Westerners cheer car bombs: and why Glenn Greenwald is the bravest American journalist out there

"Indeed, even if this kind of attack were directed at Western-supported tyrannies in the region — such as, say, Saudi Arabia or Bahrain — the Terrorism label would be widely applied by mainstream Western outlets. In fact, the alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi Ambassador — not civilians, but just this single official from a repellently oppressive regime — was instantly denounced as Terrorism.

But it’s extremely doubtful that the term will be applied by Western media outlets to today’s Damascus attack. The New York Times story uses the term only once, with scare quotes attributing it to the Assad regime: “SANA, the official news agency, described the assault as a ‘suicide terrorist attack.’” The BBC did the same, referring to the anti-Assad forces as “rebels” and mentioning “terrorism” only when quoting the statements of the Assad government. It’s actually inconceivable that any mainstream Western outlet or commentator will call this attack Terrorism.

Beyond the semantics, one already sees, on Twitter and elsewhere, substantial approval being expressed for the attack. Foreign PolicyEditor Blake Hounshell referred this morning to “#thatawkwardmoment‬ [that awkward moment] when Westerners and secular Arabs cheer a suicide bombing.” U.N. analyst Hayes Brown similarly described ”that awkward moment in the UN Security Council where Western govts have to stop to think about whether to condemn a suicide bombing.” What makes it even more uncomfortable is that the U.S. Government itself has said that Syrian rebel forces have been “infiltrated” — at least — by Al Qaeda, meaning that the U.S. once again finds itself on the same side as its arch enemy, a side that is now using suicide bombs to kill government officials." (thanks Todd)