24-Jul-11: Now Norway

The Oslo bombing and then the massacre that propelled the name Anders Behring Breivik into the headlines is sickening. To what levels have we sunk that columnists, analysts and bloggers can read the alleged murderer's words ("gruesome but necessary") and see in them a basis for understanding what this is about? 93 people were killed, 96 were injured according to media reports and others are still missing, so the numbers may yet rise further. The challenge in front of us is to look beyond numbers. The victims are people, many of them children and young adults. As with acts of terrorism everywhere else and at every other time, none of the Norwegians was an innocent victim caught in the crossfire. Yes, the gunman/bomber did not know his victims. But he hated every one of them. And every single one of them, rather than being caught in some mythical crossfire, was the deliberate cold-blooded target of his unspeakable act of unfathomable hatred.