Nowhere is the gap between sinister stereotype and ridiculous reality more apparent than in Afghanistan, where it’s fair to say that the Taliban employ the world’s worst suicide bombers: one in two manages to kill only himself. And this success rate hasn’t impr4> d at all in the five years they’ve been using suicide bombers, despite the experience of hundreds of attacks—or attempt d attacks. In Afghanistan, as in many cultures, a manly embrace is a time-honored tradition for warriors before they go off to face death. Thus, many suicide bombers never even make it out of their training camp or safe house, as the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests. According to several sources at the United Nations, as many as six would-be suicide bombers died last July after one such embrace in Paktika.
Yes, yes, of course--the reality is that most terrorists are uneducated, under trained people learning the tricks of their trade in the desert or the rocky mountains of Afghanistan. But I have two things to point out:
1) We in the west aren't exactly brainiacs, either. We invaded two countries without good reason or plans for getting out. We've slammed ecosystems in Alaska and now the Gulf so hard one wonders how we are able to find our way out of a brown paper bag. We live in fear of a handful of extremist idiots with no real resources less than 3 decades after living in fear of one of the biggest nations on Earth.
2) for all the evidence supporting the idea that terrorists are idiots, the article doesn't suggest why the opposite myth still exists. It's obvious to me why this is and it's all in the comment I left on the original article:
After all this evidence that terrorists are, in fact, idiots, why is no one wondering why the government and the media keep trying to convince us of our "enemy's" "scarieness"? It's obvious, because scary monsters sell newspapers, ad time and keep politicians in office. It also keeps military industrial companies hired, as well.We are told this crap just like we were told the Soviets were an evil empire (when really there was simply no money in communism) and just like the Germans were told the Jews were bad people. Everybody loves an enemy and there is simply too much money to make from a terrorist threat existing for anyone to take an honest look at the facts. Even the author of the above piece doesn't really do it--he omits all the people that benefit from keeping things stupid and black and white. Hell, just look at the statistical chances of dying by terrorist bomb and you'll know why, as a Manhattan resident, I fear no terrorist.
Here's a newsflash--there was at least one regulation on the books before 911 that could have stopped or at least minimized the destruction on 911, but was at some point, revoked. Look up how Payne Stewart died and then see how long it took for fighter aircraft to reach his plane and what those fighter craft would have done if Payne's plane was headed toward a populated area.
In the end, you have to be rock-stupid to think violence solves anything. So it follows that, if you believe killing will change people's minds, you're going to be equally rock-stupid in how you go about committing your acts of violence. That guy, Faisal, in Times Square? He didn't "botch" his bombing, he was a fool from the first moment. Didn't I hear that he left his keys in the door? Days before he left that SUV in Times Square, Mythbusters did an episode, in part, on whether or not you can easily turn a propane tank into a bomb. The answer was no.
Yaaaaaaaaaay, FEAR!
Yoda was wrong--Fear doesn't lead to anger--fear leads to stupidity.
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