats will answer with – “runaway”.

But I am not so sure the pending showdown will go Hezbollah’s way (if we are lucky) and it will not re-enforce support for Jihad and other bloody madness. All the decades of bombings have brought nothing to the Palestinians or the thugs in Iran and Syria. For example, look at how things played out in Kuwait regarding the assassination:

The Kuwaiti government called on rival Muslim factions to show restraint on Monday after a rally by minority Shiites to mourn the slain commander of Lebanon’s Hezbollah took a sectarian turn.

“I call on the media and citizens to leave this issue to the government,” said government spokesman Faisal al-Hajji, adding that the cabinet had taken legal measures to ensure “the security and stability of Kuwaiti society” but without giving details.

His comments follow a Shiite rally at which Imad Mughnieh was lauded as a “martyr hero” by Shiite MP Adnan Abdulsamad. The rally was condemned by Sunni MPs and organisations, who in turn branded Mughnieh a “terrorist” and a “criminal”.

They described Saturday’s rally as a “provocation” to the Kuwaiti people.

The cabinet, following its weekly meeting, condemned organisers of the rally for glorifying a “terrorist whose hands were stained with the blood of innocent martyrs and who was behind many terrorist and criminal attacks”.

The cabinet also accused Mughnieh of hijacking a Kuwaiti passenger plane in 1988 that led to the killing of two Kuwaiti men whose bodies were dumped on the tarmac of Larnaca airport in Cyprus.

Don’t forget the Shiites in Iraq, as well as the Sunnis, have taken the brunt of al-Qaeda’s butchers. It is one thing to champion a fight against the evil and decadent west, it is another to suffer the jackboot and bombs of fanatics. Clearly something is going to happen soon if Hezbollah and Iran can be taken at their word – but I am not sure it will play out as conventional wisdom once expected. And who knows, maybe some people who have grown tired with the endless bloodshed will step forward and provide intel that will defuse what is coming.