 Disappointment over nationalistic authoritarian regimes may have contributed to the fact that today religion offers a new and subjectively more convincing language for old political orientations. |
| One never really knows who one's enemy is. |
| In the U.S.A. or Europe there is no realistic way to estimate the type, magnitude, or probability of the risk, nor any way to narrow down the potentially affected regions. |
| Manhattan... capital of the 20th century, a city that has fascinated me for more than three decades. |
| Perhaps at a later point important developments will be traced back to September 11. But for now we do not know which of the many scenarios will actually hold in the future. |
| A threatened nation can react to uncertain dangers solely through administrative channels, to the truly embarrassing situation of perhaps overreacting. |
| The uncertainty of the danger belongs to the essence of terrorism. |
| Since the intervention in Afghanistan, we suddenly began to notice when, in political discussions, we found ourselves only among Europeans or Israelis. |
| Since our complex societies are highly susceptible to interferences and accidents, they certainly offer ideal opportunities for a prompt disruption of normal activities. |
| Today's Islamic fundamentalism is also a cover for political motifs. We should not overlook the political motifs we encounter in forms of religious fanaticism. |
| Historically, terrorism falls in a category different from crimes that concern a criminal court judge. |
| The difference between political terror and ordinary crime becomes clear during the change of regimes, in which former terrorists become well-regarded representatives of their country. |
| Partisans fight on familiar territory with professed political objectives to conquer power. This is what distinguishes them from terrorists. |
| Each murder is one too many. |
| Some of those drawn into the holy war had been secular nationalists only a few years before. If one looks at the biographies of these people, remarkable continuities are revealed. |
| I consider Bush's decision to call for a war against terrorism a serious mistake. He is elevating these criminals to the status of war enemies, and one cannot lead a war against a network if the term war is to retain any definite meaning. |
| After September 11, the European governments have completely failed. They are incapable of seeing beyond their own national scope of interests. |
| The misery in war-torn Afghanistan is reminiscent of images from the Thirty Years' War. |
| The state is in danger of falling into disrepute due to the evidence of its inadequate resources. |
| Global terrorism is extreme both in its lack of realistic goals and in its cynical exploitation of the vulnerability of complex systems. |
