Killing Westerners is performance art in the Islamic civil war.
This is why I say the War on Terror is mostly the collateral damage of an Islamic Civil War:
The disruptive impact of small groups of radicals is a long tradition in the Middle East, especially after Islam was introduced over a thousand years ago. Islam is the only major religion whose scripture mandates continuous violence against infidels (non-believers). The Islamic scriptures make it clear that the mere existence of infidels is a threat to Islam and these infidels must be attacked, no matter what the cost. Most Moslems ignore this aspect of their religion, at the risk of being declared a heretic if conservative Moslems near them decide to get violent and go jihad (war on) against any Infidels within reach. Many Moslems, including Gulf oil state Arab governments are openly seeking a way to reform Islam and eliminate this flaw which has been crippling Islam and killing Moslems for over a thousand years.
Killing fellow Moslems is the primary method of fighting that internal struggle, whether it is Islamist killing the non-Islamists as Allah's punishment; or non-Islamists killing the Islamists to keep them from killing non-Islamists. But the real jihad glory is killing non-Moslems on the other side of the "green line" that divides Moslem-run areas from non-Moslem areas. Like Nigeria, for one bloody example.
And the ultimate glory is hitting America. America has the military power to fight the jihadis. And of course the jihadis have many perplexing "reasons" for hating America.
FFS, what doesn't anger Islamists?
We shouldn't try to appease the monsters who need to hate us no matter what we do--or don't do. Just kill the jihadis.
UPDATE: In light of the massive Hamas assault on Israel that exceeded Israel's capacity to imagine, could America be a target despite our belief we are safe now? As I wrote above, hitting America is the dream. And our southern border is open. Am I paranoid to worry our enemies might take advantage of that to exceed our capacity to imagine what they might do here? I mean, these days the FBI seems like it only believes Americans are a terrorist threat.
NOTE: The basic image was made from DALL-E. I don't know why the software could not incorporate my instruction for the Twin Towers on 9/11 on the stage.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.
