Nah...

Submitted by RW (United Kingdom), Jun 2, 2009 at 06:41

Nah, the terrorism you describe is much more like a form of organised crime than it is like a war. If you collected stats on all the muggings that have taken place against old ladies in New York since 1983 you might, following the logic above, conclude that the New York mugging fraternity has been pursuing a ruthless and single-minded "war on old ladies". But there isn't one single homogeneous New York mugging fraternity - even if it might feel that way to those on the receiving end of the muggings. There's just a disparate bunch of rather unpleasant people who, for various reasons - though largely involving money - like to mug old ladies.

Similarly, the idea that there's one single homogeneous terrorism fraternity, pursuing one single decades-long war against the USA. Rather there's a disparate bunch of self-aggrandizing fools who like to indulge their various religious and political predelictions by attacking US civilians. To call it a 'war' gives them way too much credit.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".