Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington ...Actually, though the presentation of the idea is ridiculous, he is in fact entirely correct.
.. how American troops, spies and anti-terrorist officials could learn key lessons by understanding the desire of terrorists to emulate superheroes like Luke Skywalker, and the lust for violence of violent football fans.
The primary motivation these idiots have is to be known as an epic hero. Luke skywalker is a modern iconic representation of the Campbellian "hero with a thousand faces".
You have to remember that Islam, especially Arabic Islam, is a storyteller culture; where the iconic hero is the central figure. All of Arabic, and Islamic cultural history revolves around these central figures; be they conquerors or martyrs.
On the one side of things, their lives are utter garbage. Poverty, crime, corruption, no societal mobility, no opportunity for advancement or personal fulfillment, no opportunity to express themselves personally or sexually (never underestimate that power and frustration, especially in young men) and an overall excess of young males, and shortage of young females.
On the other side, is this opportunity to be revered as a hero. To end your pain and suffering, and be rewarded for it beyond compare in paradise, by the direct will of god.
It's no wonder that so many prefer blowing themselves up, to living their real lives.
Mulsim terrorists want to be known as Saladin, or Charlegmagne, or Henry V, or Achilles; rather than as Achmed, the man who died of dysentery in a "refugee camp".
The reason why westerners don't "get it", is because to us, legends and myths are just that. To a Muslim, the legend is as real as if he was standing there in the room with you.
To us, the Greeks and Romans are off in antiquity; to the Muslims, Mohammad and Saladin are yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
They really believe their own bull.
This is why liberals are always so sympathetic to the muslims, who so clearly state that they want to kill all the homosexuals, and adulterers and blasphemers. The liberals don't understand that THE MUSLIMS ACTUALLY MEAN WHAT THEY ARE SAYING, AND THEY ACTUALLY BELIEVE IT.
It honestly does not compute in the liberals brain that these statements could be serious. They dismiss them as nothing but posturing and rhetoric, because after all, no-one could actually MEAN those things, or REALLY believe in that enough to die for right?
Of course the same mis-understanding applies between liberals and conservatives; especially those of us who served.
We couldn't possibly actually believe that stuff about honor, duty, and country right? I mean why on earth would anyone risk their life for an idea? You must be doing it because you don't have any other choice, or because you're stupid, or you've been deluded by the propaganda machine or something... because no-body really does that, nobody believes that... right? It's just rhetoric, and you're all just hypocrites.
Except that most of us aren't.
That simply does not compute. Their belief system does not allow for the fact that someone could hold such strongly and deeply held beliefs contrary to their own, that once the offending parties were "convinced of the truth", they wouldn't come around; unless those people already knew that they were wrong, and were just pretending to disagree to gain advantage.
No, I'm serious, this is actually what they believe... and that folks, is just as dangerous in the long run as what the Muslims really believe.
