Growing more deadly...but less popular

One of the oddities of what I guess could be called the global jihadist insurgency is its increasing deadliness that seems to grow with its unpopularity. Two reports today from the CS Monitor highlight this dichotomy. In the first, we hear of the growing distaste among what is typically described as 'the Muslim street' for the tactics of terror. As the insurgency has grown more deadly in Iraq, it has also grown less focused. No true shadow government has arisen. There are no examples of insurgent control where they can proudly point to a 'better idea' than that presented by the current government. And so the Arab and Muslim community grows weary of the bloodshed and questions the bloodiest of the fundamentalists. An odd contradiction with my last post. There are members of the insurgency making excellent use of the media - as a recruiting tool among extremists and Islamists and as a tool to fracture American support for the war. But they are not winning the battle for hearts and minds among the Muslim population in general.

The second article talks of the jihadi suicide culture - the small sect within the Islamist movement that is vulnerable to the messages coming from places like Iraq. And the 'weapon of choice' that has raised the casualty stakes of terrorism to such incredible new levels.

Here we also see the dangers of the Information Revolution. A trend that might otherwise have remained localized spreads as fast as the latest blogstorm...but with far deadlier consequences. And as more people are able to easily communicate with a wider collection of similar thinkers, groupthink sets in. Suicide bombing becomes a useful tool because its value builds in the echo chamber within which Islamists often choose to communicate.

One could compare it to the U.S. echo chamber within which the Iraqi occupation was planned. Too many like-minded thinkers agreeing with each other and basing that agreement upon, "well, Mr. X is a smart guy. If HE thinks it's a good idea and *I* think it's a good idea, then it must be!"

This sort of group-think also ties into the unsettling view of the future provided in EPIC 2014. But hey...all is not lost. Greater communication IS a good thing. And it is greater ability to communicate at the grass (digital?) roots level that will eventually have as much or more effect on reducing tyranny as any 'official' US or Western action.

UPDATE:

Michael Yon elaborates on the discontinuity between increasing deadliness and decreasing popularity.

Tags:


Islamism
Global insurgency
Digital roots