Who Do We Choose To Be?

The Unstoppable Rise of Terror

In 2005, I wrote about terrorist groups as a prime example of self-organization.¹⁰ They recruited young men, brainwashed them to be passionate about the cause, and then unleashed them to do whatever harm they could. In that essay, I was critical of the role of formal high commanders and the U.S. strategy of targeting leaders as the means to fight terrorism. Now, the increasing number of individual and small-group terrorist attacks all over the world prove that the strategy of independent actors wreaking hell wherever they can is growing in force and will continue to destabilize and terrorize us.¹¹

But more information has come forth, offering detailed descriptions about the founding and ongoing organization of ISIS. ...