On Tue, 21 May 2002, Jim Farmelant wrote:
> And has anyone taken note of the almost gleeful defeatism in Cheney's
> remarks. He didn't say that suicide bombings might occur, nor even that
> inevitably attempts at such bombings will be made, but that such
> bombings are inevitable. In other words he is saying that we should
> expect such attacks (and by implication there is little that his
> Administration can do about it).
Well, to be fair, I think he said "suicide bombings like those going on in Israel" -- i.e., guys walking into shopping malls or restaurants and blowing themselves up. And when you look at it that way, I think it's perfectly true that they can't be stopped. I've actually wondered why, if Al-Qaeda really still exists and wants to hit us, they haven't already done such a thing here. Because that would be efficient terror. It would cause enormous economic losses and hysteria for very little expense on their part, and very little need for organization, and so very little chance of getting prematurely caught. In Israel today they have a guard in front of every public place. Can you imagine that here? And a huge falling off in shopping and going out for entertainment among a populace that is much better used to this sort of thing. The hysteria and costs here would be powers of ten greater. It'd knock this weak recovery flat on its ass.
So why aren't they happening? Is Al-Qaeda maybe not quite so numerous or powerful or diabolical as we've been led to expect? Maybe suicide bombers don't grow on trees after all. In Israel, after all, they have a nursery right next door. But people here aren't watching their brothers shot down or their houses bulldozed or their dads humiliated. They have to convince themselves with theory all alone in their rooms that Today is a Good Day to Die. That's probably much harder than being surrounded every day by martyr worship up until the moment you actually do it. It might be that the pilots of those planes were some pretty rare guys.
Michael