4GW is the dregs of civilization
BARNETT
John Robb had an assessment of the Mumbai attacks: Bombing systems in Bombay.
Lexington Green responded on Chicago Boyz: The Mumbai Attack: A Success for "Global Guerillas"?
Tom's comment:
I think Lex is basically on target here. There is the tendency now to exalt the strategic cleverness of terrorists. I think Robb is correct on systempunkts being targeted, but I also think such targeting is unlikely to overwhelm. The key here is the desire of people to carry on. That's why Hamas and Hezbollah go nowhere, while Israel can turn the West Bank into complete disarray. Israelis refuse to give in, while the Palestinians stew in the victimhood.
4GWers in general buy into Occidentalist views too much: West are pussies and easily put into chaos (we've gone soft with our liberalism and rationalism and feminism and all those machines we depend on, thus we are so vulnerable). Meanwhile, the guerrilla cultures of all stripes are so tough, masculine (keep their women in place), close to nature, natural warriors--all the "good stuff" that we remember now in Russell Crowe and Mel Gibson movies.
There is a profound reason why we're rich and powerful and connected and the enemy is none of those things. Terrorism is a strategy of the weak, and it earns them only what the powerful decide they no longer want.
As I--in effect--opined in BFA, there are no lasting 4GW victories. Yes, sometimes conflicts are won, but what is really achieved? Look at Cuba or Nicaragua or Palestine--or best yet--Vietnam or China?
All these 4GW "victors" got was amazingly bloody disconnectedness, and--when they got smart--then they came back crawling to the system, the nets, the rules, the "decadence."
4GW is not some apogee. No Kaplanesque romanticism please. This is the dregs
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