Al-qaeda, the World's foremost Masters of Force Multiplication

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
Mr Fun, although I'm not gay, I obviously gave you a good ass-raping on this forum - which must explain why you have such a raving hardon for me!

[Sirotnikov]

The OP had a point.

This is known in professional circles as "asymmetrical warfare" - it is one of the principles of guerilla and terrorist warfare.

You carefully learn the weakness in security of the enemy
You make sure it is a very visible target
You strike only when you have the upper hand, and immediately disengage.
You never meet the enemy face to face, and always aviod areas where the enemy is strong.

the long term strategy is
a) self preservation
b) reducing enemy morale (with enough high-profile visible "victories")
c) proving enemy tactics ineffective / irrelevant (what good are all these warplanes against box cutters?)

this usually puts the enemy public in political turmoil and often gets what ever effect the terrorists were aiming for.