It is obvious that al Qaeda has lost the ability to mount " big ticket " terrorist attacks similar to 9/11. The security forces have it's leaders in their gun sights and they have changed tactics, relying on an appeal to radical young followers to act on their own initiative to fly the black flag - and get maximum publicity.
The Woolwich incident in London illustrates this new approach. After the killing the perpetrators made no attempt to escape. They remained on the scene and delivered their message to bystanders and when armed police eventually arrived, rushed at them in a threatening manner that caused them to open fire in self defence.
The tactic delivered newspaper headlines across the world, and it is this kind of publicity that is likely to provoke angry radical young Muslims to search the Net for ways to construct bombs or plan spectacular acts of terror without regard for their own lives. Woolwich followed the Boston marathon bombing and the scene is now set for this to become al Qaeda's war against the west.
Al Qaeda has learned that there is no escape for any leader who puts his head above the parapet. Even Bin Laden's carefully concealed hideout in a fiercely Islamic country could not protect him from retribution. It seems that technology is on the side of the terrorists. The Net provides an anonymous vehicle to provide the information budding terrorists need for their craft, and now it has delivered plans to create a firearm that evades metal detectors - and can be created with a relatively cheap three dimensional printer. It also opens up the prospect of undetactable bombs to bring down airliners.
Security has delivered a shrinking reward for terrorists. When 9/11 was launched on a blissfully unprepared world, it killed over three thousand people. The Madrid and London train bombings gave a sharply reduced casualty list - and the Boston bombing left just three people dead. It seems that acts of terror that will kill a small number of victims in a spectacular manner are a price we have to pay to maintain our preferred way of life.
One thing stood out clearly in the Woolwich incident. There was little of a " shock factor " from the nearby public when a victim was run over and then hacked to death in plain view. Terrorists with bloody hands clutching lethal weapons were virtually ignored by many pedestrians who walked past within inches of them and one brave woman argued openly with an armed attacker. What is big news to the media is no longer such a big deal with a war weary public. Perhaps we have seen just too much carnage on the nightly television news to take it seriously now.
Another casualty is the time honoured custom of unarmed English police. That was probably fine in a distant, more peaceful age, but two armed terrorists stood unmolested in the street for over twenty minutes because it was just too dangerous to send in unarmed " Bobbies ". Eventually, armed police rushed to the scene, but it was sheer luck that further carnage of innocents did not take place because the terrorist plan was to wait for publicity - while delivering their message.
More similar incidents seem inevitable, and perhaps their frequency will glut the media's appetite for sensational reporting. Terrorism is no longer unusual. It has evolved into the background of events that happen as we live our lives - and it seems that ordinary people now take it with a shrug of the shoulders !
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