The "Word" is their most dangerous and valuable weapon, and their ideology is the largest threat to our world today. To win the war we needed to understand the enemies’ mindset, we needed to understand the foundation their beliefs were built upon.
The "Word" is their most dangerous and valuable weapon, and their ideology is the largest threat to our world today.
When the “Word” is mentioned in this article we are referring to Logos: “(Greek for 'word'); reason; refers to the internal consistency of the message--the clarity of the claim, “their” logic of its reasons, and the effectiveness of its supporting evidence.” The terrorists who attacked our nation; they believed in the unadulterated word of the Quran, and their interpretation of this word has been one of their most powerful weapons. Whatever message/news they spread to their people, the West, and the rest of the world they believe full heartedly to be the will of Allah.
The enemy has attacked us quite often in recent days, but thankfully no soldiers have been killed in these assaults. The victories of the enemy have been political, as they’ve intended for them to be. They know our media will start writing various articles about their attacks and the "word" they want to spread will do so quickly amongst their people and the world. They pay attention to people’s perceptions, both here and in America. They know where to strategically strike, so that when we pull out of their country the "word" will be, "We drove them out. And now they have abandoned you. We defeated them and now we will rule over you again, never to abandon you like they did.”
We were not properly prepared to handle an insurgency, and now the problem on our side is that there is a lack of us using true counterinsurgency methods. When we finally started to think outside the box, finally realizing it was going to take more than numbers and technology to defeat this ideology; our eventual attempts at strategy were too much too late. The “Word”; their Word had spread rampantly, and now the enemy believes he has succeeded in having most of the world opposing our war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. We don’t win a war like this based on how many battles we’ve won, we can only win by changing the enemies’ mindset… We’ve failed though at winning the right hearts and minds… for our word has not prevailed over theirs.
Because of the choices our leaders made at the start of this war is the only reason we are in this mess we are in today. We could have won; we could have defeated the enemy fast, real fast. Hit them hard and in all the right places, strike them quickly and unexpected, which is what we did at first. The problem is that when we had them in the corner of the ring and about to fall over… we just stopped punching for some reason. Instead of delivering the knock-out punch to the appropriate opponent we went on to start another fight. When we went on to the next fight we gave the still standing opponent “time”; time to recuperate, to "think", and to build back his confidence… and time to spread their propaganda to the Afghan people. By the time we turned back to the original fighter again he was ready for us, and motivated... After watching us for years, and learning what to expect from us; he recognized our weaknesses, and took note of our patterned way of handling things. Our leaders were too arrogant and blind to realize we should finish the first fight before moving on to the next one. “In other words finish what you started, or you’ll have more work on your hands later; something to remember in the future.”
The enemy understands and works with insurgency, so their idea of victory is different from ours. They are so strategic minded in how they foresee the outcome that they don’t care about how many battles they lose; contrarily they consider many losses to be victories which motivate their cause. The enemy is focused on winning the war, and breaking the spirit of the “infidels” at any cost, (in case you haven’t noticed this yet). The problem on our side is apparently the lack of understanding true counterinsurgency.
Their “Word” is what drives them, and if we had struck the enemy hard and fast; knocking him out, we would have had time to present the people in Afghanistan with a better way. History has proven this method to be successful in how we handled a couple of large wars before. After World War Two- when we had hit our former enemies hard and fast; (Japan and Germany) - we helped show them a better way once the dust settled; we presented them with an idea that would prove to be promising for the rebuilding of their nations and economies. We offered aid and support after defeating our former adversaries, and we gave them freedom. Today they are two of our most trusted Allies, so we must have done something right. Now I am summarizing how we handled Germany and Japan after WWII because I’m not here to give you a detailed history lesson. The point is to remind you enough about this time in history so that you recognize when something is working, and you see how our handling of this present war is not the same. The enemy we are fighting today is not equivalent in their mindset to our past adversaries; they are driven by an ideology that has been withstanding for thousands of years. This war was not handled properly from the start, and in our counterattack we didn't understand the root of the problem, and now it seems to be too late to change their minds and show them a better way.
