Something to Ponder

Fire of Liberty

Ralph Peters has a good piece in Wednesday's USA Today that lays out an interesting look at how the US has got to get a hand on how to handle if not stop the Islamic terrorists with their "poor man's nuke", the suicide bomber, which threatens the everday life of our soldiers and will evenually find their way to our shores. Here's a sneak preview:

Suicide bombers are recruited from the ranks of troubled souls, from those who find mundane reality overwhelming and terrifying. The suicide bomber longs for release from the insecurities of his daily experience. He is fleeing from life every bit as much as he's rushing toward paradise. He dreads women, sin and doubt.

Hypnotized by faith and excited to ecstasy, he can walk into a children's clinic and press a detonator. No heart-rending child's face will stop him. His god will forgive the innocent. Nothing matters but the divine will as interpreted by the masters of terror — the most brilliant psychologists of our time.

We have faced enemies more dangerous, but none so implacable.

The world's great strategic struggle of this century is between those who believe in a generous, loving god — in any religion — and those who serve a punitive, merciless deity.

The suicide bomber has chosen his side.