Western Terrorism vs. Eastern Terrorism

I'm missing a number of updates due to a terrible strain on my head from trying to finish a couple of library books, so I'd thought I'll try my best to get to articles up today.

Terrorism is of course not a new idea, its history can be traced so far back into the dawn of civilisation that its really hard to tell where its origins lay. Is it from the raiding bands of barbarians living on the fringe of civilisation? Or did it arise from secret revolts plotted from the heart of isolated/unruly towns? Wherever it might have originated, among the last place you would expect to find it is in the army of an ancient civilisation. Great civilisations raised massive amounts of troops employing intricate formations and having generals leading them. In certain cases, you could almost say that there were rules in battle that the military powers observed.

Yet when facing the savages that lay outside military law, there was always the danger of being surprised. Some used unusual tactics due to the environment they lived in, others have well-developed ambush strategies like the Mongol horde, and even some fearless/suicidal ones who charged to their deaths. The last of course have been virtually stamped out in the West as gunpowder came along. The thing about dissidents in the West, like in the American Revolution, or in the northern Ireland conflict, is that they always leave, to their best efforts, an escape plan. After their sabotage, or even if their mission is unsuccessful, they really want to live to fight for another day. Maybe it's from a lack of manpower, which the East seems to be in no danger of running out, but I'd like to think that it is the result of the Enlightenment.

In the East however, suicidal attacks seem to have no end. Combining suicidal impulses together with modern armoury seems to be the cornerstone of military tactics in the East. These kind of terrorism have demonstrated its finest moments to the world in World War II, where the Japanese were notorious for their Kamikaze pilots in trying to sink Allied ships, as well as for their spectacular way of dying while refusing to be taken prisoners. Unfortunately the East have no lack of other examples, there is the Tamil Tiger bombings, as well as the Palestinian bombings, Indonesian bombings, and the latest craze the Iraqi bombings. All these plans seem to have only 3 options, hit-and-die, die trying and of course being captured when something screws up. Without an exit strategy also simplifies their assault plan, and they have almost no care about who goes down with them, making them frightfully dangerous.

And that's the problem with giving a couple of Bronze Age people modern weapons, just like giving them anything else, the mindset needed to use the technology isn't there.