Required Reading

Ralph Peters explains why we can’t “persuade men who, for the first time in their lives, have found meaning and a powerful sense of belonging that we know what’s best for them.” Read:

By embracing Islamist extremism and the terrorist mission, the misfit gains:

• Acceptance for the first time in his life
• A sense of belonging
• Structure (never underestimate the appeal of rigor to troubled souls)
• A comforting explanation for his failures
• Power and purpose
• Justification for hatred and his anti-social impulses
• Revenge and respect
• The thrill of torturing others and the ecstasy of killing human beings
• The prospect of fame
• Paradise, should he die on jihad, with a host of submissive virgins who cannot compare him to other, more potent, more appealing males

And what do we offer to those we hope to deter?

• A job stocking shelves at Walmart

Actually, the job at Walmart is optional. The condescending lecture about “real Islam” isn’t.

Anyway, read the whole thing.