"Deep in themselves, terrorist fundamentalists also lack true conviction — their violent outbursts are a proof of it. How fragile the belief of a Muslim must be if he feels threatened by a stupid caricature in a low-circulation Danish newspaper. The fundamentalist Islamic terror is not grounded in the terrorists’ conviction of their superiority and in their desire to safeguard their cultural-religious identity from the onslaught of global consumerist civilization."
Zizek certainly has a different way of looking at this. Although I don't exactly grasp everything he's referring to, it clarifies a few ideas that I've been struggling with.
These fundamentalists seem more interested in seizing, destroying, and going out in a blaze of glory. There appears to be no thought beyond grabbing as much of whatever they can, however they can, and hiding behind religion to justify their action.
They are not nation building. They are akin to frustrated children tearing up another child's belongings, because they are sick with envy at not having those things. Except of course, they are adults, with grown-up strength, weapons, and sickly devious minds. I'm at a loss at how you deal with this sort of perversity, short of bombing them back into the stone age. At the very least, the other Muslim countries need to step up and figure out a way to show they aren't willing to allow this to continue unchecked.
Putin is a fine example of the opposite. He is nation building. He's hoping to be revered through the ages as the man that rebuilt his nation. Now, that I can understand and wrap my brain around. I don't approve, as now we're stumbling around trying to figure out how to uphold the treaty that we signed with Ukraine, in order to get them to disarm.
Nature abhors a vacuum. When the US starts hinting that they don't want to be the world's enforcer any longer, someone else is going to step in to take advantage of the vacancy. While this may not be an official stance, it's certainly been the tone for the last few years. Again, I get that too. People are tired of wasting money, time, and lives in the Middle East. Especially when it seems that picking who to back is like choosing the least poisonous snake, in a pit of vipers.
Instead of saying that we have no strategy, Obama probably should have blustered with the best of them. Political doublespeak about contingency plans, gathering intelligence, and upcoming meetings with the Joint Chiefs--lots of that kind of stuff. I'm convinced that half the war is won in diplomacy by bluster, the projection of conviction, and instilling that tiny doubt that we might just be crazy enough to do something.
