Stonewall Jackson would have appreciated today's Islamic terrorists. The Confederate general believed emphatically that war was most effectively prosecuted by deception and subterfuge. He was often fighting an asymmetrical war, where the federal forces outnumbered him, but he struck in unexpected ways and prevailed most often, by deception.
When the 19 terrorists of 9/11 launched their attack, the reason they were able to overwhelm what must have been at least 600 people on those flights was none of the American passengers was prepared: 19 people took 600 by surprise. Even so, once the passengers on board the third plane got word about the other two attacks and the element of surprise was lost, the unarmed passengers were able to fight the terrorists to a defeat, and bring down their airplane in that field in Pennsylvania, albeit at the cost of all lives on board.
There is a startling scene in an Italian movie, "Bread and Chocolate" made in 1974 which was amazingly prophetic and insightful. A guest worker from Southern Italy, working in Switzerland quickly perceives how the blond, Nordic looking Swiss see him as a subhuman. At one point, he is living in a chicken coop with some very short fellow Sicilians, and they spy a group of Swiss teenagers, who have come to bathe in a mountain stream and waterfall behind the coop.
They watch the teenagers undress, and they are star struck, as if looking at these lithe young gods and goddesses, in their naked splendor, their white skin, blue eyes and you can see the self loathing which wells up among the short, dark, impoverished Southern Italians, trapped in their chicken coop.
This goes all the way back to Wagner and the Ring of the Nibelung and Alberich the dwarf, who lusts after the Rhine maidens, who spurn the short, dark, ugly dwarf and inspire a rage the teen aged Muslim boy can recognize.
Anyone who has watched this scene will readily apprehend the forces which might drive, down the road, a teenage son of a Lybian, living in Manchester, England to strap on a body bomb.
Today's terrorists use surprise as their most consistent tactic.
When the 19 terrorists of 9/11 launched their attack, the reason they were able to overwhelm what must have been at least 600 people on those flights was none of the American passengers was prepared: 19 people took 600 by surprise. Even so, once the passengers on board the third plane got word about the other two attacks and the element of surprise was lost, the unarmed passengers were able to fight the terrorists to a defeat, and bring down their airplane in that field in Pennsylvania, albeit at the cost of all lives on board.
As the NY Times editorial staff points out today, the goal of these terrorists, such as anyone can divine a coherent goal among lunatics, is to unhinge Western democracies, to force democracies to gravitate toward authoritarian modes of governing. The radical Islamist are all about authority and the imposition of authoritarian control. If they had their way, there would be no music and no women leading independent lives, and men would control the lives of females from cradle to grave.
The appeal of this sort of anarchy to adolescent males mystifies most commentators but I can recall vividly my own day dreams of disruption, even violent disruption, to my high school classesand I imagine, had I not had a family managing my psyche in constructive ways, had I had to deal with loathing of my contemporaries, mixed with rejection from attractive young blond women who might prefer attractive young blond men, I suppose I could have been pushed over the edge.
They watch the teenagers undress, and they are star struck, as if looking at these lithe young gods and goddesses, in their naked splendor, their white skin, blue eyes and you can see the self loathing which wells up among the short, dark, impoverished Southern Italians, trapped in their chicken coop.
This goes all the way back to Wagner and the Ring of the Nibelung and Alberich the dwarf, who lusts after the Rhine maidens, who spurn the short, dark, ugly dwarf and inspire a rage the teen aged Muslim boy can recognize.
Anyone who has watched this scene will readily apprehend the forces which might drive, down the road, a teenage son of a Lybian, living in Manchester, England to strap on a body bomb.
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