Jihadists: Idiots
Nowhere is the gap between sinister stereotype and ridiculous reality more apparent than in Afghanistan, where it’s fair to say that the Taliban employ the world’s worst suicide bombers: one in two manages to kill only himself. And this success rate hasn’t improved at all in the five years they’ve been using suicide bombers, despite the experience of hundreds of attacks—or attempted attacks. In Afghanistan, as in many cultures, a manly embrace is a time-honored tradition for warriors before they go off to face death. Thus, many suicide bombers never even make it out of their training camp or safe house, as the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests. According to several sources at the United Nations, as many as six would-be suicide bombers died last July after one such embrace in Paktika.
Thanks (as always) to Allahpundit.
Thank you.
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 1:15 amHow many virgins do you get for that?
Reaganite Republican (6836b1) — 6/14/2010 @ 1:56 amHave any of these been caught on tape? They would be great material for the “Premature Decapitation” segment of Allah’s Funniest Home Videos.
Icy Texan (2196ff) — 6/14/2010 @ 3:07 amThe major problem with “suicide bombers” is that they cannot learn from their mistakes. A “successful suicide bomber” is never able to do it again or to train others. That is the good news – the bad news is that, in their view, a fifty percent failure rate is a hundred percent success rate.
Longwalker (4e0dda) — 6/14/2010 @ 4:54 amThis sounds like an application for the ‘Pick Me Up’ grenade from the movie ‘Mom and Dad Save the World.’
RNB (6a1e7d) — 6/14/2010 @ 5:15 ami have long said that our enemies, including AQ itself, are a bunch of morons. Thank God. If they were of at least room temperature intelligence, we would really, truly, be screwed.
Gee, who would have thought that a version of islam asking you to believe that God is pimping 72 virgins would tend to attract morons?
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/14/2010 @ 5:23 amWhat does that make us like — giving up our civil liberties, making air travel a nightmare, peeing and pooping our pants? We are the weak, cowardly idiots.
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 5:30 amSerious question: Were Afghanistan and Iraq preventive/defensive wars or punitive wars?
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 5:34 amIraq was preventative and Afghanistan should be punitive. There is no chance that Afghanistan will be anything but a “cockpit” of central Asia for the next century as the new mineral deposits will be endlessly stolen and fought over. We should leave. Iraq was another matter. It had potential to be self sustaining as it has huge oil reserves and the population was the most sophisticated in the Arab world, excluding Lebanon. Saddam was to great a risk to leave in place.
In Afghanistan, those suicide bombers you are laughing at are encouraged by the $1,000 being given their families by the Pakistani ISI. Our enemy there is not the Taliban but Pakistan.
Mike K (82f374) — 6/14/2010 @ 5:38 amIf we are not willing to kill every male between the age of twelve and sixty-five in Afghanistan, we have already lost. Those people are their own part of the Earth. They will not be tamed, not ever.
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 5:42 amYes, but the Israelis are the aggressive ones, in your book, for not surrendering sufficiently
ian cormac (ba1de9) — 6/14/2010 @ 5:46 amI don’t know where you got that from.
The Isreli goverment has not won a war since 1973. On the battle field or in world opinion. It needs to rethink its tactics, strategy and goals. And to look at what Israelis are these days. The Sabras are gone. We have gays who faint at the sight of blood and ultra-Orthodox who don’t mind others spilling blood for them as long as it doesn’t get on their Torah-fondling hands.
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:01 amIraq was a defensive war. A tyrant to his own people and leader of a rogue nation that repeatedly attacked it’s neighbors, Hussein persisted in violating terms of the cease fire*, and had successfully corrupted many of the nations and authorities who were charged with enforcing the cease-fire and enforcing sanctions. We know that he was developing long-range missiles in spite of supposed weapons inspections. It was time (or past time) to either deal decisively with Iraq or make a public announcement that policy was being changed. The worst thing you can do to a thug is say you will deal with him but let him get away with murder anyway.
Afghanistan was a defensive war. The regime which supported brutality against its own people was willfully providing a safe-haven and support to a group that had carried out terrorist attacks on many continents over the years and killing many people. And as we saw on 9/11, their attacks were growing in scope and severity.
While I believe both of those wars were reasonable in their rationale and purpose, I also believe honest people of good will could disagree with one or both, but the reasons most often cited by individuals, parroting what was in the MSM, were based in lies and ignorance. I would have been happy to see more discussion that was honest with the facts.
