Why don’t radical Islamists go after politicians?

They don't go after western politicians, because they know it's useless. As soon as you knock one politician down, another rises up and takes his place. In the west, the politician is just a "position". A normal citizen of the state. And a harder target because of extra security. But, in parts of the world where the politician stays in office for a long time, he becomes a target.

a reply to: the2ofusr1

John Mccain seems to be able to walk among them

That's because truthfully the US hopes an errant bullet takes him out while he's doing that. I am only kidding as not all of the US want to see him leave the government in that fashion, but they do want to see him leave.

Honestly though John McCain is so irrelevant to most in the US, all he is doing is getting some photo ops for his scrapbook.

originally posted by: Aliian
They don't go after western politicians, because they know it's useless. As soon as you knock one politician down, another rises up and takes his place. In the west, the politician is just a "position". A normal citizen of the state. And a harder target because of extra security. But, in parts of the world where the politician stays in office for a long time, he becomes a target.

This is rather an awkward way of saying that power in the West resides in the office, not the person who holds the office, and that the office is surrendered peacefully at the will of the people. This is contrast to autarchies, where the power resides in an individual irrespective of the will of the people. This is why there are uprisings and coups in some countries, and hotly contested elections in others.

Honestly though John McCain is so irrelevant to most in the US, all he is doing is getting some photo ops for his scrapbook.

a reply to: tsurfer2000h The troubling thing about that is,that he's probably not the only one .The US govt. seems to be able to find just the wright amount of votes to either block or get through any controversial bill a minority wishes . A large majority didn't want to go to war in Iraq but some minority found a way . If there is a thing called karma or if chickens do come host to roost ,then the US is done like dirt . Maybe that might not be a bad thing for many other countries . Time will tell .

We've seen massive amounts of extra security and surveillance in almost all aspects of our life due to civilians being targeted. Surely this is counter productive for the terrorists? If there goal is to terrorize, then going after public targets makes it more and more difficult as politicians will be pressured into ensuring a more secure state, by the fearful public. It also increases negativity towards the terrorists and if anything creates more solidarity between citizens, to fight a common cause! At the same time it gives much more support to government (carte blanche you might say) policy of bombing terrorist home lands, launching air strikes, putting boots on grounds etc. Again, that is counter productive to what the terrorist want, isn't it?

On the contrary, if terrorists kept targeting just (western) politicians or political establishments, even if they weren't actually successful, you can guarantee that the politicians would think twice about continuing there foreign policy or it would fairly quickly result in a different approach to the problem. Can you imagine the news coverage if someone tried bombing Ed Milliband? Ok, bad example, but most high profile people/politicians would get massive news coverage and there would be outrage and all sorts of demands from that same community way and above what a public bombing would get. Of course bombing politicians doesn't allow those politicians to impose the spying of citizens for there protection, it just wouldn't work :-)

To me, continuing bombing of the public actually plays into the governments hands in some ways and less into the terrorists, but maybe that's just me. I'd be interested to peoples views.

If Islam was TRULLY trying to serve a FUNCTIONAL and effecrive counter to the west they should have hit BANKS not go for the penny ante PSYCHOLOGICAL route.

One can only expect so much intelligence from thugs and assasssins who pull the crap anyway.