Older West Virginians grew up in an era when the Cold War between capitalist America and communist Russia was the driving force of conflict around the world. But now, suicide fanaticism has become the chief cause of bloodshed.
The tragic suicide attack of Sept. 11, 2001, was a Pearl Harbor that signaled the new age of human bombs and "martyr" missions. Since then, the death toll from zealot believers has soared like a rocket.
Here's a stunner: International terror attacks leaped astronomically after the Bush-Cheney administration invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Murderous groups like the Islamic State blossomed in the wake of the U.S. assaults.
Only about 200 terror strikes happened worldwide in 2002, and the same number in 2003, according to State Department figures - but the number exploded to 11,000 in 2005, followed by 14,000 in 2006, and has generally held those levels ever since. Last year, for instance, there were 13,500 reported terror events - many by suicide volunteers - and 32,727 people were killed, the State Department says.
"The rise in terrorist activity coincided with the U.S. invasion of Iraq," the Institute for Economics and Peace's Global Terrorism Index reported last year. It said toppling of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship "created large power vacuums in the country, allowing different factions to surface and become violent."
In other words, by invading Iraq (on bogus grounds), the Bush-Cheney White House unwittingly triggered worse terror. Researcher Paul Gottinger wrote this week:
"The U.S. invasion of Iraq destabilized Iraq and Syria, creating conditions for the emergence of ISIS, which now controls large parts of the two countries. The invasion of Afghanistan has not been able to wrestle large sections of the country from the Taliban, leaving Afghanistan in a state of perpetual war. And the air war to oust Muammar Gaddafi has left Libya in a state of chaos."
Gottinger quoted U.S. reports saying "the war in Iraq has become the cause celebre for jihadists" - adding that the conflict is "shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives."
What a nightmare. America cannot ignore the danger posed by fanatics willing to kill themselves to commit mass murder - yet trying to stamp out the menace militarily spurs worse evil. It's a lose-lose situation.