We’re used to terror threats, rumors and alerts, but if you trust the reports there seems to be a significant difference to the credibility attached to the current one, where New York and Washington D.C. are said to be targets of a plot to coincide with the tenth anniversary of September 11th, 2001. It’s no reason to panic, and I don’t see anyone panicking, but it’s worth remembering who this enemy is. If they do succeed in pulling off an attack, they will want it to be a monstrous one, intended to horrify and turn the stomachs of all decent people—intended to break hearts. Remember 9/11, remember Beslan, remember how they saw people’s heads off on video.
|
|
Their sheer brutality and love of death is their only real weapon, or at least the only one they don’t get from someone else. It’s a pretty good weapon, too, in many places. But it’ll only ever work against us if we give in to it, if we give into fear of their monstrous nature instead of becoming even more resolved to defeat it. I don’t think that attitude is likely to become the dominant one in America any time soon. So they really ought to save their brutality and love of death to use in climates where it has more currency. But, things being what they are, they probably just can’t help themselves.