Once again, the Muslim terrorists in Russia and elsewhere are utterly missing the point. Their real targets, the people who are the movers and shakers for change and a more, not less, global economy and whose vision leads to how uncomfortable change is becoming for old fashioned people like Muslim Fundamentalists, are all at Davos. (Sorry, I think I did some comma splicing there .. )
So, what do Muslim terrorists do?
They blow up a bus in Volgograd.
They blow up a restaurant in Kabul
They blow up a police station in Egypt
They blow up a market in Iraq
They are shooting at the wrong targets. The people who are changing the world in ways they do not care for are all somewhere else. A bunch of them are at Davos.
OBL and a few of his compadres believed that if they went after a symbol of the Western global financial preeminence, they'd have an impact. They did, but maybe not quite the one they were was hoping for. They did screw up air travel forever, at least in my country, but the financial and economic system was resilient enough to deal with a single point being damaged.
At the strategic level, if one is running a fourth generation warfare effort, one first has to understand where the actual centers of power and centers of gravity are, and where key vunlerabilities are. Then a campaign has to be undertaken to hit those, on a continual and sustained basis. (See how cyberwarfare has been on the rise in the past ten years for an idea on how to try and get it right).
The various groups who are roughly in accord on "we don't like how the world is changing, we are fighting back" seem to sufer a real deficiency in strategic thinking. (Some are also at each other's throats for ideological reasons).
You want to win a war? First off, ally with people you may not like. (See US and USSR versus Nazis for an example).
Hit the right targets on the enemy side, and keep on hitting, and the enemy may lose the means or will to fight.
Blowing up stuff in Russia to gain the benefit of the media coverage of the Olympics is perhaps tactically useful, but it is strategically bass ackwards.
May these sorts remain strategically stupid for the foreseeable future. *raises glass*
If they ever get smart, a whole lot of wrong is going to happen real fast, and most of what uniformed personnel are able to do (particularly pilots and aircrew) won't matter in terms of dealing with that change to the battlefield.
The strategic imperative for those NOT aligned with these "we are fighting the changing world" is to make every effort to keep them fighting each other, and to vigorously encourage them to do so. They'll think they are making a difference, and in so doing will apply their efforts and resources to a campaign that will not achieve their political aim.
Last edited by Lonewolf_50; 24th Jan 2014 at 13:49.