mutually assured thuggery

[joanna bujes]

At 10:14 PM 09/18/2002 -0400, Gordon wrote:
>You're talking somewhat as if al-Qaeda were a conventional
>nation-state.  Terrorists are too weak to hold territory or
>even harass the enemy with any regularity, like a guerrilla
>force.  Hence they work by creating exemplary _scenes_ which
>have no particular strategic relation to one another in a
>military sense, but which teach a lesson or illustrate a
>principle.  Inspiring the U.S. government to military action
>in Afghanistan which killed thousands of innocent bystanders
>while enabling members of al-Qaeda to die as heroes and
>martyrs (or quietly steal away to Pakistan) can probably be
>accounted a great success from their point of view.
>
>Since the USG almost certainly had many other fish to fry
>besides Osama and his gang, perhaps they, too, can account
>the exercise a great success.  Once again, the winners win.

Very true. Which is why, what I see coming, is a neo-feudal warlordism with 
a social structure architected by one or another of the fundamentalist 
creeds. Lovely, no?

Joanna