[LINK] On Gwynne Dyer in the Georgia Straight on terrorism

[rfmcdonald]

Charlie Smith's Georgia Straight interview with journalist Gwynne Dyer notes why military responses to terrorism are fundamentally ill-thought.

"Well, we lost two people in the last year to terrorism and we lost about 250 a month on the roads," Dyer said. "You know, the Americans lost 3,000 people on 9/11, but they also lost 3,000 people on the roads and another 3,000 to gunshot wounds, mostly delivered by their nearest and dearest.

"The scale of the terrorism is tiny compared to its presence in the media," Dyer continued. "Really, we should, as much as possible, ignore it. We certainly don't need to overreact by sending troops to the Middle East or aircraft to do God knows what in terms of useful activity. It's just dumb."

In fact, according to Dyer, if western countries expand their bombing campaigns against ISIS into Syria, it will only make the Islamic State stronger.

That's because it will reinforce ISIS's message that western infidels are attacking and killing Muslims. Dyer said that this provides a perfect recruiting tool to attract more desperate people to join their cause.

The former instructor at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (where British officers are trained to lead soldiers) described this as "political jujitsu". And he said this is why ISIS releases grisly, well-edited videos showing westerners being beheaded.