Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Hyper-War: A War of Ideology
Well, it's official, with the bombing of the housing area in Riyadh: Al Qaeda and their fellow travellers have been pushed into targeting fellow Muslims.
It definitely backfired on them here in Ar Ramadi when they bombed the police academy graduation ceremony. It's also backfiring on them now, because they're screwing up Ramadan for the regular people.
So it's good to see that playing itself out the same way in Riyadh. I wonder if the U.S. and it's allies really took out a lot of the 'adult supervision' in Al Qaeda, and what's left is a bunch of hacks with a political tin ear and some demolitions training?
The war on terrorism, I believe, does not stop with the war on Al Qaeda or even with a war on state sponsors of terrorism such as Saddam Hussein. The war on terrorism, properly viewed, is a war on an ideology--the ideology of radical Islamism.
I'm trying to sort through in my mind how past ideological wars have been won. Communism was defeated, ultimately, on its own turf, when its own people rejected it throughout Eastern Europe.
Naziism, and its racist core belief system, was only defeated and discredited when the joint efforts of Americans and Slavs annihilated its armies of "supermen," and yanked the flag down over Berlin.
Japanese Imperialism, same idea.
I'm searching my mind for similar parallels in history--where ideologies have clashed in mortal struggles--struggles that transcended politics, rulers, borders, ethnicities, and for ways those struggles throughout history have been won or lost.
Slavery?
The monotheists vs. the pagans in the Old Testament?
A study of the growth of Christianity in a Pagan Europe in the early centuries of the C.E.?
Other ideas? What are the best historical parallels? Use the link in the upper right hand corner of the site to email me!!!
My short answer: We don't have the combat power to defeat radical Islamism in the same way we defeated Nazi Germany. Radical Islamism thrives on being the underdog. But I think it can be defeated in the same way that Communism was defeated: wallop it with Satellite TV, Fax machines, and the internet age, push it until it eats its own young, and force it to deny reality until it is thoroughly discredited with its own people on its own turf.
It definitely backfired on them here in Ar Ramadi when they bombed the police academy graduation ceremony. It's also backfiring on them now, because they're screwing up Ramadan for the regular people.
So it's good to see that playing itself out the same way in Riyadh. I wonder if the U.S. and it's allies really took out a lot of the 'adult supervision' in Al Qaeda, and what's left is a bunch of hacks with a political tin ear and some demolitions training?
The war on terrorism, I believe, does not stop with the war on Al Qaeda or even with a war on state sponsors of terrorism such as Saddam Hussein. The war on terrorism, properly viewed, is a war on an ideology--the ideology of radical Islamism.
I'm trying to sort through in my mind how past ideological wars have been won. Communism was defeated, ultimately, on its own turf, when its own people rejected it throughout Eastern Europe.
Naziism, and its racist core belief system, was only defeated and discredited when the joint efforts of Americans and Slavs annihilated its armies of "supermen," and yanked the flag down over Berlin.
Japanese Imperialism, same idea.
I'm searching my mind for similar parallels in history--where ideologies have clashed in mortal struggles--struggles that transcended politics, rulers, borders, ethnicities, and for ways those struggles throughout history have been won or lost.
Slavery?
The monotheists vs. the pagans in the Old Testament?
A study of the growth of Christianity in a Pagan Europe in the early centuries of the C.E.?
Other ideas? What are the best historical parallels? Use the link in the upper right hand corner of the site to email me!!!
My short answer: We don't have the combat power to defeat radical Islamism in the same way we defeated Nazi Germany. Radical Islamism thrives on being the underdog. But I think it can be defeated in the same way that Communism was defeated: wallop it with Satellite TV, Fax machines, and the internet age, push it until it eats its own young, and force it to deny reality until it is thoroughly discredited with its own people on its own turf.
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