Crazies

[fpb]

This is the second time in 24 hours that would-be terrorists try to kill considerable numbers of British civilians. And do not think I am not taking it seriously. It is not nice to know that people who live in our community want us dead. But it is comforting to reflect that, as far as realization goes, and in spite of what seems to have been a careful study of mass murder methods, the actual work in both cases seems to have been strictly Amateur Hour. The IRA managed to make trouble for Britain for decades because they were a group of experienced and trained killers. These gentlemen just seem to decide to go on a murder spree one day when they feel particularly pissed off. As long as they remain so amateurish, they will go on making maximum effort for minimum result.

Comments

[goreism.livejournal.com]

Brendan McFarlane they may not be, but still, stay safe.

I read an article some time ago, I think in the New Yorker, that suggested that a surprising number of would-be terrorists are amazingly incompetent. It mentioned two young European men who attempted to join a local al-Qaida cell, were rebuffed, went to Afghanistan to fight the Americans, and were shot dead in the first two weeks.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

All terrorists start out like that, because they have learned to hate and fight from books and not from real life. Most terrorists - the IRA being an exception - are middle-class kids grown in safe, peaceful homes. The first generation of the Italian Red Brigades were hilariously incompetent: they kitted themselves out with antique and useless Winchester rifles because they had read of them in the Western comics they devoured as children. It was not till the PLO started training them by the hundreds in their own camps - the Soviet mediation in this is not demonstrated, but is certain - that they became fearsome.