Then and now, a man with little training — powered by fanatical zeal and hatred for the West, full of delusions of paradise, relatively young, and recruited and trained by professional militarists — could do quite a lot of damage to initially unprepared Americans. If, in the past, a Japanese kamikaze (who had little or no chance of sinking an American ship in a conventional attack himself) could raise havoc on the carrier Bunker Hill, and kill hundreds in the process — so too an otherwise impotent al Qaeda terrorist might topple a billion-dollar building and kill thousands, thanks to his willingness to die.

We, like our forefathers — who saw 36 ships lost and another 368 damaged at Okinawa (the greatest single battle losses in the history of the U.S. Navy), were stunned by the audacity and effectiveness of the September 11 terrorists and the rumors of more to come. But just as astounding as the initial suicide bombings off Okinawa, and in Washington and New York, was — in both cases — the swift and terrible response of the Americans.

In 1945, picket destroyers, improved radar, increased sorties, and bombing of bases on the mainland ensured that not a single battleship or carrier was actually sunk. On Okinawa itself, horrific flamethrowers and fire-spouting tanks were introduced to incinerate would-be suicidal troops. Increased nighttime watches and strict fire control, coupled with integrated artillery and naval gunfire, blew apart banzai charges. The result was that upon the conclusion of the ghastly battle of Okinawa, most veteran imperial land forces were ruined, the last vestiges of the Japanese navy destroyed (the suicidal cruise of the battleship Yamato being a complete failure), and the air forces rendered nearly impotent.

Moreover, there were reports of last-minute hesitancy and even ditching by kamikazes. Later accounts described drunkenness and near-insurrection as pilots had to be drafted, and were no longer solely volunteers. Much is made of the supposed 5,000 kamikazes waiting on the mainland for the American invasion. But more likely was that they comprised only a few thousands, from an angry society of hundreds of millions, willing to blow themselves up to kill Americans. We shall never know what would have transpired had the Americans invaded Japanese home soil. Yet for some five weeks after Okinawa, the American fleet was in still in range of land-based enemy planes, thousands of aircraft remained on the homeland — and kamikazes attacks were rare.

After Okinawa was declared secure on July 2, only five more suicide sorties were reported before the surrender on August 15. Had the Japanese simply run out of willing pilots, or were they saving their reserve kamikazes for the final assault? America, of course, took no chances, and prepared extraordinary measures to neutralize the kamikaze threat during the planned invasion.

Similarly, after this terrible past September of 2001, the West was told that thousands of Islamic fundamentalists were ready to bomb America, Europe, and Israel. In fact, there were only a few hundred, from an angry society of hundreds of millions, willing to vaporize themselves to kill Americans. Alarmists, these past few months, have recalled the kamikazes; realists should remember how they were dealt with. We may well have more bombings, but the attacks are finite — and the remedy proven.

The leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is attempting to set up his own mini-army and move away from individual suicide attacks to a more organised resistance movement, according to US intelligence sources.

Faced with a shortage of foreign fighters willing to undertake suicide missions, Zarqawi wants to turn his group into a more traditional force mounting co-ordinated guerrilla raids on coalition targets.

Al-Qaeda is sending training and planning experts to help to set up the force and infiltrate members into Iraq with the assistance of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the sources said.

Now [Zarqawi] wants to create an army and play general against the most powerful armed force in world history. He has crapped out using his own strengths against the Americans, and now he wants to play directly into American strength in a stand-up fight. He may think that this will frighten the US military and its leadership, but right now I'd bet dollars to donuts they're either (a) laughing themselves silly, (b) high-fiving all around Centcom for having forced Zarqawi into this desperation tactic, or (c) both.