Both efforts also could have employed different strategies and /or tactics, but here again it was not just that the Bush Admin made mistakes. In Afghanistan we depended on NATO allies to do their share of the ongoing fighting and peacekeeping, and they were not up to the task. So Bush did in that arena something all the critics wanted (work with other countries) and when it didn’t work they blamed him for “taking his eyes off of Afghanistan”. In Iraq we went in purposefully with a small footprint to minimize the belief in all of the accusations (by our own “loyal” opposition) that we were “invading for oil”, and then criticised for using too few troops. We also overestimated the ability of the people to govern themselves once Saddam was removed and instead of keeping a forceful stance againt Iran and Syria and other rogue states, we let iran and Syria serve as sources of reinforcement and supply as the popularity of the effort dropped.
Those are my thoughts. I am sure they are overly simplified and leave out many considerations, but it is what I think of the “Big Picture”.
*”Cease fire”- I’m not sure exactly what the agreement was technically called that set the terms of stopping the conflict back in 1991.
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:05 amWe have the similar problem here, for the settlers
ian cormac (ba1de9) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:10 amcame them ‘the bitter clinger Tea Party goers, are we really going tp go by the 2006 Lebanon war, which
was occasioned by an all too precipitous retreat back in 2000, which handed the country to Hezbollah
When a criminal convicted of robbery and murder is sent to jail, is it preventive/ self defense/ corrective/ punitive/ or components of all of the above??
If Israel has not “won a war” since 1973, it is because they have not prosecuted one to the extent they could have. As far as different tactics and strategies, other than self-annihilation in fact or by following Helen Thomas’s advice, what do you suggest? All efforts to make concessions for the sake of peace have just been met with more aggression.
Yes, the Israel of today does not have the spine of 40 tears ago, neither the United States of 55 years ago, so let’s unilaterally disarm and retreat from the world until the next tyranny takes over enough of the globe that we become subject to direct attack. That worked real well before, didn’t it, minimized loss of life, limited the theatre of engagement, etc., etc. (Last line sarcasm.)
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:13 amWhy aren’t any of these guys being nominated for the Darwin Awards? We could, within a couple of generations, radically improve Islamic terrorists through the weeding out of the stupid from the gene pool.
The evolutionary Dana (3e4784) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:14 amNk
> What does that make us like — giving up our civil liberties, making air travel a nightmare, peeing and pooping our pants? We are the weak, cowardly idiots.
Thank you for demonstrating you didn’t actually read the article.
> Serious question: Were Afghanistan and Iraq preventive/defensive wars or punitive wars?
They were wars to disable those who would attack us, duh. Oh, and wars of liberation.
> The Isreli goverment has not won a war since 1973. On the battle field or in world opinion.
I don’t know. They sure killed a lot of Jizbollah, reacently. As for world opinion, well, the problem they have is they have a country full of jews, and it turns out that a lot of people hate jews and want to think the worst about them no matter what.
By the way, you’re really Helen Thomas, aren’t you?
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:30 amHell no. I support Israel with all my heart. Not always its government or its government’s policies.
To be frank, I like the semi-Communist sabras who built the kibbutzes, made a desert into a garden, and won three wars against incredible odds. Can’t stand the damn ultra-Orthodox who send other people’s children to kill some other people’s children.
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:37 amnk
you like communists. mmm, what more to say?
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:43 amWe have ultra-Orthodox friends. It’s bad enough that they will not even take a glass of water at my house, but what is worse is that when they invite me to their house they will not have even a glass of water at their own house while I’m there.
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:48 amOne kills 3,000 Americans mostly civilians, one defends themselves, let me see who I’ll side with
ian cormac (ba1de9) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:51 amThat is the thing. I do side with Israel, right or wrong. Doesn’t mean I have to recite the Song of Solomon to Bibi.
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 6:54 amFirst of all, Hussein’s two largest acts of aggression were against fellow Muslim countries, and Israel’s presence had little to do with it. Second, even though the Taliban and Al-Queda use Israel’s existence as a rallying theme, things would not necessarily be different if it didn’t exist. Bin Laden was mad that US troops were in Saudi Arabia protecting it against Hussein. Perhaps the US support of Israel added to why he didn’t like the US there, but again, even without Israel we would still have been infidels.
