If the essence of warfare, on the one hand, and Islamic terrorism, on the other, are captured by the two statements below, it is apparent we are dealing with a single dynamic. In each case, an object conceived as sacred and omnipotent (Germany or Allah) is kept alive to the extent that these objects are fed with blood of human beings.

Infidels and enemies play an identical role in the ideologies of terrorism and warfare in that their existence is imagined to negate the idea of the omnipotence of the sacred object worshipped by--constituting the foundation of--one's society.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: “I soon learned to scent out what was able to lead to fundamentals--and to turn aside from everything else, from the multitude of things that clutter up the mind.”