If you want to understand the bathos of the bumbled terror attack in Sweden this weekend, go see the English film, Four Lions. Mr. Taimur Abdulwahab is not a hero nor entirely a clown. His mission to blow up Swedish civilians shopping for Christmas presents failed; his bomb laden car burned instead of exploding. Shouting in Arabic, Abdulwahab did manage to blow himself up, while injuring two passersby. For this glorious deed, which also left the bomber's Swedish wife and three children back in England to fend for themselves, Al Qaeda has taken credit.

The reason to see the film Four Lions is that it follows a group of four similarly benighted young jihadis in the UK who have no commonsense, fumble everything, and likewise end up dead. Their cause is preposterous as well as wretched and even they don't understand it. Four Lions is about absurdity trying to find a purpose, a morality tale about the false god of celebrity martyrdom. The film is painful to watch, but very funny in a bitter way. (I thank our friend and colleague, the talk show intellectual and critic, Michael Medved, for recommending it.) Dr. Strangelove was an anti-war satire, Four Liions is an anti-terrorism satire.

Meanwhile, Swedes are probably wondering what got into this young man's head to try to kill them. The question will torment his family, too. What no one should imagine, however, is that the latest bumbling bomber was much more than a misled and wicked fool.