The Taliban: The lousiest terrorists in the world

The Atlantic points out that the Taliban may be the Keystone Kops of terrorists:

taliban-suicide-bomber-academy
Taliban suicide bomber academy. There's a reason they call them suicide bombers and not homicide bombers.

To be sure, some terrorists are steely and skilled—people like Mohamed Atta, the careful and well-trained head of the 9/11 hijackers. Their leaders and recruiters can be lethally subtle and manipulative, but the quiet truth is that many of the deluded foot soldiers are foolish and untrained, perhaps even untrainable…

Nowhere is the gap between sinister stereotype and ridiculous reality more apparent than in Afghanistan, where it’s fair to say that the Taliban employ the world’s worst suicide bombers: one in two manages to kill only himself. And this success rate hasn’t improved at all in the five years they’ve been using suicide bombers, despite the experience of hundreds of attacks—or attempted attacks. In Afghanistan, as in many cultures, a manly embrace is a time-honored tradition for warriors before they go off to face death. Thus, many suicide bombers never even make it out of their training camp or safe house, as the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests. According to several sources at the United Nations, as many as six would-be suicide bombers died last July after one such embrace in Paktika.

Way to go, Taliban. Keep up the good work.

H/T: Andrew Bolt

This post was last modified on July 21, 2021

Talibanterrorism
editor:

View Comments (7)

  • This is actually the same problem the Japanese had in WWII with their kamikaze -- it worked for a while, until they ran out of capable pilots. (the good ones were all dead...)

    It actually wasn't just the kamikaze, though -- with the bushido profound intolerance for even the slightest failure, requiring the best leaders to off themselves when they had relatively minor setbacks, it was only a matter of time before they lost all their best commanders, and tactical advantage passed to their enemies.

    It was like Patton said -- our job was to make *them* die for their country.

    Who knows, maybe they'll get wise to what they're doing before they do something big and get wiped off the face of the earth as a consequence. Not holding my breath. There's a lot of zealotry out there.

  • and im supposed to believe that the same people in charge of THESE people planned all those foiled attacks at our airports? jah, and im king of sweeden and heir apparent to the french monarchy, im the lone escaped son of king louis.....

Related Post
  1. Bin Laden death photos show “brains hanging out of the eye socket.” Cool.
  2. Chris Matthews to become spokesman for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association)?
  3. James Cameron goes to the Amazon, bores the hell out of natives