How Terror Works

The Washington Post says "An al-Qaida front group ... warned it will hunt down and kill Sunni Arab tribal leaders who cooperate with the U.S. and its Iraqi partners, saying the assassination of the leader of the revolt against the terror movement was just a beginning." As if to emphasize the point:

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A car bomb struck a bakery crowded with customers lining up for bread, killing at least 11 people on Saturday as they ended their daytime Ramadan fast, officials said. Hospital officials said the 11 killed in the Baghdad explosion included two children. The blast damaged five stores and three houses and burned five cars, according to police.

"We rushed outside the house after hearing the sound of the explosion. I could see the bakery and a nearby pickle shop on fire," said Abu Ahmed, a 36-year-old Shiite government employee. "The wounded were screaming for help as the ambulances were arriving."

Of course, al-Qaeda's predilection for murder is why tribal leaders cooperated with Coalition forces in the first place. After all that has happened in Anbar it would be remarkable if the threats were news. The mere existence of the tribal revolt against al-Qaeda, the fact they are forming military resistance units clearly indicates they fear an attack. Threatening to attack those who are already defending themselves from earlier attacks is like threatening to burn someone for running away from a conflagration. It makes sense, but only in the terrorist universe.

In claiming responsibility for Abu Risha's death Thursday, the Islamic State said it had formed "special security committees" to track down and "assassinate the tribal figures, the traitors, who stained the reputations of the real tribes by submitting to the soldiers of the Crusade" and the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

In the terrorist universe resistance to terror is met by more terror; like a drug which must be administered in ever-larger quantities to keep working; like alcohol used on a drunk to make him forget he's a drunk. It's a Ponzi scheme with intimidation used in place of money. It's crazy but for a while it works until it runs out of fuel and disintegrates into a heap. There's no mystery to why tyrannies like Nazism and Communism burn themselves out. It happens when the True Believers are finally executed by their own priests, when the inhabitants of the Worker's Paradise are forced to eat their own pets. From Stalin to Jose Maria Sison the need to impose total obedience -- and not the so-called Class Enemy -- is the ultimate cause of death for most cadres. The adage that apocalyptic revolutions devour their own children applies to al-Qaeda as well.

Apart from arms, the most effective talisman against apocalyptic madness is simple humanity; defeating al-Qaeda means, above all, restoring the sanctity of daily life. What terrorism cannot abide is laughter, music and love.

Sam : Do you remember the Shire, Mister Frodo ? It'll be spring soon, and the Orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket and they'll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields. And eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?

It is the ordinary which ultimately triumphs over the perverse. It is the waking world which prevails over empire of dark dreams.