The terrorists cannot win either a conventional or an asymmetrical war against the United States, should it bring its full array of assets to

At 05:09 PM 10/30/04 -0400, R.A. Hettinga wrote: the

struggle.

The large pit of smoldering radioactive glass is probably not an option..

The improvised explosive device is a metaphor for our time. The killers

cannot even make the artillery shells or the timers that detonate the bombs, but like parasites they use Western or Western-designed weaponry to harvest Westerners.

The "cannot even make" is patently offensive; why do nitration when what you need is around? And how many Americans could wire a Casio or Nokia to a det cap on their own? They cannot blow up enough Abrams tanks or even Humvees

to alter the battlefield landscape.

Obviously the US mil industrial machine is not the weak link. But what they can accomplish is to maim

or kill a few hundred Westerners in hopes that our own media will magnify the trauma and savagery of their attack - and do so often enough to make 300 million of us become exhausted with the entire "mess."

Say 10 years from now, the dead marine count is in the high 5 figures, (perhaps they are drafted), there's more snuff-videos than porn on the web, the US *will* give up and leave, and the Jihad LLC will have won. 10 years, 20 years, whatever. Persistance works. And the martyrs enjoy the virgins, at best the infidels play harps and fly around the clouds, yawn. I'll see your IED and raise you Brittney's belly-button.