From: *Travis* Date: Sun, Dec 28, 2008 Subject: What the Muslims Have Learned to Defeat Us
What the Islamists Have Learned to Defeat Us *The Gathering Storm < [email protected]> [[email protected]]* A couple of weeks ago, *Michael Novak wrote in the Weekly Standard<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001OSZzRlgO-v6qtoJY2shQGAliBSNU9ch3u-edC8EFnbPTO-uCJGeQTIUF_rb7rDjDc3ulPbtghsFiqNV250XdE50s8tyi8vYKSudL5a9Jxy3bsPoEGUcB-1k0r5MtpAia0RxYplJzPEPk8fvU054d2zhYxsaa9krDFhyjIPgknVQ6RsoIINlzy0wP8ju3iEuewg7Pwulh5x0=> *, "If I were an Islamist, a terrorist, a sworn foe of democracy, here is what I think I would have learned from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is what I would write down in my hard-earned manual of instruction." His article goes to list the things that the Islamists have learned to defeat the USA in future wars. Here is some of what they learned. - Today, the purpose of war is sharply political, not military; psychological, not physical. (*Correct. As I have said, this war is currently over men's minds not geography.)* - Warfare is not, these days, won on a grand field of battle. Nor is it won by the force that wins series after series of military victories. Nor is triumph assured by killing far higher numbers of the enemy. The primary battlefield today lies in the minds of opposing publics. - The main strategic aim of war today is to dominate the mind of the enemy's public, and then ultimately to dominate the mind of that public's leaders. He gives examples. - At what moment did the war in Vietnam come to an end? At that precise moment when America's leaders decided that they could not resist *the unrelenting storyline of the enemy*, which had long prevailed in their own press. The press surrendered first, then the leaders of the nation. - Observe that the Cold War ended not in an explosion of unprecedented violence, but rather at the precise moment when the Soviet elites *no longer believed their own storyline*. Superior ideas cowed them, superior will, superior narratives. And what about our current storyline? - The weaker political will yielded to the stronger will. Yet, as always, will followed storyline. First comes narrative, then the acts that give it flesh in history. What we have discovered in Iraq is the weakest link in the ability of the United States to sustain military operations overseas. *That link is the U.S. media*. They are Islamists' best friends I've spoken about this before. The MSM believes it no longer represents a nation or a particular culture. They see themselves as above all national interests and reports the news as if it were a global news entity. In the process, Novak invokes Maxim # 1: To defeat America, impose upon the imagination of its media your own storyline. Andin t heir rush to be all news to all people, the MSM forgets that in this struggle between civilizations, there is a side that does not represent the best interests of the free press. You'd think they've learned that lesson from the Mohammed cartoon controversy. But no, locked in the mental chains of political correctness, they are "fashioning nooses with which to hang us from the hemp of multiculturalism and tolerance". - Besides, brothers, there seems to be a psychological tic in the minds of American journalists, which prevents them from understanding *that our terror is ultimately aimed at them*. Today, yes, they think it is aimed at their government, and will cripple their political opponents within that government. Without qualm or fear, therefore, they do the Islamist's bidding day after day. Willingly, gleefully, with much self-congratulation, they pump the Islamist storyline into the bloodstream of the Western public. In a Think-Israel piece entitled "*Can the West Defeat the Islamist Threat? Here are 10 Reasons Why Not<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001OSZzRlgO-v5YC1qpCrO2_IZrfpFwj6WGC0EUziQApZ7BEqbsjFPJPM3tDdthErKKiCoO17u6fY8hjkaNxBIsIUGDTg8WhwVGLQCR2VaNFE1KzBXfsgC7Fap35vtsy1yWz2Q0dSlzX5yccA8MGnU1SA==> *" by David Selbourne, the idea of a strong storyline as a weapon comes up again. He speaks of the West's storyline of freedom and liberty and the doctrines of market freedom, free choice and competition which have made the West's economies the best in the world. But when it tries to stand up to the Islamist's storyline, freedom and liberty produced kinks in the armor that the Islamists use to undercut the many success the West's culture has achieved over the last few hundred years. - The seventh reason lies in the moral poverty of the West's, and especially America's, own value system. He means that our freedoms have produced excesses that the prurient values of the Islamist can live with and will not live with because they see the classless side of our culture and feel theirs is far more superior while at the same time blind to the stagnation and constipation of t heir own culture. Or, as Sheikh Mohammed al-Tabatabi told thousands of worshippers in Baghdad in May 2003: "The West calls for freedom and liberty. Islam rejects such liberty. True liberty is obedience to Allah." If we're to win this clash between civilizations we need to tighten our storyline and then aggressively purser it both in our culture and society and advance it as a weapon against the Islamists. ------------------------------ *What the Islamists Have Learned* How to defeat the USA in future wars. by Michael Novak 11/22/2006 1:35:00 PM http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/991gvxyi.asp If I were an Islamist, a terrorist, a sworn foe of democracy, here is what I think I would have learned from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is what I would write down in my hard-earned manual of instruction. ------------------------------ *BY THE WILL OF ALLAH,* in all wars to come, may it prepare our brave martyrs for combat operations! Today, the purpose of war is sharply political, not military; psychological, not physical. The main purpose of war is to dominate the way the enemy imagines and thinks about the war. Warfare is not, these days, won on a grand field of battle. Nor is it won by the force that wins series after series of military victories. Nor is triumph assured by killing far higher numbers of the enemy. The physical side of warfare no longer holds precedence. The primary battlefield today lies in the minds of opposing publics. The main strategic aim of war today is to dominate the