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Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 08:21:21 -0500 From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com> Subject: Re: What was the quid pro quo for Wassenaar countries?
More interesting to Americans, maybe, is that there also appears to be an effort to boost domestic militia, particularly the religious brand, as the homefront Bin Laden. The rise of religion-based terrorism is explored at length in Bruce Hoffman's recent "Inside Terrorism." Hoffman claims that religious terrorists may be the worst enemies ever, for they do not believe in political compromise: they want to kill every single opponent, and have no reservations about using WMD.
5,000 years of human history bears this thesis out.
If this theory is correct (and Hoffman has worked with RAND for years on the issue) then the menace of terrorism is worse than that hawked during the Cold War. The enemy is not distant, not even ICBM seconds away, but rather it lives amongst us, it's our neighbors readying Armageddon not merely a familiar commie takeover.
This is also their biggest weakness. It's one reason the US has never been host to a large movement in the 20th century, outside the racist, anti-communist, and pro-lifers (and the first two are pretty much dead) because your neighbor probably doesn't go to the same church you do, probably not from the same part of the country. The chances of an individual opening up to their neighbor and getting a warm reception for bombing someplace is pretty low. Realisticaly, the only reason the pro-lifers get as warm a reception as they do is so many people see it as hypocritical. It's ok to kill a killer is their thinking, it is after all a form of pre-partum assissted self-defence.
Hoffman says to expect more OKCs around the globe. To be sure, that's his business to say that.
Considering the rate at which they occur now there is zero rational reason to believe these groups will cease any time in the near future. ____________________________________________________________________ If I can put in one word what has always infuriated me in any person, any group, any movement, or any nation, it is: bullying Howard Zinn The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------