Simon Heffer thinks Al Qaeda Have got guts

Simon doesn't like the idea that we should negotiate with Al Qaeda. You know, he is right about that, but being Simon idiocy will out:

Al-Qa'eda is far more threatening to us than the IRA ever was, for three reasons. First, its network of supporters is vast. Second, and as a consequence, it has better recourse to funding and weaponry. Third, it lacks the IRA's sheer cowardice. No republican was prepared to blow himself up on an aircraft, a Tube train or a bus in order to inflict heavy casualties on the innocent. All too many militant Islamists seem happy to do just that.

It's the 'sheer cowardice' bit that makes no sense. It does not take a suicide bomber to blow up aircraft, tube trains or buses. Al Qaeda's carnage on the Madrid train system in 2004 did not require a suicide bomber, neither did the IRA's massacre in Omagh. Suicide bombing has nothing to do with operational effectiveness and everything to do with a death cult that fixates on self-immolation. The IRA's unwillingness, in most cases, to slaughter civilians in large numbers had nothing to do with a dislike for suicide or 'cowardice', and more with a considered view on the likely political effect of their actions. They knew that wholesale slaughter of men, women and children would be counter-productive. Al Qaeda's mix of religion and politics leads them to think differently; and that's it. Neither have any moral courage and Simon's seeming admiration for the most vicious of our enemies is actually quite disturbing.