Saturday, September 15, 2007

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:



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.

6 Comments:

Blogger Marcus Aurelius said...

If the movement Abdul Sattar started is genuine AQI can not kill enough Iraqis. I suspect that is the case AQI is SOL.

Soon the death and mayhem sowed by AQI will approach the X-Axis approaching the limit of zero.

As you say, after a while the bullied becomes immune or numb to the threats and the beatings and when that happens the bully is soon to be put in their place.

9/15/2007 02:05:00 PM  
Blogger Bill Carson said...

Random thought...

We are the "invaders and occupiers" according to the left, and the Sunni insurgents are the "resistance". But now that the former Sunni insergents are largely aligned with us against al Qaeda, does that make them occupiers or does it make us the resistance?

9/15/2007 02:21:00 PM  
Blogger NahnCee said...

I think it makes us the insistance.

9/15/2007 02:31:00 PM  
Blogger desert rat said...

Peacekeepers in a sandbox.

Just as the NYTimes article with General Lynch, last Aygust...

US Forces keeping the peace between the Iraqi Army and the local militias, of Anbar.

In a model of success that will be replicated across Iraq, where it can.

Much like the situation in Basra.
A mission accomplished, the Iraqi have the Palace. The Brits are rotating to border patrol duties, rather than garrison that Palace.
Violence levels are way down, a least a "Lull" according to the Brit Commander, at least a "Lull"
Maybe more.

GOOD SHOW!

5,700 troops home for Chirstmass!
Celebrate! Celebrate!
It smells of US Victory!


Those Iraqi, finally Standing UP!

9/15/2007 03:46:00 PM  
Blogger weswinger said...

"when the True Believers are finally executed by their own priests". Consider the fate of Robespierre, the prototype terrorist.

9/15/2007 08:11:00 PM  
Blogger Rick said...

Remember the Spanish Civil War, still romanticized by the Loony Left, where the NKVD was killing the Spanish Communists almost faster than Franco and the Fascists. People are so tragically stupid...

9/16/2007 06:57:00 AM  

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