Man Sets Self Afire Outside White House

Hey, buddy, you got a light?

A man set himself on fire about 2 p.m. Monday on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House.

The man, whose identity and condition have not been released, was taken to a hospital for treatment.

“Members of the uniformed Secret Service responded and administered first aid to the individual until D.C. fire and EMS arrived,” said Secret Service public relations spokesman Jonathan Cherry. “The individual has been transported to the burn unit at Medstar at the Washington Hospital Center. An investigation is currently under way.”

The investigation is being conducted by U.S. Park Police, whose jurisdiction includes the property directly outside the fence surrounding the White House.

President Bush went about his regular schedule during and after the incident, said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

One witness said the man approached a security checkpoint building at the northwest gate of the White House and showed a writing pad with the word “urgent” written on it. When a uniformed Secret Service guard asked if he could help him, the man began walking along the fence toward the guard.

Another witness near the scene heard the unidentified man yelling in Arabic, “God is great,” several times. And several witnesses said a bag the man was carrying started burning, pouring out thick black smoke that enveloped him.

The man appeared to fall face forward on the ground in front of the gate security building, the witnesses said, and uniformed Secret Service agents rushed to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher.

The section of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was cordoned off. Secret Service agents evacuated the immediate area in front of the White House, including the North Lawn area used by television organizations and other journalists, while initial examinations of the man and his bag were conducted.

Some may say this is tragic. Some may say this is funny. I say it is a precursor of things to come.

Terrorism will happen here. Bombings will happen here.

So many of us sleep still, thinking that an offensive campaign is all that is needed, or that an offensive campaign is the last thing that is needed. Both views are wrong, though the latter is pathetically so. An offensive war against Islamist terror allows us to choose the battlefield and hopefully reshape the social terrain of the Islamist world. It gives an area of focus for the terrorists, for they cannot allow us to successfully build an alternative hope for the Arab world, but it does not prevent them from always seeking to attack us here to try to sap our will.

My first thought upon hearing this news was of the Buddhist monks who ritualistically took their own lives with fire in Viet Nam. Upon quick reflection, I think the comparison is absolutely empty. The Islamists may welcome death and think it brings rewards, but I know of no instances where they went into that good night without trying to take others with them. I’ll admit I may be ignorant on this, but I still feel the Viet Nam flashback uncalled for in this instance.

This may have been one lone nut, or it may have been an Islamist who hoped to do damage and looked forward to meeting 72 virgins as a charcoal briquet. Either way, there will be future attempts to harm us and to shake our conviction to fight the radical cancer that torments much of the Moslem world. In facing this, we cannot waver, we cannot cower and hope the danger passes, and we cannot lose focus that this is a great conflict between a dark yesterday and a bright tomorrow.

Such conflicts do seem to give rise to the occasional loon.