Oh, writing sorts like me are supposed to have words on this. All I will say is that this is all much more confusing to me than it used to be.
I don’t think Islamic terrorists are very smart. If they were, they would have launched more successful attacks. Muslims, in general, are not very smart. They don’t invent things. They don’t work hard (a Ranger I know who did several tours in Iraq commented that work and the “Will of Allah” seem to exist in an inverted ratio, where less work equates consistently to more “Will of Allah”.) They are not individualistic. You just don’t hear often of Islamic creative geniuses. They have existed, but rarely. They don’t listen to music in many countries. They don’t paint. They don’t sculpt. They don’t dance in most countries.
Virtually every creative outlet which defines culture in general is proscribed to them by their holy book. In my view, creativity aggregates. People who foster creativity in one arena tend to be capable of processing it in many arenas. It would seem clear that the converse is also true, that the less avenues for the expression of creativity that are open, the overall creation will happen. There are no Mozarts or Leonardo Da Vinci’s in Islamic history. There have been some very good poets, but most of them are frowned upon by the orthodox. They created only by rejecting–they no doubt would have said expanding and clarifying–some core elements of the doctrine.
And to be clear, within Islamic doctrine, there is nothing to be done. Their world is perfect. Their customs are perfect. Their faith is perfect. They have but to live a life without breaking the rules, and their salvation is assured.
It is perhaps not overstating the case to say that the only obvious open path for progress and creativity is jihad. If your world is perfect, you must go outside of it to find creative challenges.
The Washington D.C. sniper showed how easy it is to sow fear. Terror acts are simplicity itself. Get a truck and crash it into something. Derail a train. Shoot up a shopping mall. Yet, virtually none of that has happened.
Yes, authorities have detected and stopped a number of plots–at least, we are told that plots were underway and were stoppped.
But, again, given the manifold challenge of rigging and blowing a skyscraper in New York City without being detected, surely minds capable of that would have done more. This, too, leads to my belief in a broader conspiracy that involved non-Muslims.
I will mention, too, that it is strange how thoroughly the Tower 7 story has been buried. Yes, Towers 1 and 2 were much taller, and the disaster more complete. But think about this: a 47 story building would be the tallest building in almost every city in the U.S.
Here is a list. The tallest building in Alabama is 35 stories. In Arizona and Arkansas 40. Only about half the state in the US have even ONE building that is that tall. Imagine the outcry and investigation if one of them spontaneously collapsed.
The official story of Tower 7 is that the combustion of office furnishings caused the collapse. Yet, what was on fire, where, that caused the collapse? How did the fires start?
It is stupid for conspiracy theorists to waste ANY time on Towers 1 and 2, since plainly the cause of the fire and structural instability was jetliners being flown into them. Never fight toe to toe when you can flank. The task in falsifying a paradigm is not attacking the points of strongest defense, but the weakest, and attacking them hard. This is basic.
It would be easy enough to test the official theory, by starting a fire in an area filled with the contents of the office where the first beam failure allegedly occurred–towards the top, if memory serves, making the issue of the genesis of the fire that much more problematic–and seeing what the peak temperature is, and how long it lasts, in the region of the structural steel.
I look in the office I work in, and I see nothing capable of sustaining ANY fire for more than an your, and that is likely pushing it.
The world is mad. It has always been mad. My work is dedicated to the ideal of helping more people go sane. I can do nothing but tell the truth as I see it for now, but that is a much better starting point, always, than an illusion.