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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sig who wrote (96551)	4/28/2003 12:09:08 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

> there is an irreducible minimum that will occur. They change the game, we have to try to counter. Terrorism is a response of an oppressive regime with tremendous strength. It does not occur at other times. So long as there is peaceful path for people to get what they really want, terrorism will not be the chosen path. The oldest modern terrorist organization that I know of was the Isma'ilis. They had quite a fascinating organization which has never been surpassed. Yet there was nothing similar to them prior to the Mongolian invasion. One has to wonder why. The problem with the idea of not addressing the roots of the issue and not providing alternative means, is that the technology has progressed too much. At their height, Isma'ilis had 20,000 special forces, a sophisticated psyop division, numerous advocates among the intellectuals, and most dangerously a few hundred fadayeens. Their fadayeens were educated in most of the arts of their time from astronomy to medicine to fortune telling. They had intimate knowledge of poisons and were skilled in every form of assassination. And they were so dedicated (or fanatical or crazy) that they would voluntarily go through castration. This would allow them to imitate either sex when on the job, while at the same time protecting them against temptations. By the time the world found out about them it was much too late. The main reason why they did not take over the world is that they did not have nukes and bio-weapons. Do you think we would stand a chance against such an organization if it were somehow revived? There is no minimum number to such an organization that could be acceptable. The only defense is not to push the envelope so far as to create another Isma'ili Fadayeen. The atomic bomb is nearly 60 years old. Do you think it is possible to keep if out of terrorist hands forever? All this pressure on NK or Iran is buying us only a few years time. But there is no way that the process can be halted forever. ST