Apparently the "truck rampage" is going to be a continuing thing. It used to be truck bombs, but those can be deterred in various ways; and it turns out you can kill quite a few people with just the truck. Trucks can't be banned from cities, as cities can't survive without them. Just as the airplane turned out to be a weapon in itself, so too this basic tool of modern urban life.
You might attempt to control who gets access to a truck, but this one was just rented from Home Depot. We probably can't make truck rentals substantially more difficult either without causing serious problems for urban life.
So... might we consider addressing the jihad that is the formal and final cause of these attacks, rather than the tools that are merely the efficient or material causes? We have no problem addressing the white supremacist ideology that sometimes lies behind other sorts of terrorist attacks; why not this form of supremacism?
UPDATE: Former Federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy gives an interview on this subject. The last minute or so is particularly important, as he clearly demonstrates that concern with radical mosques is not akin to a generalized anti-Muslim bias: 'The first Muslims I met as a prosecutor were the ones who were helping us infiltrate radical mosques. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.'
Of course that is true. No one is under greater threat from radicalized Islamic terrorists than the non-radicalized members of their own community. They have the same issue with those radicals that I have with the KKK. The radicals in my community are a problem for me, because they're out there trying to pull my neighbors and younger relatives into their swamp.
5 comments:
As you pointed out in your comment to 'Scary Scary Halloween', every story needs a villain. Acknowledging that there might be more than one set of bad actors, with different motivations, would significantly complicate the Left's narrative of being on the 'right side of history'.
Maybe. Kos wrote a book called "American Taliban" that argued that Republicans and the actual Taliban were basically the same kinds of people. I continue to be surprised that they don't recover that frame, as it would be at least a more authentic one given their actual ideas. They can't love fundamentalist religion in any form, neither as progressives nor as Marxists.
An open source jihad cannot be defeated conventionally- the citizens in peril must be armed and alert, because there is no limit to soft targets- the police cannot be everywhere.
There are ways to deter the attackers, but they will not be found under the protection of the Bill of Rights.
It's just a truck. Doesn't everyone assume every car is out to get them?
Makes pro active defense easier. What, living in white zone is better than yellow... only to some people.
The Left is a fundamental religious cult. That's why they never picked that theme up. Too many people figured them out, when the Left was allies of Islamic Jihad.
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