Did Hitler ever tell Poland, or France, or Sweden, or Norway, or Belgium, etc., “Give us your Jews to kill, and we’ll leave you alone?” Of course not. Anti-Semitism was used as a means to mobilize and energize many, but it was never the determining factor in why a tyrant fights to gain power and domination, it was just one tool of psychological manipulation of the populace.
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/14/2010 @ 7:04 amWe let attorneys sponsored by Saudi interests, canonize their best fighters as ‘innocent shepherds’
ian cormac (ba1de9) — 6/14/2010 @ 7:06 amand stigmatize American intelligence and military,
by threatening prosecutions, even putting their families in danger, (the John Adams project) now
these same officials are in the DOJ and other departments
nk
> 20.We have ultra-Orthodox friends. It’s bad enough that they will not even take a glass of water at my house, but what is worse is that when they invite me to their house they will not have even a glass of water at their own house while I’m there.
What the hell are you even talking about? i have many orthodox jews in my life and besides weirdness with electricity on the sabbath, i have never heard of anything like this water crap.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/14/2010 @ 7:31 amNothing good will come from underestimating the enemy.
gp (72be5d) — 6/14/2010 @ 7:52 amnk, I tutored a classmate in medical school who was so Orthodox that he and his wife tore lengths of toilet paper off the roll before the Sabbath. I never heard anything about water or anything similar. Maybe it has something to do with those pigs you have on the treadmill that runs the water pump.
Mike K (82f374) — 6/14/2010 @ 8:02 am[object].
Jim S. (e7c3b0) — 6/14/2010 @ 8:10 amWhatever disagreements you have with nk, I would not go so far as to suggest he was not telling the truth (except when he makes an outrageous hyperbole, when you need the decoder ring). So, either his “super-duper-ultra orthodox friends” have a thing about water that is so extreme no one else has seen it before (which I think is the case) or he’s making hyperbole. In this case, I don’t think it’s hyperbole.
In my own experience, sometimes individuals can have some very extreme views and practices which they present as “normal”, which are anything but. I have no idea if that is the case, or if it is the “pigs on the treadmill”, or that the pigs on the treadmill have dirty feet, or the pig motif on the faucet (with water coming out of the pig’s mouth).
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/14/2010 @ 8:30 amI meant that they consider my house non-kosher and I make their house non-kosher while I’m there. Or maybe they’re just not thirsty at the time?
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 9:07 amnk
Or maybe you are paranoid about jewish behavior.
Water doesn’t have to be made “kosher” and can only lose its inherent kosherness if it is used to boil non-kosher food.
To be blunt, your behavior on these threads is more than a little creepy.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/14/2010 @ 10:01 amIf they won’t have a glass of water at nk’s home, it’s because his dishes/plates/cups/silverware are improper. There are special rules for how they are kept, amongst them being the necessity of having two separate ‘sets’ of dishware so that certain things can never come in contact. If he doesn’t have two seperate sets, it could be considered unkosher.
If they were really thirsty, they would drink from the tap, but that would look goofy.
luagha (5cbe06) — 6/14/2010 @ 10:39 amthey forget one important maxim in war.
You do not win by dying for your country, but by making the other guy die for his country.
Even the people in Gaza have learned that.
Michael Ejercito (249c90) — 6/14/2010 @ 11:10 am“Pick me up grenades”…
AD - RtR/OS! (780d5b) — 6/14/2010 @ 11:23 amHow about claymores with a mirrored surface?
If someone regarded me as making AQ look like pacifists I might not care to break bread or drink with them either, though I would still be civil if they were.
Machinist (497786) — 6/14/2010 @ 11:56 amComment by luagha — 6/14/2010
Thank you for taking the time to explain it. (So nk doesn’t have to change the pig motif faucets after all.) 😉
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/14/2010 @ 11:58 amWhat is Patterico’s birthday, or do I need to know Jeff Goldstein’s, for a margin of safety? GWB’s and Reagan’s too?
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 12:18 pmmd,
That doesn’t explain why they supposedly won’t drink when he is in their home.
so it doesn’t explain it at all.
He is just trying to paint jews as “clannish.” I have never met a jew who behaved like he claims. I frankly don’t believe it.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/14/2010 @ 12:31 pmso it doesn’t explain it
atall.Aaron, you can believe what you want.
Maybe luagha wants to revisit us with a possible reason.
