Tomorrow Now

I just finished skimming Bruce Sterling's Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next Fifty Years. For me this means reading the interesting parts. I was throroughly engrossed by Chapter 4: The Soldier. Bruce gives a snapshot of three contemporary terrorists/warlords; the precise description depends on your point of view. He profiles Chechnya's Shamil Basaev, Serbia's Zeljko Raznatovic (AKA Arkan), and Turkish Kurd Abdullah Catli. I found the key traits summary particularly intriguing.

ABC's for future Arkans, Basaevs, and Catlis:

1. Male 25-40, likes handguns and has visceral, hands-on experience with face-to-face violence.
2. Extensive prison history somehow enhances his public reputation.
3. Quite good-looking, enjoys making a show in posh casinos and hotels with a line in feminine arm candy.
4. Speaks several languages, has spent much time in other countries.
5. Fluent, fast on his feet, media-savvy, good on TV.
6. Has a personal posse of devoted tough guys who are known by their nicknames - or, better yet, by the fake IDs that they got from cops.
7. Gets richer and more influential as life gets harder for his neighbors.
8. Emits chauvinist rhetoric but kills many people of his own nationality. Killing rivals in gangland a particular speciality.
9. Lousy at straight jobs. Can't take orders. Essentially unemployable.
10. Prominent in politics, eminently electable, but has no political philosophy, no sensible platform for goverance, and no legislative or executive experience.

Definitely sounds like a blueprint for a terrorist to me. Particularly striking are Bruce's comments that "He can light bonfires inside the New World Order and perhaps devastate wide areas, but he cannot build anything. He can't even defend the patch of ground that he himself is standing on."