In the history of civilization — and that’s how old terrorism is, it wasn’t invented on Sept. 11, 2001 — terrorists have never, on their own, succeeded in destroying or significantly altering a culture. They utterly lack the resources to do so.
Where they have succeeded, terrorists have done so only by so frightening a society into abandoning its fundamental values.
That guy who tried to fly a plane into the White House? The one who failed to detonate an explosive device in an airplane approaching Metro Detroit International? The shoe bomber? The guy who just failed to set off a bomb in Times Square? The homegrown terrorists at Virginia Tech and Fort Hood?
The combined death toll from their acts is less than 100. The U.S., supposedly the world’s sole superpower, has a population of 308 million.
The distinction between a global superpower and a nation afraid of its own shadow is becoming more difficult to discern with every attack on the U.S. homeland. Each has been met with an over-reaction — in the media and among government officials — that would embarrass the Londoners who stoically endured the Blitz.
David Olive, “The terrorists win”, Toronto Star, 2010-05-14
May 14, 2010
QotD: Western civilization – stick a fork in it
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