Terror Comes in Two Stripes

One of the many failings of our Current Occupant seems to be his inability to distinguish between the two kinds of enemy we’re faced with today. His refusal to understand that Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein operated on two radically different principles was only the most obvious example of this blinkered view. Osama and Saddam hated each other, for crying out loud, and all we’ve accomplished is taking Iraq away from one and handed it to partisans of the other.

A more subtle but equally revealing blindness is the tendency to lump all those who use the weapon of terror under a one-size-fits-all banner. Some terrorists, Hizbullah and Hamas are examples, utilize despicable tactics, but their goals are political. Their aims would appear to an unbiased observer as theoretically obtainable, and that, once obtained, the terror would stop. The other type of terrorist, epitomized by Osama and his ilk, aren’t after a political goal. They make no pretense that their activities would stop if some stated demands were met. Their objective is absolutely unattainable (the establishment of a worldwide Islamic state under their particular view of Islam).

It seems to me, our only way to counter these threats with any hope of progress, is to understand which enemy we’re fighting, and where.