I have met people with much more idiosyncratic beliefs and behaviors than nk describes. Do they represent a large percentage? No, but I wouldn’t know that just by talking with those individuals.
MD in Philly (5a98ff) — 6/14/2010 @ 12:55 pmWell, MD, tell me what you make of this gem from nk, on the clift thread:
> What nobody wants to discuss, Patterico, is that the Israeli Parliament is composed of 120 seats. And the most Likud has is 28 and Kadima 38. So they have to make alliances with ultra-militirastic parties, guaranteed five seats each under the Israeli constitution, who make Al Qaeeda look like pacifists, to form a government.
https://patterico.com/2010/06/13/good-riddance-to-eleanor-clift/
We have repeatedly challenged in in that thread, too, to explain or justify his comment. He has so far failed to do so.
The best he could come up with was the story of some orthodox jews allegedly beating on a woman to enforce gender segregation. awful, yes, but hardly in Al Qaeda’s league.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/14/2010 @ 1:03 pmDo your own homework, Aaron.
nk (db4a41) — 6/14/2010 @ 3:06 pmYou’re not going to believe this, but I’m going to defend nk’s comments about the Orthodox. My friends are either Conservative or Reformed Jews, and if you ask them what their other (now previous) friends are like after their conversions to Orthodox Judaism you’d get an earful. Women made to walk steps behind their men at all times, sex only allowed with the use of a thin paper barrier, the list of odd and severely restricted behaviors is endless. Most Jews not of the Orthodox faith have nothing to do with the Orthodox, and the feeling is usually mutual.
My best friend visited Israel on El Al (of course) two years ago, and he had to sit in coach right next to an Orthodox Jew. The guy never said one word to my friend the entire flight (something like 12 hours, I believe), not even “please” or “thank you” when he handed him his in – flight drinks or food. Complete and utter shunning and contempt of him, no question about it.
Dmac (3d61d9) — 6/14/2010 @ 3:12 pmAs Lee Child once wrote: “By definition, all suicide bombers are rookies.”
Donald (186fc3) — 6/14/2010 @ 3:43 pmnk
Yeah, i will translate that into “you can’t back up any of it.”
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/15/2010 @ 5:28 amSorry, the [object] link in the comments above was supposed to be attached to a sentence. It’s just a link to a blogpost I wrote a few months ago arguing the same premise as this post, that terrorists are morons.
Jim S. (c4946e) — 6/15/2010 @ 10:17 amhttp://agentintellect.blogspot.com/2010/03/terrorists-are-morons.html
Jim
Good points. I have said a similar thing for years about their paris attempt. several years before 9-11, they tried this in paris. they took over a plane on the ground, with no pilots. their plan was to use the hostages to bargain for a full tank of fuel. and then they were going to force the pilots to… fly the planes into buildings.
Let me repeat that for emphasis. Their plan was to force the pilots to committ suicide. As in “kill yourself or i will shoot you.”
Also, since the plane was on the ground when they took over, it allowed for the french commandos to storm in. Let me repeat this for emphasis. They were beaten by the french.
And at the same time, the pilot jumped out the window. because they were on the ground. mind you, i think the pilot broke his leg, but i think he figured it was better than staying, and he has a point.
And you combine that with the shoe bomber who was thwarted by foot sweat, the knickerbomber, etc. Heck the 9-11 morons kept insisting that they didn’t need to learn to land. the knickerbomber bought a one way ticket, loaded no bags, and paid in cash. i would call that stupid, but who is dumber? the bomber who leaves such obvious clues to his intent? or the officials who missed such obvious clues?
point is, i have been saying it for years: they are dumb.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/15/2010 @ 10:31 amBtw, here is a compare and contrast story. On the iraqi election day a few years back, the terrorists convinced a man with down’s syndrome to become a suicide bomber and sent him toward a group of people in line to vote. now his family insists he would never knowingly try to kill those people and i figure you gotta believe them. So you figure the terrorists told him the bomb belt was a batman utility belt, and the line to vote, was the line for free candy, or something horrible along those lines.
Anyway, so an iraqi policeman saw this going down and intercepted the bomber. he literally hugged the man to hold him in place until somehow the bomb went off. both men died. given the mental status of the “bomber” i consider them both victims of terrorism.
At his funeral, the policeman’s father said his son was in paradise, now, because he died in jihad. that is, the jihad for freedom and democracy.
Aaron Worthing (e7d72e) — 6/15/2010 @ 10:36 am