There was a terror attack in New Orleans today. An American citizen, who has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (despite its largely defunct state), drove a truck into a crowd; killing at least ten and injuring several others.
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Hey Peter Zeihan here coming to you from New Zealand. It’s New Year’s Day. Back in the States, there was just a terror attack in New Orleans where an American citizen driving a rented truck plowed into a crowd, killing at least ten, injuring a few dozen others. He pledge allegiance to Islamic State, which is, you know, largely defunct in Syria these days.
Just want to put this in context. You know what it is? What to expect. 15, almost 20 years ago, the folks that represented the Islamic State at the time called upon Muslims all over the world to rise up and butcher Christians, saying that, go get a gun, can’t get a gun, get a knife and you can’t get a knife, get a car and just do as much mayhem as you can.
Over a decade later in North America, it’s happened three times. Twice in the United States, once in Edmonton, Canada. Two things to keep in mind here. Number one, training operatives to actually do mass casualty events like, say, 911 takes time, takes resources. And when the people doing the training are in a different hemisphere and don’t control a state, it’s kind of a heavy carry.
And so it just hasn’t happened very often. And when it does happen, it happens closer to the zone in question, like in places like Paris. Second, and I know this is going to be really radical at their core. Most people are not murderous assholes. So if you have a group who claims to represent all Muslims, who says, everyone go out and do something and you know, there’s hundreds of millions of Muslims and it happens three times.
Math people. So is it horrible? Yep. Is it the start of something new? Absolutely not.