The ideology of the enemy is the root of the problem; what they believe the Quran teaches is the problem. (They consider their ideology to be an unadulterated interpretation.) Here is an excerpt from the teachings of Muhammad: Quran on page 117: "In the world there is only one party of God: all others are parties of Satan and rebellion. Those who believe fight in the cause of God, and those who disbelieve fight in the cause of rebellion. Then fight the allies of Satan..." There are universities today in the United States where they teach from the book titled “Milestones”, written by Sayyid Qutb; (the author being an inspiring figure to the notorious Osama Bin Ladin). This book is used today to inspire and educate those who follow the unadulterated view of Islam. Some of those who were inspired by this book are Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Haqqani Network, and others with the same ideology. The places where this ideology is being taught in the United States are widely ignored by the FBI and others who need to better educate themselves when it comes to the foundations of Islam and the teachings within the book “Milestones.” (People are far too quick to stand in the defense of something they are ignorant of, just like they are always quick to judge that which they don’t understand; study Islam then have an opinion on Islam, and recognize the difference between an ideology and a doctrine.)
To have had a chance at winning the war we needed to understand the enemies’ mindset, we needed to understand the foundation their beliefs were built upon. Any leader who studies the history of warfare or the strategies of war would understand we need to “know” our enemy. Before a trained boxer gets into the ring with another fighter he studies his opponent, and he asks himself “how can I break him?” Most politicians and other government officials who rule our country do not understand the common sense I am sharing with you, and I know this because I know those who work with them. The experts say, “Politicians widely ignore us because of their financial interests with the nation of Pakistan, and they willfully ignore how the leaders in Pakistan support the main terrorist networks in the Middle East.” As a Soldier this news is especially heart breaking; to realize money from our own government has indirectly financed some of the attacks which have killed our brothers and sisters in the military.
When the enemy strikes again it will be from inside our homeland, (even our President has said this). The same ideology which inspired the terrorists who attacked our nation on 911 is even more widespread today with its teachings in the United States. The ideology being spread across our nation is being widely ignored because our great leaders think a person’s religious beliefs, or their ideology is not all that important.
In summary; we can't just ignore certain truths which make us uncomfortable any longer, and choose to just focus on ourselves alone and our personal success; this is exactly how the politicians in power today think. Our leaders who are responsible for allowing this ideology to indoctrinate and radicalize young American Muslims, they choose to look away from the source when new revolutionary activists and violent Jihadis are created. These are not conniving politicians though, they are not wicked to the core, nor do they believe they are evil in anyway. These incompetent leaders have simply avoided that which makes them uncomfortable, and they find a pathetic way to justify their actions, or lack thereof. Just like during the Civil Rights Movement when many politicians avoided having much of an opinion on the issue, and they were more concerned with what their fellow senators would think of them then what was right. (Yeah, they are still affected by peer pressure, just like when they were in high school.) They are no different than many of us though; whenever we see something is wrong and we choose to turn a blind eye to the problem. We keep ourselves distracted with our children or our spouse, simply enjoying our little lives in our corner of the world. All the while we avoid that which makes us uncomfortable, and we choose not to think of possible future repercussions; many of the politicians are no different. Now I am all for family values and providing the best possible life for our spouses and children, but for us to do this we can’t ignore the problems in our country and the world any longer. All I ask for you to do is simple; share this news with as many people as you can. Our children need to know the truth if there is going to be hope for their future. We can’t ignore the mess we’re in any longer, or our children will be left with even more troubles then the last generation left us with.
The two lessons the next generation must learn is:
1. Never underestimate the teachings of your enemies; the written “Word” that those who mean to destroy you live for and would die for. Study their belief system and you’ll better understand your opponent.
2. Never overlook a spreading ideology which has proven to be destructive time and time again.
I would recommend you look into former CIA agent Brian Fairchild’s articles and his book titled “Centers of Jihad Support: The American Muslim Brotherhood.” For a breakdown of the problem, and the details which describe the root to the problem please check out the book listed in this article. All the information you’ll need is available to you, and there are answers to any questions you may have. Be warned though; what you discover will frustrate you because it’s all right under your nose, and has been for years.
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