Más sobre Londres

Victor Davis Hanson sostiene que el grado de destrucción y victimas del atentado de las Torres Gemelas del 11 de septiembre fue demasiado y que paradójicamente sirvió para convencer a muchos en EEUU de que la única manera de ganar esta guerra es con la fuerza.

El autor cree que los próximos atentados no van a ser de esa magnitud. Serán suficiente para causar pánico y desazón en la población, como los de España y Londres, pero no lo suficientemente grandes para galvanizar la voluntad de defenderse de la opinión pública:

Bin Laden has so far only made one mistake: He took down the entire World Trade Center rather than the top floors, and had the misfortune of having George Bush as president. Thus he lost Afghanistan and ended up with democratic reform from Iraq and Lebanon to the Gulf and Egypt. Train bombings in Madrid and bus explosions in London, like the carnage in Iraq, are preferable, since they are enough to terrify and demoralize the Westerner but not quite enough to knock sense into him that only military resistance and victory will save his civilization.

So the attacks will never quite be of such a stature to convince Western voters that one more such explosion will destroy their societies. The trick is instead to wage war insidiously, incrementally, and stealthily to avoid an overwhelming response. A cooling-off period in between 9/11 and 7/7 in which Western apologists, pacifists, and Islamist sympathizers go to work is essential for the terror to continue.