[ucee054]

In the Monkey King Legend the heroes are warned not to overwhelm the monster by a reference to the Art of War by Sun Zi.

If I remember correctly, the translation is "even a rat will fight if cornered", though today we might mutter something about "asymmetric warfare" in response to "full spectrum dominance".

Sun Zi wrote in about 500BC. So it's not like you were warned yesterday. You've had 2500 years of warning.

Expect kamikaze attacks. They happen. Especially from people who feel they have nothing to lose, and feel under attack from very, very strong opponents.

[tome]

> Expect kamikaze attacks. They happen.

But they don't. Not from the Vietnamese, nor the Indians nor are the Gabonese. Nor the Chileans and Nicaraguans, as was pointed out in the comment I originally responded to.

[ucee054]

But they did from the Vietnamese, when the Vietnamese were occupied.

And try googling for "suicide attack India" or "suicide attack Kashmir" or "suicide attack Sri Lanka", you'll find plenty of hits.

Just because South Americans haven't done it (yet) (that we know of), it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. Like I told you, you've had at least 2500 years warning.

Hell, there's even the American saying "Give me Liberty or give me Death!"

I have referenced academic study on this topic elsewhere, go read it.

[tome]

Which countries was the US occupying on 9/11?

[ucee054]

I answered this above.

Occupation is one reason the kamikaze may feel like a cornered rat. Indirect occupation is another.

This can be because the perpetrator (USA) is giving weapons to the actual occupier (Israel), because the perpetrator is implementing a sanctions/embargo regime amounting to a mediaeval siege that killed half a million, mostly children (Iraq) or because the perpetrator has installed a "government" in your country to do the occupation for it (Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Ethiopia etc etc etc Saudi Arabia).

If you google for the jihadis' motives, you'll find that they mention all three.

Given that the actual 911 attackers were Saudis, I would have thought that US sponsored tyranny in Saudi Arabia would have been their main motive, but it appears that they were significantly motivated by fellow-feeling for Palestinians.

[tome]

I know what excuses jihadis use for their terror. I just don't think any of them are reasonable, including the ones you listed above.

[ucee054]

It is not an excuse if the guy is ready to throw himself and an airplane into a building for it. That means the guy is pretty sincere. The word you are looking for is motive.

The fact that you do not find their motives "reasonable" intrigues me. Is it their methods you disagree with, or their grievances?

If you think their grievances are not legitimate, does it change when you substitute "gold rush" for "oil rush" and "red skin" for "rag head"?

(By the way I'm not thrilled about getting bombed. I almost lost a friend in Boston.)