Shoulda Seen It Coming

Last night, I was reading an old essay written in 1993 by Gary North. It had something to say about how the Islamic world would cope with the encroachment of Western culture:

The problem is, the likely Islamic defense will be military: terrorism. Islam will have to attack the source of the West’s technological superiority if it is to retain its leadership at home. The West will be challenged. Squads of dedicated terrorists will seek to bomb Western power stations and communications centers, or use biological weapons to kill hundreds of thousands of city dwellers. They will seek to create havoc in clandestine ways. Islamic nations cannot defeat the West on the conventional military battlefield, as Iraq learned in Kuwait in 1991. They will have to try to defeat the West on unconventional battlefields inside the West. To escape falling behind the West economically, the Islamic theocracies must bring down the West, even though the West has made them rich in the second half of the 20th century. The envy factor will combine with the Islamic theocracy factor: a highly destructive combination. A war is now in progress. It will almost surely escalate.

Terrorism was nothing new in 1993. I'm sure others could see this trend, as well. It was still an insightful comment, in light of events in the last decade, especially since 9/11/2001.