The uneasy truce, which prevented wholesale continental bloodletting between the red menace and us during the cold war, was the doctrine of MAD. MAD is the acronym for mutually assured destruction. Basically it meant that if you attacked us with nuclear weapons we would simply incinerate you. The tool of this policy was the triad. The three cornered strategy involved land based ballistic missiles, intercontinental bombers and nuclear powered submarines. Maybe an unprovoked attack could disable one or even two of these elements but make no mistake about it what ever remained was sufficient to reduce the opponent to ashes.
Fortunately the possibility of such a nuclear confrontation has greatly diminished over the past several years. As a child I was introduced to the threat by duck and cover in elementary schools and now take some solace in thinking that our race has come to its senses with regard to the folly of all out nuclear confrontation.
Now we are confronted with a newer threat. The threat is not as potentially devastating in terms of the type of destruction a large nuclear exchange would bring however it has been more damaging in terms of actually lives lost because it is being regularly used against us. That threat of course is the homicide bomber. The bomb has taken many forms, a fuel-laden plane, a strap on vest, a car or truck and one most important ingredient, a highly motivated zealot.
We are spending money in enormous amounts around the country and the globe to guard against terrorists threats but it is naïve to think that we won't be struck again. Profiling and metal detectors and bomb sniffing dogs and every other high and low tech device we can employ simply cannot insure that level of security in a free society. The answers are complex but much like MAD there must be a counter strategy that will give these people pause for thought.
The essence of the formulation of that strategy lies in understanding the motivation of such an individual. It is not politics, or upbringing or perceived grievances or hatred that is the guiding light behind suicide bombings. It is martyrdom and the prospect of immediate transport to paradise that moves the jihadist to commit these atrocities. The change in the behavior will come when we change our tactics in dealing with the underlying motivation.
When we examine the people who have been involved in this evil we generally find one thing in common. By and large they are young male followers of radical elements of Islam. It is their particular brand of faith that spurs them on yet what we see as a constant is the people who are senior to them and espouse martyrdom and issue the fatwah's allowing it (a legal opinion or ruling issued by an Islamic scholar) don't seem to have the same enthusiasm for their own immediate transportation to paradise.
Apparently they are not quite as excited to die for their beliefs as their followers. After all it is management's prerogative to delegate and if you are killed off in a martyrdom operation you can't very well be delegating operations to others. This is why we don't see pictures of grizzled old Islamic scholars as perpetrators of homicide bombing crimes. The life of a cleric or scholar evidently is comfortable enough to want to delay departure to paradise for as long as possible I guess.
So then perhaps our strategy might again take on a three-pronged approach to achieving an uncomfortable uneasy truce with violent sects of Islam. First we continue in prevention by trying to intercept bombers and protecting potential targets. Next we attack the funding and operations of such organizations. Lastly and most importantly we need to identify exactly who are the elder clerics who espouse martyrdom on a religious basis and send them some simple messages. The simplest is this, if you are constantly involved in indoctrinating young people in your area of influence in the idea that killing Americans is going to send them to paradise then we have news for you. Start packing.
