Of all the challenges facing Afghanistan, suicide bombers are in a class all by themselves. The idea of a man strapping on twenty pounds of explosives and walking into a crowded marketplace with the sole purpose of killing as many people as possible is beyond comprehension in a civilized world. There is nowhere to put this kind of behavior, even in combat. Yet it happens in Kabul with regularity. If the Taliban decide a bigger bang is called for, they will pack a non-descript Toyota Corolla with a couple hundred pounds of explosives and go cruising for a high value target such as a coalition convoy, a foreign embassy or a government building. We use acronyms to distinguish one type of suicide bomber from another. VBIEB means vehicle borne improvised explosive device. If the bomber is on foot, he is referred to as a BBIED—body borne. These terms only allow us to classify these people, not explain their behavior.

Seven of them struck downtown Kabul Monday afternoon, just before 10 o’clock. President Kazrai was in the palace, swearing in the newest ministers that will form the basis of his new administration. This event, no doubt, was the catalyst for this attack but the suicide bombers had other targets in mind, such as the Ministry of Justice and the Serena Hotel. The most luxurious hotel in downtown Kabul, the Serena is a favorite target for the Taliban because it symbolizes everything the Taliban both hates and fears. There is no place for the Serena Hotel in their vision of a 7th century Afghanistan.

When something like this happens in Kabul, the first reaction is over-action and the first reports are always wrong. Monday was no exception. The Afghan Army and National Police raced through the city, stopping traffic and shutting down intersections. Wildly exaggerated reports of a hundred civilians dead and the grounds of the presidential Palace penetrated spread like wildfire. In a way, some of this confusion was understandable. Columns of thick, black smoke filled the sky above central Kabul and merged with the ever-present layers of pollution. Gunfire could be heard from several areas of the city, giving the impression that the Taliban had managed to launch a major attack.

For awhile, the attack on Kabul managed to push Haiti off CNN and FOX. A BBC reporter, holded up in a bunker in central Kabul, reported rumors and speculation as fact for over an hour because facts were in short supply. As the day wore on, the gunfire ceased and what actually happened begin to emerge. Only three of the suicide bombers managed to blow themselves up. The other four were shot dead by the Afghan Army and police. This time, the much maligned Afghans performed well, preventing a much larger death toll than the relatively small, officially reported number of twenty dead, including the bombers. They paid a high price for the courage shown because six of the victims were members of the Afghan security forces.

Considering the grim calculus of suicide warfare, this attack was actually a defeat for the Taliban and a much needed victory for the Afghan security forces. They did this on their own, with no coalition assistance, demonstrating that they are capable of enormous courage under fire. When all is said and done, this is the message that should emerge, loud and clear from Monday’s attack, and this is the story line the media should follow. Scores of innocent civilians are alive today because the Afghan forces did their job and held the line.

Sadly, it will not be reported this way because no credit will be given for what didn’t happen. Instead, the media will ask how it is possible for the enemy to launch “complex” attacks inside the city? Wrong question. The much larger question that should be asked is: what motivates young men to use their bodies to deliberately blow up innocent civilians? Until the civilized world understands, and changes, this evil behavior, the attacks will continue with brutal regularity because there is no technological or military counter to them.

By the afternoon, when it became clear that the Kabul attack was not a major story, Haiti returned to dominate the airways. That is as it should be; Haiti is a true natural tragedy on a massive scale, while the Kabul attack was man made. Haiti can be explained by seismologists and geophysics, involving forces far beyond man’s control. No such rational explanation yet exists for what happen in downtown Kabul.