Thinking Meat

June's Atlantic Monthly has a fascinating article into the investigation of just who shot Mohammed al-Dura. They throw light on a lot of physical evidence that seems to indicate that al-Dura wasn't shot by Israeli troops, but rather by the Palestinians looking to create a child martyr. It would seem highly implausible, except for the numerous well-documented efforts by Palestinians to militarize their children. Conclusions seem to vary widely, from the unquestioning belief that the boy was killed by Israeli bullets (prevalent in the Muslim world), to the Israelis' innocence, to the theory that the whole thing was a well-staged Palestinian conspiracy. At any rate, The Atlantic does a good job outlining physical evidence that Israeli troops couldn't have shot the boy, and several good diagrams are given -- though, unfortunately, those are only available in the paper version.

The paper version also has an article on suicide terrorism, and what Americans will have to learn from Israelis.