Huh? Hear me out.
I’ve never understood the point of terrorism. What’s the end game? What do they hope to accomplish? Every time there’s a terror attack, it just makes the people, states, and institutions that were the victims stronger, more united, less tolerant of the terrorists’ views, and more apt to go after them. This doesn’t seem like a way to foster the continued success of your organization, if everything that you do makes more peeople dislike you. One of the things that i’ve heard is that terror organizations want to get the U.S. (or “the west” in general) out of their affairs. But every time there’s an attack, that just makes “the west” more invested in the affairs of the region where the terrorists are, with more presence.
I’ve also heard that terrorists want to set up a religious state without interference from these western folks, much like ISIL is trying to do now. But aren’t Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and other states already religious states? If these states aren’t good enough for the terrorists, why aren’t they bombing them and not the U.S.? I don’t get it.
In some sense, i can understand it if the terrorists consider themselves to be well-meaning faithful evaporator farmers living outside Mos Eisley, mostly being ignored by the Empire, but bothered by the fact that Stormtroopers are constantly on their planet. From that point of view, any attack that kills forces of the Empire is worth it, regardless of the long-term costs. (I mean, what are they gonna do, blow up the whole planet? Yeah, right.) But it still seems like a pointless endeavor. Kill a few dozen people here and there, get your name in the news… Maybe you’ll get some new recruits from the publicity, but you’ll also bring on the wrath of the Empire, which doesn’t help you in any way.
But what if the terrorists have a long-view? What if their ultimate goal is to bring down the U.S. from the inside? Doing so wouldn’t really help them in any way, but it would be a great moral victory. They could point to the biggest army in the history of civilization and say “we beat that.” So how do they do that?
Step 1, be a target. The large and small terrorists attacks are not about killing people and causing damage. They’re just a means to identify the terrorists. Now the people of the U.S. have an enemy—someone to hate, someone to focus all of their fear and anger on. Yes, it unites the citizens, but it starts to define an “us versus them” mentality.
Step 2, stoke the fear. Keep up the small attacks, keep yourself in the news, keep the idea that you’re a threat alive. Pretty soon, the right people in the U.S. will echo those ideas and fan the flames of hatred, coupling it with racism, intolerance, and xenophobia. These are now your allies, your agents on the inside. They will turn the eyes of hate and fear not just to you, but to people like you. They want to help their country by dealing with these terrorist foreigners, but they’re not going to fly halfway around the world to do it. Wouldn’t it be much easier if they could just hate and exclude someone similar who’s closer to home? Yeah, that’ll work.
Step 3, sit back and wait. Eventually, someone will come forth who’s willing to forego civility, throw 200-plus years of representative democracy in the toilet, and say “i can get rid of those foreigners. I can get rid of terrorists. Let me lead you and i’ll make you safe.” The problem with that statement is that, in order to defeat this myth of terrorists lurking everywhere, you have to change your game plan. You have to fight the way they fight. You have to be unlawful and ruthless and bypass the rule of law to get the job done. Sounds great. You’ve just reduced global politics to the mentality of supporting a local sports team. We win, they lose. Simple. But that simplicity is what makes it attractive to the less-educated. A simple black-and-white problem (terrorists!) requires a simple black-and-white solution (nuke them to the stone age!) and this leader will do that, because he’s tough, he gets things done.
Step 4, become the Rebel Alliance. Once this new all-or-nothing, win-or-lose leader takes over and starts imposing his callous will over the globe, the fractures will begin. Other nations will shun the U.S., distance themselves from it, and cancel treaties and alliances. Individual states and regions within the U.S. will break away. The military will question the command structure and factions will be formed. Eventually, the Empire will crumble, and everybody’s rooting for you because you brought the fight to the Empire and exposed it as evil. You’re the heroes now. You’re the good guys. And the big mean United States is no more.
So please don’t vote for Donald Trump. If he wins, the terrorists win.