randy_byers: (Default)
randy_byers ([personal profile] randy_byers) wrote2007-05-01 10:46 am
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The puppy dog theory of terrorism

Former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke has given a name to the theory that if we leave Iraq, the terrorists will follow us home:

How is this odd terrorist puppy dog behavior supposed to work? The President must believe that terrorists are playing by some odd rules of chivalry. Would this be the "only one slaughter ground at a time" rule of terrorism?

Of course, nothing about our being "over there" in any way prevents terrorists from coming here. Quite the opposite, the evidence is overwhelming that our presence provides motivation for people throughout the Arab world to become anti-American terrorists.


Yeah, it's not as though the occupation of Iraq kept the terrorists out of Bali, Madrid, or London. But I guess that isn't "home," right?

[identity profile] kalimac.livejournal.com 2007-05-01 06:50 pm (UTC)(link)
As the name "flypaper theory" suggests, the idea is apparently that terrorists have only one hive mind between them and can therefore only do one thing at a time. (All we'd need is a single terrorist who can pat his head while rubbing his stomach to disprove that theory.)