Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets

The London Bombings: What the Wehrmacht Never Was

And then in 2005 when terrorist bombs went off again, more than half a century later, Brits with long teeth and poor memories—and Americans with rich imaginations—thought they heard the boom of the Blitz. They thought they saw Panzer troops rolling across the drumlins of Yorkshire and U‐boats crashing through Cardiff Bay. They thought the bombings confirmed the importance of the new threat they faced.

But Muslim terrorists were everything the Wehrmacht never was, and so much less!

What the bombings really confirmed was how insignificant a threat the terrorists were and how unlike the Luftwaffe. Because—while we have never tried it personally—we have to believe that blowing up one or two trains in London must be easy; after all, there are thousands of them running over hundreds of miles all over the place. And since it happens so rarely, we also have to believe that what terrorists there are must be few and feeble. The Luftwaffe, on the other hand, was neither. The first major German raid on London saw as many as 350 bombers attacking the city. In comparison, in military terms, the terrorist attack on London in the summer of 2005 was pathetic and piddling—nothing whatsoever like the Blitz.

But as times change, ideas and beliefs change to suit them. People come to believe what they must believe when they must believe it. You don't run an empire. Instead, you are run by it, and by the beliefs that go along with it.

There was another ...