mind of the enemy's public, and then ultimately to dominate the mind of that public's leaders. Let me offer three examples. At what moment did the war in Vietnam come to an end? At that precise moment when America's leaders decided that they could not resist the unrelenting storyline of the enemy, which had long prevailed in their own press. The press surrendered first, then the leaders of the nation. Observe that the Cold War ended not in an explosion of unprecedented violence, but rather at the precise moment when the Soviet elites no longer believed their own storyline. Superior ideas cowed them, superior will, superior narratives. Quite suddenly, the invincible Soviet elites folded, accepted humiliation, allowed the Wall to come down, and watched in bitterness as hundreds of millions of formerly captive peoples chose new forms of government. The endgame was psychological, not military. There was a military component--Star Wars--but nobody knew whether or not that would ever work. It was the *idea* of that weapon, and *will* or Reagan to proceed with it. The weaker political will yielded to the stronger will. Yet, as always, will followed storyline. First comes narrative, then the acts that give it flesh in history. What we have discovered in Iraq is the weakest link in the ability of the United States to sustain military operations overseas. That link is the U.S. media. They are Islamists' best friends. Experience shows that the mainstream press of the United States is alienated from the U.S. military. In addition, the American press is extremely vulnerable to anti-U.S. propaganda. Thus, the American public will be fed nearly everything that foreign adversaries--our band of brothers--wish to feed it about the war. Therefore, I write: *Maxim # 1: *To defeat America, impose upon the imagination of its media your own storyline. Even if you can muster only 10,000 soldiers over the entire countryside of Iraq, paint the narrative like this: The Americans are irresistible occupiers, and yet they cannot prevent small (even individual) acts of destruction. Daily, unrelenting acts of destruction demonstrate that chaos rules. The American strategy, and the American storyline of the war, are invalidated by continuing chaos, highly visible, every single day, on worldwide television. The new dominating story is that the Americans cannot win. Even though our own forces (for nearly two whole years now) can no longer afford to fight in a single operation lasting longer than a few hours, our martyr-brothers cannot be prevented from committing daily acts of destruction--the more stomach-turning the better--which demonstrate a ferocious will and a determination to destroy. In such wars, my brothers, whichever party maintains the stronger will, along the most durable storyline, always wins. To defeat the United States, then, it suffices to demonstrate that their vaunted military, for all its awesome power and tactical bravery in the field, cannot halt daily "chaos." To achieve this victory over America, it is not even necessary to create actual "chaos," but only its appearance. This definition of chaos cannot be made on cerebral, analytic, statistical, or comparative grounds. (In October the *Times* of London reported, "An average of 112 cars a day have been torched across France" this year, with 15 attacks a day on police and emergency services and nearly 3,000 police officers injured. We don't need comparisons like this or comparisons with traffic deaths and violent crimes in individual U.S. states.) No, the shadowy existence of this "chaos" in Iraq is projected by a steady stream of stomach-churning, atavistic, destructive acts, staged day by day where the cameras of the U.S. press cannot resist them. Some of these acts bring orange explosions and black smoke, others consist simply of dumping dead and tortured bodies where the public cannot avoid discovering them. We design these images to show that our fighters will go where the United States will not, that our brave martyrs have harder linings in their stomachs than anyone in the West, and that our ferocity and determination, day after day, cannot be resisted. The aim of *our* terror is to induce surrender before the great battles are even fought. This is the true meaning of "asymmetric" warfare. The weaker side in military strength may demonstrate conclusively that it has a stronger stomach for relentless, unstoppable acts of terror. Besides, brothers, there seems to be a psychological tic in the minds of American journalists, which prevents them from understanding that our terror is ultimately aimed at them. Today, yes, they think it is aimed at their government, and will cripple their political opponents within that government. Without qualm or fear, therefore, they do our bidding day after day. Willingly, gleefully, with much self-congratulation, they pump our storyline into the bloodstream of the Western public. This is far easier than anyone ever taught us. This is our new discovery, our contribution to the history of warfare. Before our very eyes, the West grows fainter and weaker every day. *Maxim # 2: *Take heart, then, my terrorist brothers! Bin Laden is even more correct than we knew before the last two years. *The West does not have the will to resist*. Those elites among them who do have the stomach to fight back, inexorably, day after day, are being undermined by their own media. Now and in the future, the media will do our work. All we need are martyrs sufficient in number to keep a steady stream of orange flames and black smoke before their cameras, and to dump before them bodies that are stone-cold dead, and bear all over them the unmistakable blue marks of power drills and other disfigurements. Of such martyrs, we need each day only a handful. In 365 successive days, we need fewer than one thousand. This small band of brothers can defeat the most powerful army in human history. The path, my brothers, is to come to dominate the minds of their public, which they *must* suppose is supporting them, and in reality turns quite quickly into our best ally. This is not so huge a task, my brothers! In the long run of glorious history, the time required is like the blinking of an eye. *Michael Novak is George Frederick Jewett Scholar in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute.* *(F)AIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. 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