Interview with 90's CIA Director James Woolsey on the difference between the Cold War and the Long War with the Jihad. He characterizes the Soviet leadership, at least after the Second World War, as basically "thugs with a cover story". They no longer believed in Marxism except as a tool of their own power. No desire to lay down their lives for the classless society. They were interested in perks and dachas, not martyrdom.
With the current group of enemies, the sons of Jihad, he finds that they are passionate believers, religious believers, something that liberal Westerners find very hard to take seriously. His description of these sons of Muhammad: "theocratic totalitarian genocidal maniacs." In a way, the Communists of the Soviet era (and I would exclude Mao and Company) were "rational actors", though no less our enemies for that, no less totalitarian. But a review of Muslim history makes it clear that this is religion, one of the most powerful forces in the archetypal treasury. You ignore or underestimate it at your peril.*
One of the ingredients in my Turn to the Right since 2000 is the realization, not just the knowledge, but the visceral realization, that most places in human history, past and present, are run by "thugs with a cover story". Hence my protective aka conservative attitude toward the West and especially toward America. My own phrase is that the world is run by the Crips and the Bloods. But with the current Jihad, Woolsey is right.
*A truly horrific video of the close-up beheading of Eugene Armstrong (pictured above, seconds before his murder). This is not swift death by guillotine, but having your head slowly sawed off with a knife . I do not recommend you watch it unless you are prepared to have your stomach turned by the sight and the sound of it. But it's the true face of Jihad.
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