Way Too Close for Comfort
By Douglas Farah
The newly-released tape of the Iranian patrol boats pushing in on U.S warships shows just how close we are, routinely, to a major conflagration with unknowable consequences.
That the crew of the USS Hopper did not open fire on the speedboats and cause a serious international incident is a tribute to their discipline, particularly given the memory of the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.
To be able to resist pulling the trigger when someone says "I am coming at you. You will explode in a few minutes" is nothing short of a miracle.
But it is exactly the type of attack that U.S. forces are most worried about-a large-scale attack by an enemy that embraces death rather than seeking to inflict damage but live to fight another day. This is what makes what may once have been routine harassment measures into what must now be viewed as serious, lethal threats.
In reading the literature of radical Islamists, both Sunni and Shia, the narrative told of embracing death for the sake of Allah leading eternal and immediate reward is pervasive.
This teaching is embraced and propounded not just by recognized _jihadist_ groups like al Qaeda, who embraced the tactic on 9/11 and since. That might be easier to isolate and discredit.
However, the narrative has gained widespread public currency with the most prominent of the supposedly "moderate" members of the Muslim Brotherhood such as Yousef al-Qaradawi and Azzam Tamimi. My full blog is here.