I thought it was an excellent article.

But like Omarali50 I tend to think there are some very clear exceptions.

As I'm in the middle of reading Robert Baer's book "The Perfect Kill" that covers Hezbollah's kinetic operational history in some detail, I'd think Hezbollah(and some others) have displayed a "poor man's force projection capability" rather than "terror theatre".

USMC and French barracks in Beirut
Camp Chapman Attack
Massoud Assassination
Harari Assassination
et al

I have to admit I found the final paragraph most troubling when put in context with the "terror theatre" perspective(which I largely agree with).

While we have much to worry about in the long to very long term from "grey goo", I would think there is very legitimate concern regarding significant short term 2nd/3rd order effects from a "WMD theatre" event where perception of actual tangible 1st order effects damage is blown completely out of proportion of real damage inflicted and echos into real(albeit temporary) 2nd/3rd order effects.

For some reason, I'm left thinking a partial response to "terror theatre" slice of asymmetric warfare is something akin to London Mayor Boris Johnson's recent commentary:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor...-10012523.html