Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
No, we're putting context to the level of damage currently being inflicted historically. It's a useful exercise in terrorism because our collective memories are short and our reaction is key. Unprecedented reaction would be inappropriate if context shows current concerns aren't unprecedented
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I don't think it's surprising that jihadist global terrorism inspires more fear than a localized political struggle for independence. The agenda of the IRA was clear - get British troops out of Ireland.
The agenda of the Islamicists is existential - punish infidels for not hewing to a fundamentalist religious credo. The target isn't one state or policy, but every civilization bordering the Islamic parts of the world. Jihadists are blowing up civilians from Indonesia to India to Israel to Turkey to Germany to France to the UK to the USA.
And unlike the IRA, whose attacks were carried out by bombers from Ireland, jihadists find support and recruits anywhere there are Muslim communities. So every country in Europe and the rest of the West is finding itself threatened by homegrown radicals who utterly reject the core values of their society. That's a far more insidious threat than the bombs of an independence movement.