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| Terror Networks |
| Exploiting Al-Qaida's Weaknesses |
| 2007-05-02 |
| By Austin Bay In February 2004, Iraqi and coalition intelligence intercepted a message to al-Qaida's "senior leaders." Written by al-Qaida's Iraqi commander, the now-deceased Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the letter outlined al-Qaida's last ditch "surge" plan for defeating democracy in Iraq and avoiding what it saw as a looming, devastating defeat for its totalitarian theology. Zarqawi's letter lamented al-Qaida's "failure to enlist support" in Iraq and "to scare the Americans into leaving." After Iraqis run their own government, Zarqawi wrote, "the sons of this land will be the authority. ... This is the democracy. We will have no pretexts." Fearing an American and Iraqi strategic victory (creating a democracy defending itself against terrorists), Zarqawi saw only one strategic option: exploit Iraq's Shia-Sunni religious divide by slaughtering Iraqi Shia civilians. The Shia would respond to al-Qaida's terror attacks by igniting a "sectarian war." He believed the religious war would "rally the Sunni Arabs" to al-Qaida. This war against Shiites, he wrote, "must start soon -- at "zero hour" -- before the Americans hand over sovereignty to the Iraqis." The February 2006 attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarra brought Iraq to the precipice of Zarqawi's sectarian war, but even that failed to produce the apocalyptic schism al-Qaida desired. Credit Iraq's people and its new government with not buckling in 2006, as Shia-Sunni strife escalated. This week, Reuters reported an Iraqi government claim that Zarqawi's successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, had died in a battle with "Sunni Arab insurgent groups over al-Qaida's indiscriminate killing of civilians and its imposition of an austere brand of Islam in the areas where it holds sway." At the moment, that report remains unconfirmed. However, for the last 24 months, conflict between al-Qaida and Iraqi Sunnis has become more open and deadly. The coalition and the Iraqi government have tried to exploit divisions within the terrorist groups. Al-Qaida's method of exploitation is mass murder of civilians. The Iraqi government employs incorporative politics. This is tactical and operational exploitation, and though its successes are incremental, they are still successes. However, defeating al-Qaida's totalitarian ideology requires a strategic approach, as well. At the moment, the poisoned minds in Washington won't admit it, but the democracy project in Iraq is part of that strategic approach. Zarqawi understood that democracy robs the terrorists of their breeding grounds. Al-Qaida presents an ideological challenge. Understanding al-Qaida's origins is essential to understanding its appeal and how to defeat it. Lawrence Wright's Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Looming Tower" provides the most readable narrative history on the origins of al-Qaida, especially his discussion of Egypt's Sayid Qutb, the modern father of jihadist violence. When I reviewed the book last year, I wrote: "Al-Qaida's dark genius ... has been to connect the Muslim world's angry, humiliated and isolated young men with a utopian fantasy preaching the virtue of violence. That utopian fantasy seeks to explain and then redress roughly 800 years of Muslim decline." How to defeat the ideology, with its fantasy narrative? Recently, Dale Eikmeier published an essay in the U.S. Army War College's Parameters Magazine. The essay, titled "Qutbism: An Ideology of Islamic Fascism," suggests "five lines of operation" for attacking Qutbism, which he calls al-Qaida's "ideological center of gravity." First: Attack the message -- an ideological offensive by moderate Muslims. Eikmeier says Yemeni Judge Hamoud al-Hitar has a particularly effective theological counter to Qutbism. Second: Attack the Messenger -- "Many of Qutbism's proponents are individuals with questionable religious credentials." Third and fourth: Attack Islamo-fascism's supporting institutions, and support mainstream Islamic institutions -- mirror images. Attack al-Qaida's educational, financial, and informational structures. Support those of Muslim moderates. Fifth: Inoculation. Eikmeier says this requires education regarding the Qutbists' "anti-human rights and religiously intolerant agenda." Eikmeier says the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.S. Bill of Rights are the alternatives. Which takes us back to democracy, doesn't it? |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #5 First: Attack the message -- an ideological offensive by moderate Muslims. Eikmeier says Yemeni Judge Hamoud al-Hitar has a particularly effective theological counter to Qutbism. Memo to Bush: Mouthing how Islam is "The Religion of Peace" doesn't help at all. Second: Attack the Messenger -- "Many of Qutbism's proponents are individuals with questionable religious credentials." If we are going to "Attack the Messenger", it had better be with more than just "Islamofascism" or other counter-propaganda. We need to attack Islam's messengers with bullets. Starting with Islam's entire clerical aristocracy. Third and fourth: Attack Islamo-fascism's supporting institutions, and support mainstream Islamic institutions -- mirror images. Attack al-Qaida's educational, financial, and informational structures. Support those of Muslim moderates. Moderate Islam is so ephemeral and marginal as to be negligible. Crippling the halawa network, expelling CAIR and all of its members, freezing all transactions with and aid to terrorism sponsoring countries, halting immigration from those same countries while destroying terrorist media outlets like al-Jazeera and al-Manar are what is needed. Fifth: Inoculation. Eikmeier says this requires education regarding the Qutbists' "anti-human rights and religiously intolerant agenda." Eikmeier says the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.S. Bill of Rights are the alternatives. If you're serious about human rights, start by banning sharia law. This one act will serve to delegitimize fundamentalist Islam more quickly than any other measure. Any inability to do so renders all other actions mere window dressing. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-02 18:00 |
| #4 "Why don't Reid and Pelosi and the rest of the dhemmi moonbats believe in democracy?" Because they tend to loose every fair and honest election. Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2007-05-02 13:50 |
| #3 Breaking radio silence here because I think this is too important to not comment. The narrative we have to defeat is embedded deeply in Islamic scripture and history: 1. The "emmigration" to Medina and the 10-year struggle to take Mecca. 2. The world-historical advance of Islam during the time whem the tribes were relatively united as an "ummah." 3. The absorbtion and conversion of various invading Turkish tribes... then actually turning them into Islamic instruments of power, e.g. Seljuks, Mameluks, Ottomans. 4. The 100-year struggle against and defeat of the Crusaders. 5. The 50 year struggle against the Mongols and the _conversion_ of the Khans in Persia and Central Asia. 6. The 150 year struggle against colonialism and the subsequent withdrawal of the Europeans (less the Israelis in the Muslim view). 7. Running the Soviets out of Afghanistan. 8. The current struggle to overthrow the Jahili regimes and their Western sponsors with brave muj fighting against and overcoming terrible odds. That is the narrative the Qutbists have made their own and which must be countered by every instrument of power we possess. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2007-05-02 09:26 |
| #2 First: Attack the message -- an ideological offensive by moderate Muslims. Support more Islam. Yup, that'll work. Personally I prefer option 2, "Attack the Messenger" Failing that, option 6: Install Ann Coulter at water treatment plants all round Iraq, blessing their water at source, thereby surreptitiously baptizing the entire misbelieving population. |
| Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar 2007-05-02 09:03 |
| #1 Zarqawi understood that democracy robs the terrorists of their breeding grounds. Why don't Reid and Pelosi and the rest of the dhemmi moonbats believe in democracy? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-05-02 09:01 |