any ragtag bunch of bandits can bring a superpower to its knees. they're immediately responsive to conditions, cohesive, committed, lightly equipped, led with definiteness, basically indetectible in a civilian population. they're creative, improvisational, of necessity. we will never win a war like this: like the soviets in afghanistan, us in vietnam. say you built a giant robot, capable of burning whole nations, but incapable of detecting the little assholes with tripwires gathering around its feet... the american state is too large to accomplish anything definite or true in any arena of life. we suffer from elphantiasis. our only hope is actual decomposition.