Mark Steyn's question (mentioned in my post below) about how many Jihadis there might really be in all of Islam got me thinking... How large would the "Jihadi Military" be, even if only 1% of the world's population of muslims were members? Wanna know the answer?
TEN MILLION PEOPLE
That's right, only 1% of the total population of the so-called ROP would have to be active fighters for the cause of Jihad for them to have manpower more than ten times the size of our total combined armed forces (National Guard included).
Ten million is hardly a "fringe" group. We should be so lucky as to be able to recruit half that number into our own armed forces on ideology alone. Imagine it: their recruits are often asked to blow themselves up, their survival chances in battle are often zero going in, so even if they are not 1%, but rather only .0001% of the total population, that much dedication, combined with their asymmetrical warfare tactics would still make up for any loss in numbers of "troops."
True, our technology still surpasses theirs--for now--but as we've seen just this week with Iran's test-fire of an underwater missile, the Russians will happily sell technology that's good enough to sink our battleships to anyone who'll pay enough for it. "Show me the money" is their tagline. You'd think they'd care about potentially empowering allies of the Chechens, but noooo, what are a few school kids when there's money to be made?
Now add in the fact that populations sympathetic to these fighters control half the world's oil supply (Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia), have nuclear weapons (Pakistan and North Korea--Kim Jong Il would sell his own mother to hurt the US), and you have a truly terrifying situation.
So next time someone looks at you condescendingly and says that "Radical Islamists are just a tiny portion of the total Muslim population, probably less than 1%, blah blah blah, no reason to fear such a tiny fringe, etc..." tell them they ought to play the lottery because they can't do math and, judging by their arrogance and deep denial of reality, must be hoping you can't either.
I like that! The last line, tell them to play the lottery, for the POT is growing! No one gets it right and it grows!
Posted by: Peg at April 5, 2006 1:26 AM