Now on bluster, cowardice, and finally depravity

As usual, James Taranto over at the Wall Street Journal's Best of the Web, makes the right calls.

Referring to Ayman al-Zawahiri's latest video in which he boasts: "We ask Allah that [the Americans] only get out of [Iraq] after losing 200,000 to 300,000 killed, in order that we give the spillers of blood in Washington and Europe an unforgettable lesson," Taranto writes:

Of course this is bluster. According to this chart, the total number of coalition combat deaths in the Iraq war stands at 2,968, or 718 a year on average. At that rate, the count would reach 200,000 in the year 2282 and 300,000 in 2421.

But, as Taranto concedes, Zawahiri does have a point. As Taranto writes:

America does have a yellow streak. Think of all the politicians and commentators who supported the Iraq war with their votes and words, then switched sides once the going got tough. If opinion polls are to be believed, somewhere between 25% and 40% of the public did the same.

But, as Taranto goes on to say, "if America is irresolute, al Qaeda is cowardly in its own way." According to this CNN report Al Qaeda is now targeting little girls:

American soldiers discovered a girls school being built north of Baghdad had become an explosives-rigged "death trap," the U.S. military said Thursday.

The plot at the Huda Girls' school in Tarmiya was a "sophisticated and premeditated attempt to inflict massive casualties on our most innocent victims," military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.

As Taranto concludes:

America's cowardice and al Qaeda's are as different in their origins as in their forms. Ours grows out of strength and comfort; theirs, out of weakness and depravity. Both, however, are dangerous to civilization.