I could obviously compare this story to The Red Badge of Courage, but that would be too easy. Then I thought of terrorism.
During the American Civil War, the Confederate side faced many disadvantages. One of them was a lack of manpower compare to the Union forces. One of the ways the Confederates solved this problem was by sending out small bands of Cavalry, such as Mosby’s Rangers, to harass Union forces and disrupt their supply lines. These groups were aided by the fact that they were fighting on their home soil, and thus, they knew the terrain better than their opponents. (These bands were also led by great commanders such as Jeb Stuart and Nathan Bedford Forrest.) As the war began to turn against the Confederacy, their Cavalry became too precious to send on such small assignments. Therefore, small bands of guerrilla raiders began forming behind Union lines. These groups conducted sabotage, laid ambushes, and basically filled the void left by the Confederate Cavalry. For example, in the short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Peyton Farquhar was hung by Union forces who caught him attempting to destroy a vital railroad bridge.
In a similar way, Islamic Radicals do not have large, unified armies, due to long-standing doctrinal differences among Muslims. Therefore, they have adopted a somewhat similar strategy of sending terrorists to cause civilian panic, whether by taking innocent hostages and attempting to use them as bargaining chips in exchange for the freedom of imprisoned comrades, or by sending suicide bombers to blow up buildings. The most famous example of a terrorist attack was the 9/11 bombings. This strategy forces major nations like the United States to devote substantial efforts towards preventing terrorist attacks.
What do you guys think? Is this too farfetched?
