Ha'aretz has an article and interview with Dr. Hanan Shai, a high-ranking IDF security studies specialist. He distinguishes between terrorism as asymmetrical warfare, which goes back thousands of years, and terrorism as suicide, which is Islamist terrorism's unique contribution to the history of warfare. Specifically, he argues that the radical disjunct between the West's value on life and Islamist terrorism's value on death creates an intractable conflict, where victory cannot be achieved by getting the other side to surrender. He also predicts that the US military will meet a disastrous end in Iraq unless it adapts - soon.