SecDef has signaled a turning point in U.S. defense thinking

[Administrator]

“Arguably the most important military component in the war on terror is not the fighting we do ourselves, but how well we enable and empower our partners to defend and govern their own countries.”

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2008/02/3240799

[Boris Tiraspolsky]

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said: "For the United States, September 11 was a galvanizing event -- one that opened the American public's eyes to dangers from distant lands. The threat posed by violent Islamic extremism is real -- and it is not going away. Numerous cells and plots have been disrupted in recent years as well -- many of them seeking large-scale death and destruction. Loosely organized international Islamic extremism was built on the illusion of success. After all, about the only thing they have accomplished recently is the death of thousands of innocent Muslims while trying to create discord across the Middle East. So far they have failed. What would happen if the false success they proclaim became real success? If they triumphed in Iraq or Afghanistan, or managed to topple the government of Pakistan? Or a major Middle Eastern government? The task confronting the US and Europe is to fracture and destroy Islamic extremism and deflate its ideology..."

An open letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense

Dear Secretary Gates,

I entirely support your noble task "to fracture and destroy Islamic extremism and deflate its ideology..." , and have no doubts in sincerity of your words. I just wander how the ideologically immature Nation predominantly advocating the “ideology of no ideology” and above that widely infiltrated with “wrong ideologies” is capable of defeating and inflating the most powerful ideology of Islamic extremism, or more precisely ideology of Islamic “jihad by sword“.

Your words well echoing the last and final President Bush’s address to the U.S. Congress, when the President reiterated that battle with Terror is the “ideological struggle of the 21st century“.

The latter also sounded right when President Bush said it on the fifth anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001: “the war we fight today is more then a military conflict, it is a decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century“ for the first time. However, all these great words happened to be easier said then done.

The problem is that neither of the currently available U.S. Instruments nor Forces - Military, Law Enforcement, Intelligence - historically designed to carry out a full scale defensive-offensive “ideological struggle” with any hostile ideology challenging our way of life.

Let’s be always clear about strategic objectives of our enemy. The ideology of Islamic “jihad by sword” is intending to replace the Constitution of the United States with the Islamic Law as the Supreme Law of the Land.

Therefore, I said it many times and I repeat it again: it is unrealistic to successfully conduct “ideological struggle” in modern terrorist warfare and "to fracture and destroy Islamic extremism and deflate its ideology..." without an inclusive anti-terrorist Ideological Education on all levels and mighty anti-terrorist Ideological Propaganda Machine combining mass media, press, book publishing, Internet, and etc.

It is not viable, whatsoever, to win “ideological struggle” without ideologically charged and called by the Constitution of the United States "useful Arts", including “useful” Performing Arts - drama, opera, ballet, music. Let's not forget motion pictures, TV shows, radio shows, and other basic and advanced Ideological Instruments.

In order to win ideologically charged battle, the Nation needs superior Ideological Instruments and Forces. The sad truth is that the United States are currently involved in “ideological struggle” with neither necessary Ideological Instruments - defensive and offensive - nor Ideological Forces capable of establishing and utilizing these Ideological Instruments in battle.

The only available U.S. anti-terrorist Instruments and Forces - Military, Law Enforcement, Intelligence - at their best can play just supporting roles in extremely complex ideologically charged battle, regardless of necessary adjustments that should be made in their manuals. Modern terrorist warfare requires a united political, economic, social, and cultural effort of the entire Nation.

In other words, the ideologically immature Nation that is widely preaching either “wrong ideologies”, or what at a time of this current “crisis of human affairs” even more dangerous stubbornly insists on the “ideology of no ideology”, can be hardly called well prepared to withstand historic challenges of the “ideological struggle of the 21st century”.

Respectfully,
Boris Tiraspolsky,
Founding Member of
American Ideological Society

http://www.americanideologicalsociety.com/ais/index.php

[bhkad]

Originally Posted by Administrator

“Arguably the most important military component in the war on terror is not the fighting we do ourselves, but how well we enable and empower our partners to defend and govern their own countries.”

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2008/02/3240799

I always thought that was the aim, at least in Iraq that is what I thought it was all along.

[The Universal Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Boris Tiraspolsky

Let’s be always clear about strategic objectives of our enemy. The ideology of Islamic “jihad by sword” is intending to replace the Constitution of the United States with the Islamic Law as the Supreme Law of the Land.

Yet another person who doesn't quite understand the logistics of the situation.

The "normal" ratio is 1 to 40 in order to "maintain order". In the United States of America the ratio is going to be more like 1 to 20.

If you think that the "Islamacists" have 15,000,000 trained and equipped personnel ready to take up the occupation of the United States of America (If you include "shrinkage" due to the fact that many of those 15,000,000 are going to come from dirt poor places and end up being "corrupted" by the wealth they encounter, that 15,000,000 is going to end up being more like 25,000,000.) then you have an absolute fortune coming to you when you sell the formula for whatever it is you are smoking.

What a person (or group) intends and what it is actually capable of achieving frequently have less than a 1:1 ratio. In this case they have almost nothing in common.