It's interesting, and a bit sad, that after any one particular type of act masses of people, from political commentators, to news article "comment" posters, rush to arguments they like to make as if they are really relevant to the issue at hand.
We're in a long term, mostly urban, domestic guerilla war being waged by a mostly foreign enemy but one that does have fighters on our own soil. We haven't, as a society, ever dealt with a war of this type really. The last Western nation to do so was France, in Algeria when it fought the FLN in Algeria, including Algiers, and in France itself. In a war of this type, individuals and groups of individuals can and will strike on an almost entirely random basis. But strike they will.
Some of these terrorists are weak minded and unhinged. Not all are. But some certainly are. And of those, some will act fully independently in a way that we cannot not only not predict, but, added to that, in ways that aren't even predictable to those whose campaigns these people adopt.
It can't be fully said that these people would not act in this fashion but for the guerilla war. But that can at least partially be said. And again, not all are weak minded. For the weak minded and mentally ill, the war gives them something to focus on and define themselves by. Not every radical during the Russian Revolution had thought out Socialism. Plenty of the German street fighters for the Nazis prior to 1932 who joined the SA hadn't delved into Nazism deeply. There's no reason to believe that Muslim terrorists, foreign or domestic, have really struggled with their consciences and determined to act out of deep conviction. Probably plenty of them were angry or confused young men, and women, prior to defining their anger by jihad.
Still, we should not discount that some have done just that. Islam does have dark passages that do indeed call for violence against the infidel and tens of thousands of young Muslims, some converts, have answered the black flag of ISIL. And ISIL is calling for its adherents to strike here.
It isn't as if, however, pundits, politicians, and commentators of all types are going to come here and read this and be convinced of anything, however. But mark my words, sadly, all the debate on this topic is darned near pointless. Restriction and police action did nothing whatsoever to stop the FLN's campaign for Algerian independence. Only Algerian independence did, although a counter terrorism campaign featuring terrorism itself darned near achieved the opposite result, before the French public became disgusted with it (I'm not suggesting here we adopt such tactics). Control of various types did not prevent this same thing from happening in Brussels and Paris. What will stop it is the defeat of ISIL, which is actually occurring. But that's a long term effort.
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