Nice attack: How a terrifyingly simple and old method can result in carnage

More than the terrifying audacity of the 9/11 terror attacks, it was the chilling simplicity of those attacks that was horrifying. Until that epochal attack, no one had imagined civilian jetliners being hijacked with box-cutters and then being used as guided missiles to ram into iconic buildings like the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Although during World War II, Japanese Kamikaze pilots had used their fighter planes as manned guided missiles against military targets, 9/11 was the first time civilian planes were used for suicide attacks. In May this year, the IS spokesman urged followers to attack civilians in Europe and the US, adding that “The tiniest action you do in the heart of their land is dearer to us than the biggest action by us…There are no innocents in the heart of the lands of the crusaders.” And just a few days back, the Al Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent chief asked Indian Muslims to “Look at the Muslims of Syria… the Muslim youth living in Europe, how they have been attacking a strong enemy one single after another; and thus have disturbed the entire Europe” and encouraged them to “Kill the senior officers of institutions and administrative departments that get start these riots. The sheer numbers of people who might visit chat rooms or social media sites of jihadist groups makes it a gargantuan task to identify who might actually move from keyboard terror to actual terror.