Early-onset Armageddon

Remember that hare-brained, cheery little slogan: "Don't worry, be happy". We should be so lucky. The more we know the more we worry. The dim-and-dull-witted have no idea how fortunate they are; knowing little they have little reason to be concerned about too much. And we'd be dull-witted too, if we believed the concern-lulling assurances that emanate from time to time from international security sources.

Who like to boast that the vigilance of their agencies has ensured that they have been successfully on duty on our behalf and we must fully appreciate the import and impact of that. Sending drones from Afghanistan into Pakistan and targeting 'high-value' Taliban and al-Qaeda personnel to rid the world of one or two fewer viciously feral threats. High-ranking officials and militia members without whose presence the troops hardly know how to proceed.

Yet that is anything but reality. Since there remain a highly significant number of recruits with more on the way through vigorous activities on the part of recruiters ready and eager to infuse young Muslims with the spirit of martyrdom. Young men transfixed by the message that their
indisputable spiritual duty to Islam is to martyr themselves through jihad.

Inspired by the glorious triumphs that took place in New York, Washington, London, Madrid, Mumbai, Bali, and elsewhere in the world, not only targeting infidels but Muslims too, of course. The infidels have no problem identifying their attackers as fanatical fascistic Islamists. The Muslims who have become victims, however, as faithful Muslims refuse to accept that other Muslims are responsible, unfortunately.

Paradoxically, ironically to the nth degree, the single-most-responsible-terror-producing country in the world, is also one of the countries most often targeted by their very own Islamists. Ironically because Pakistan has been sympathetic to Islamism, allowing itself to become well infiltrated, and extremely vulnerable - a concern larger than it may appear, because of its nuclear arsenal.

Pakistan's neighbour, India, is surrounded by lethally vicious Islamists. Its Parliament and its High Courts have both been targets, as has been its financial capital. But then the instruments of nationhood are considered to be high-value targets, sending an unforgettable message. India has a massive military, but a structured military is no match for an unstructured militia.

Guerrilla fighters have always had the advantage of being able to move freely within a population, to hide themselves and their weapons, to strike randomly and successfully, to evade capture, whereas an army moves ponderously and becomes frustrated at the maneuverability of lightly-armed but effective, fast-moving adversaries. IEDs in Taliban-infested Afghanistan killed more foreign troops that direct encounters with the enemy.

This is the new reality of countries facing a new kind of adversary entirely. And this is what makes countries like Libya, Iran and Syria so dangerous; they recruit, train and arm independent non-governmental militias as proxy armies that can move swiftly, cause chaos, and not themselves be proven to be linked to the results, claiming innocence of responsibility. It is also what Pakistan has been involved with.

And, Taliban-governed Afghanistan, hosting al-Qaeda, knowing well what Osama bin Laden was planning to execute, was for all practical purposes another government of an Islamist country that encouraged wildly violent action against perceived enemies of Islam. The shattering assault on the United States on 9/11 began a series of invasions of Islamic countries.

And that series of invasions incited greater responses from frenzied Islamists who made it their dying mission to bring Islam to world dominion, slaughtering the defenceless, maiming and mutilating the confused among their own, demolishing the symbols of Western authority and power, and vowing to launch upon the civilized world early-stage Armageddon.