In his 1963 book The Pure Theory of Politics, Bertrand de Jouvenal writes of terrorist strategy (p. 179) “… if the terrorist blows are dealt at random, it will almost inevitably happen that reactions [of authorities] will fly wide of the mark and affect the innocent. Goading the authorities into hurting innocent bystanders is essential to terrorist strategy. Its efficiency lies mainly in evoking blind anger and blundering retorts…”
Who was more politically savvy on this matter, Osama bin Laden or George W. Bush? Or the neocons who influenced him? Or the U.S. Congress? Or Barack Hussein Obama for that matter? The degree of over-reaction and blunders by all of these and the Empire is so astounding that bin Laden must be judged to have been more politically shrewd. His death doesn’t take one grain of sand away from this conclusion.
7:15 pm on May 23, 2013
