Knife attacks up, shockah!

As we have seen in the news of late, there has been an increase in young men running amok with knives.

Before setting off to cause mayhem, 17-year-old Riaz Khan Ahmadzai made a quick video in an oddly empty room in which he talked about why Westerners must die and his devotion to the Islamic State.

[snippage]

While he talks, he plays with a small knife, a knife with which he pledges to behead his enemies.

Ahmadzai would later attack five people on a train near Wurzburg, wounding four, before he would be shot to death while lunging at police. [more snippage]

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article92169982.html#storylink=cpy

It's instructive to look at the knife. It's a common kitchen knife, with a cheap plastic handle and a blade that's not quite as long as Ahmadzai's fist is wide. It's the sort of knife that can be found in millions of kitchens worldwide, and a cheap version, at that.

The Islamic State has claimed credit for some of Europe's most spectacular attacks in the last year. But Ahmadzai's attack stands out for its simplicity, especially compared with the Islamic State's Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, which involved multiple attackers, hard-to-obtain weapons, numerous rental cars, cellphones and safe houses, or the March 22 mayhem in Brussels, which featured three coordinated bombers attacking nearly simultaneously at the airport and a subway station.

Ahmadzai's attack involved no expensive weapons, no explosives, no training and not likely much contact with or advice from the Islamic State.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article92169982.html#storylink=cpy

That's a pretty good deal for Islamic State, right? Just talk some kid into a solo attack, it creates almost as much uproar as the big, expensive attack.

"Many of the attackers seem to have some form of mental illness, and once an idea becomes 'cool' it will attract others who have delusions of grandeur/revenge," Daniel Byman, an expert on international security at Georgetown University, said in an email.

While this leads perhaps to smaller attacks, it has a downside, he added.

"I don't think IS is really giving major logistical or operational support to the recent attacks – Paris, in contrast, was quite different," he wrote, referring to the Islamic State. "I think this sort of low-tech terrorism is exceptionally hard to stop. It also has a momentum all its own.

As  ideas for terrorism go, this is a pretty good one. Europe has managed to effectively disarm their entire population. The propaganda campaign has been so successful that the very idea of carrying a weapon for self defense cannot even be discussed. It is anathema, forbidden. The whole Continent is one gigantic Gun Free Zone. Two random untrained assholes can run into a church and kill the priest in front of his whole congregation. AND THEY LET IT HAPPEN. Because self defense is forbidden. They know they're not allowed to fight back.

We shall see how long that state of affairs lasts. I predict it won't be long before the German townspeople are arranging 'accidents' for mouthy 'refugees' that are too quick with their hands.

That's not a -good- thing, incidentally, but it is most certainly going to be a thing.

The Phantom