Thursday, September 12, 2013

Gazing at the Abyss

The real error was believing that jihad could be harnessed, controlled and directed to achieve a strategic purpose. That belief was wrong in 1978, it was wrong in 2001, it is wrong now, and it will be wrong tomorrow.
(9/11, 2011)
Terrorism cannot be defeated. But terrorists can. The first step towards doing so is to stop enabling them, supporting them, cultivating them as a weapon against enemies real or imagined, and harboring the delusion that they can be controlled.
(From Beslan to Boston, 2013)

Draw your own conclusions.

1 comment:

garasanin said...

The real error is believing that a particular nation is exceptional. This delusion enables a nation to cultivate a sense of superiority and justify actions that would otherwise be unjustifiable.

As Putin recently said:
"It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal."