13
Sep
The terrorists are bugs!
Not to hurt the good name of bugs by association, but I think this comparison really works. It was after watching and reading a lot about terrorists lately and then watching a documentary and reading an article on bug stings and bites that I realized the similarities.
Insect stings cause a lot of pain without causing a serious amount of damage relative to the whole organism. Enough pain so they the immediate response is to swat (kill the bug) or run away, and the long-term response is to fear another bite or sting. The bug is giving you a message which most of the time means leave to it alone.
The terrorists cause death and pain, yes, but the damage physically done to the body being attacked as a whole is minimal. Their message often times is to leave them alone – Al Qaeda wants us out of the middle east, and they hope that the fear they have caused is enough to deter future involvement.
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t keep watching them to make sure they don’t get too capable of inflicting damage or from being able to stop them. It’s just another perspective for looking at them.