The would-be bomber . . .

Item in the NY Times blog, Lede:

[A story in Reuters on the alleged Times Square bomber] called him “educated and well-heeled.” That fact is stated as if it is something of a surprise that this young professional, a full-fledged citizen of Western society, might have attempted a terrorist attack. But haven’t educated sons of privilege been behind almost every recent terror attack on the West?

Duh. Uh, yeah.

One of the most persistent stereotypes of Islamic mass murderers is that they've been raised in poverty and politically oppressed. But even the most casual reading of the profiles of most who have attacked or tried to attack the U.S. show that's not the case. This is just one more example of our (or more accurately, the media's) profound ignorance about the people who are trying to kill us. The main actors have consistently been young men in a narrow demographic that Westerners would call middle class - and that many Arabs and other Muslims would call well off.

Psychoanalyzing the movement and the psychopaths it breeds tends to sound like an apology for the individuals, but can we at least dispense with the most obvious myths?