The sheer brutality of multiple attacks around the world in recent days remind us tragically of “man’s inhumanity to man.”
In Iran, a radical Muslim group claimed responsibility for consecutive attacks at a mosque that killed more than two dozen people and injured hundreds more. A man wearing women’s clothing approached the mosque during evening prayers and detonated the first bomb, killing just a few people. But then, as a crowd gathered, a second mass murderer struck, slaughtering about 20 more. It was apparently a revenge attack after the radicals’ leader was executed in June. But what did an attack on praying Muslims accomplish?
In Iraq, meanwhile, nearly 50 Iraqi soldiers who have been fighting al-Qaida terrorists were killed by a suicide bomber as they waited to collect their paychecks. A few hours later, four more anti-al-Qaida fighters were killed in a separate attack in western Iraq.
And on the other side of the world, in northern Mexico, gunmen leaped from their cars, stormed a private party and gunned down 18 people. That attack may have been related to turf wars over drug-trafficking routes, news accounts said.
There is no easy way to understand what motivates a person to commit such grisly attacks, and there is no simple way to prevent them from happening.
But the United States and the rest of the nations of the world may rest assured that such violence will only increase if it is not met with fierce, overwhelming resistance.