For jihadists trying to bring down the liberal West, failure is success

It is hard to take in the staggering reality of the insane security measures being imposed on air travelers in the wake of the Christmas Day terrorist attempt. Rick Darby unfolds the Hieronymus Bosch-like scenes in the nation’s airports.

Consider what has happened here. A 23 year old Nigerian Muslim man, carrying jihadist beliefs in his head and a weapon made by al Qaeda in his underwear, tries to bring down an American airliner; and, in response, the entire non-Muslim air traveling public of America, Canada, Europe, and everywhere is subjected to the most humiliating, intrusive, absurd, degrading, and time-wasting treatment.

It’s looking like yet another variation on Auster’s Law of Majority-Minority Relations in Liberal Society:

The more the Muslim Other threatens us, the more we punish ourselves.

You know that line about how we have to be lucky every time, and the terrorists only have to be lucky once? Hell, the terrorists don’t have to be lucky at all. They don’t have to bring down any planes or buildings. They just have to keep trying. Based on what’s happened over the last three days, if they pull off enough aborted and unsuccessful attacks, they will bring the Western world to a complete standstill.

It’s the inverse (or obverse or something) of a Pyrrhic victory.

In 280 B.C. King Pyrrhus of Epirus said with bitter irony:

“If we have one more victory like that over the Romans, we will be utterly ruined.”

Today, the jihadists can rightfully boast:

“If we make a few more failed terrorist attempts like that against the infidels, they will be utterly ruined.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 28, 2009 02:19 PM | Send
    


Email entry

Email this entry to:


Your email address:


Message (optional):