I just read al-Qaeda's November issue of its online magazine "Inspire."
The terrorists stick their noses in the air: "We would like to ask the Americans a question: Why try to solve the symptoms of the problem rather than the root?" O.K., al-Qaeda, since you brought it up, let's go to the root.
The starting place is your article "Technical Details," which explains the two printer bombs your tried to airmail last month. What caught my attention was the article's tone. The author exudes an almost audible glee in describing how the bombs were made ("So, how did we succeed in sidestepping the X-Ray scanners? … We designed the detonator to be short so that it wouldn't be detected and we filled it with Lead Azide." Page 13.)
Completely unaware, his delight exposes the root:
The worship of technical devices is a hallmark of the middle class man, aka George Babbitt. For them and them alone did Babbitt have "enormous and poetic admiration":
They were his symbols of truth and beauty. Regarding each new intricate mechanism -- metal lathe, two-jet carburetor, machine-gun, oxyacetylene welder -- he learned one good realistic-sounding phrase, and used it over and over, with a delightful feeling of being technical and initiated. (Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, Dover Publications, p. 53.)
Al-Qaeda and Babbitt? The coincidence is much more than a coincidence. The Source of Terrorism: Middle Class Rebellion analyzes their longstanding interrelationships. It mentions the 9/11 terrorist pilots and
George Bailey, the kindly neighborhood realtor played by Jimmy Stewart in "It’s A Wonderful Life." Can the former exist without the latter? The possessed of Dostoevsky have stronger ties to the Babbitts of Sinclair Lewis than normally meets the eye. (Page 247.)
Delving further into "Inspire," al-Qaeda reports that the packages were addressed to Crusade leader Reynald Krak and Spanish Inquisitionist Don Diego Leza. The street addresses were two synagogues in "Chicago, Obama's city." (Page 7.) Readers of this blog will find nothing new there (Oct. 31 and Nov. 5 posts).
"Inspire" makes this singular revelation: "We were very optimistic about the outcome of this operation. That is why we dropped into one of the boxes a novel titled Great Expectations." (Ibid.) Adolescent irony, the telltale heart of terrorists' sense of humor, is discussed in the Nov. 12 post.
Here comes the root of the problem, al-Qaeda. It certainly isn't the root you have in mind. Anwar al-Awlaki, Omar Hammami, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Faisal Shahzad, Bryant Vinas, Nidal Malik Hasan, Adam Gadahn, Sayed Haris Ahmed, ad infinitum: you are the secret you keep, even from yourselves.
You are middle class rebels.
The terrorists stick their noses in the air: "We would like to ask the Americans a question: Why try to solve the symptoms of the problem rather than the root?" O.K., al-Qaeda, since you brought it up, let's go to the root.
The starting place is your article "Technical Details," which explains the two printer bombs your tried to airmail last month. What caught my attention was the article's tone. The author exudes an almost audible glee in describing how the bombs were made ("So, how did we succeed in sidestepping the X-Ray scanners? … We designed the detonator to be short so that it wouldn't be detected and we filled it with Lead Azide." Page 13.)
Completely unaware, his delight exposes the root:
The worship of technical devices is a hallmark of the middle class man, aka George Babbitt. For them and them alone did Babbitt have "enormous and poetic admiration":
They were his symbols of truth and beauty. Regarding each new intricate mechanism -- metal lathe, two-jet carburetor, machine-gun, oxyacetylene welder -- he learned one good realistic-sounding phrase, and used it over and over, with a delightful feeling of being technical and initiated. (Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, Dover Publications, p. 53.)
Al-Qaeda and Babbitt? The coincidence is much more than a coincidence. The Source of Terrorism: Middle Class Rebellion analyzes their longstanding interrelationships. It mentions the 9/11 terrorist pilots and
George Bailey, the kindly neighborhood realtor played by Jimmy Stewart in "It’s A Wonderful Life." Can the former exist without the latter? The possessed of Dostoevsky have stronger ties to the Babbitts of Sinclair Lewis than normally meets the eye. (Page 247.)
Delving further into "Inspire," al-Qaeda reports that the packages were addressed to Crusade leader Reynald Krak and Spanish Inquisitionist Don Diego Leza. The street addresses were two synagogues in "Chicago, Obama's city." (Page 7.) Readers of this blog will find nothing new there (Oct. 31 and Nov. 5 posts).
"Inspire" makes this singular revelation: "We were very optimistic about the outcome of this operation. That is why we dropped into one of the boxes a novel titled Great Expectations." (Ibid.) Adolescent irony, the telltale heart of terrorists' sense of humor, is discussed in the Nov. 12 post.
Here comes the root of the problem, al-Qaeda. It certainly isn't the root you have in mind. Anwar al-Awlaki, Omar Hammami, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Faisal Shahzad, Bryant Vinas, Nidal Malik Hasan, Adam Gadahn, Sayed Haris Ahmed, ad infinitum: you are the secret you keep, even from yourselves.
You are middle class rebels.