Ralph Peters on Indonesia

Ralph Peters offers an optimistic take on the Jakarta bombing:
“Behind the breathless 24/7 reports and the images of burned cars and blown-out windows, the encouraging fact is that the bombing in Indonesia was the best the terrorists could do: They can’t defeat America, so they killed some folks having lunch.
“Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, would seem a natural breeding ground for terrorists. Yet it’s noteworthy how little progress extremists have made in that sprawling country of 17,000 islands….The Saudis, who have produced far more terrorists from a much smaller population base, have sunk billions of dollars into Indonesia in an attempt to persuade the people to adapt a stricter, crueler version of Islam. Yet the people of Indonesia have resisted.
“Indonesia has innumerable problems, but the triumph of terrorism is not one of them. Far from encouraging the people of Indonesia to support the terrorists, the hotel bombing in Jakarta will only turn the population more firmly against them, as did the Bali bombings. Desperate to prove they remain capable, the terrorists have become their own worst enemies, striking not their sworn enemies, but their neighbors.”

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