The following are approximately the first 1000 words from Chapter 28 of Jonar Nader’s book,
How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People.

Infuriating terrorists:

Why tolerant people must not tolerate intolerant people

To answer the myriad of questions that I receive about terrorism, I prepared a lecture called, How to Lose Friends and Infuriate Terrorists. I have delivered it to a wide variety of audiences, including delegates at an annual conference for the Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers.

The first question that I asked the intelligence officers was, ‘What are the risks of Australians losing their way of life?’ A clock-like dial called ‘Nader’s Terrometer’ was shown to the delegates, who were asked to rank their answer from –60 to +120. This range expressed the two poles, from ‘Impossible’ to ‘Imminent’. The majority selected +20 which represented a ‘low’ probability of Australians losing their way of life. Many refused to believe my assessment of +110, which was between Extreme and Imminent. I know that many changed their mind after they evaluated the arguments put forward during my presentation. One delegate who was finalising his doctoral studies said, ‘Your presentation has put my entire thesis to shame.’ This chapter highlights the key points that I presented.

Anyone who subscribed to the philosophy that ‘September Eleven changed the world’ is lacking a large measure of understanding about world affairs. Indeed, everything is different, but very little has changed.

Terrorism has nothing to do with where they place the next bomb. Let’s not bamboozle ourselves by the seemingly irrational actions of individual terrorists. Instead, we need to identify the real motives behind terrorism. We must marshal our resources and focus on how terrorism differs from crime, and how terrorists differ from criminals.

Criminals set out to break our laws, even though they want the rest of us to retain and obey the laws. It is in their interest for the majority to uphold the laws, so that an advantage can be gained when they alone break them. For example, if a law prohibits an average family from possessing a pistol, then armed robbers can barge into someone’s home, confident that they have the upper-hand. Another example involves Bus Lanes. Criminals want drivers to stay away from Bus Lanes so that they can have a clear run, in or out of the city — driving stolen vehicles while using fake ID.

Terrorists set out to change our laws through undemocratic means. They have no regard for our laws, and no respect for our culture. Of all the terrorists, the ones whom we really need to worry about are the sophisticated strategists who, unlike psychotic serial killers, take no personal pleasure in performing acts of violence. They are cold-blooded, heartless, and ruthless, but that’s not why they turn to violence. They use it to call the shots and set the agenda. They know us to be squeamish and devoid of the ‘political will’ to engage in their brand of brutality that shows no regard for human life.

Tit-for-tat skirmishes will lead us nowhere. Terrorists will not cease their assualt until we learn the fine art of intrepid retaliation, and until we understand the purpose behind 21st Century terrorism.

Gone are the days when chivalrous knights would refrain from slaying an enemy if it meant that innocent parties would be hurt in the process. Slowly, across hundreds of battles, we have come to accept and expect that some military missions will cause collateral damage. If a surgical strike against a despotic dictator happens to kill dozens of children, it can be justified as the ‘reality of war’, so long as everyone can attest to it being unintentional or accidental.

Modern terrorism turns the tables. Civilian casualties are no longer classified as collateral damage. Children are no longer the innocent bystanders. Rather, they are the target. They are part of the strategy. As despicable as it is, such is the new reality of war. In this war, there are no soldiers to lure and no battalions to capture; just cultures to modify and customs to alter and laws to change and egos to feed and evil to serve… oops, there goes another suicide bomber. She was only thirteen. Is there a word for that?

Studying terrorism does not help us to understand the mind of the terrorist — no more than studying warfare can help us to understand the motive of the soldier; or studying crime can help us to understand the plight of the criminal.

If we are to comprehend how suicide bombers rationalise their actions, we must peel away the veneer and drill down into their hearts and minds. No matter how haunting it might be, we must rattle the spectre that lurks behind their human mask. Only when we delve into the deepest recesses of their psyche, can we discern the heavy responsibility that burdens our generation.

Throughout the ages, the thing that we have feared most has been the human mind. It is a mysterious tabernacle whose form and structure is as vast as the universe itself. All of us must learn about the enemy’s culture, language, motivators, and innermost rhythm. Policymakers who lack these insights are like lawyers who understand everything about contract law, but have no understanding about the industry in question. I once commissioned a leading law firm to advise me about a publishing contract. After thousands of dollars, it became clear that although they understood ‘law’, they knew nothing about the many opportunities and pitfalls associated with publishing. As a result, my lawyers did not equip me with the right questions that I should have asked the publisher.

What this world lacks most is expertise. It is the experts who immerse themselves in their craft. Are our policymakers experts, or merely spin-doctors who carry violins they cannot play? If our leaders are to maintain ‘law and order’ they must understand ‘pain and suffering’. If they are to secure ‘peace and harmony’ they must intercept ‘greed and corruption’.

Here are two examples of the sorts of questions that will help us if we are to navigate through the quagmire: what do fundamentalist terrorists fear more than death, and what do radical terrorists value more than life? Respectively, the answers are humiliation and honour.