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Notes -
I think the real danger is the irrationality of religious behavior. You can negotiate with the USSR and given a certain level of concession they’ll stop. Russia doesn’t have a religious mandate to take over the globe, it has pragmatic reasons to try to take Ukraine. Even when the Soviets were banging the table and claiming to be able to bury America, they weren’t willing to die themselves to do it. They wanted and still want things in the material world, and they are not willing to die to get that stuff.
Even if Islamists are a small portion of the population of Muslims, they still are a problem because they’re irrational and are willing to kill and die to get their way.
You know Marxist terrorism was legitimately a problem for a while there, right? Communist true believers are a lot like islamists- although the USSR for much of its history was not run by true believers.
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