On Terrorism...

This reminded me of an essay that needs to be written. But don't go there quite yet.

It's about what terrorism is really all about, and why the central memes around terrorism are wrong.

A common meme around terrorism goes along these lines: terrorists are people who have been driven by injustice to take up arms against something so oppressive that it can only be fought by force. Terrorists are forced to do terrible things in order to draw attention to their cause, which is invariably about some minority being treated shabbily for some nefarious reason. Your average terrorist sees himself as a patriot, and the phrase "one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist" is used to clearly define the role of the terrorist in the political process. Terrorists use terror as a weapon because they can't compete against the well-armed and organized forces of oppression without being slaughtered themselves, and turn only to terrorism after they have exhausted all other ways of achieving their goals.


None of that is true.

None.

Terrorism as a modern phenomenon began not as a liberation movement hijacking airplanes or the taking of Israelis captive in München.

It began rather as a means for the Soviets of extending the conflict between the West and the Soviets to include non-national players, which could be used to distract the class enemy. We now know, thanks to the collapse of the Soviets, how deeply involved they were in creating terrorism as we know it today: as an additional tool to be used to attack the West and those who supported the West. Read the Mitrokhan Diaries to see how deeply the Soviets were involved, and you cannot avoid understanding how little this common meme about terrorism has to do with reality.

This continues today. Now go read that link.

Terrorism cannot exist without state support of one kind or another, be it direct or indirect. Terrorist groups are, effectively, nothing but the irregular fighters of those countries who know that they cannot achieve their goals via diplomacy and desperately fear being caught violating treaties and pacts. They are convenient, throw-away weapons in undeclared wars.

Nothing more, nothing less. The MSM and the other chattering classes who fail to understand who made the Mumbai attackers into what they were, who fail to understand how asymmetrical wars are fought, who fail to do even a modicum of research, preferring instead to be what Lenin referred to as "useful idiots", all are a significant part of the problem. They actually believe what is said, rather than taking the trouble to find out what is actually happening. Words are cheap, the Soviets were masters at propaganda - and their students at times outdo their teachers - and propaganda serves not merely to persuade, but also to hide true aims.

Someday I've got to write that essay...