Saturday, September 11, 2010

Force Protection

Mischief

I could have commemorated 9-11 by recalling my personal experiences with the events of that dreadful day, but I have covered that topic sufficiently in the past. And rather than reprise the history of our response — which others can do much better than I can — I’d like to take a look at what has really been happening to us over the past nine years.

First, the facts.

On September 11th, 2001, nineteen Middle Eastern Muslims, grouped in four separate teams (or cells), used jetliners to kill almost three thousand people in New York, Pennsylvania, and Northern Virginia. Their self-identified reason for committing these atrocities was that they were fighting jihad against unbelievers in the cause of Allah.

The “magnificent nineteen” were devoted followers of Islamic law, or sharia. According to the standard canons of sharia as taught in all four schools of Sunni jurisprudence (and also by Shi’ite doctrine), it is the duty of all able-bodied adult Muslims to wage jihad against the infidel, or to materially support those who do so.

The above summary is not in dispute. This formulation enjoys the consensus of the scholars within Islam, and is taught in officially-approved Islamic schools from Djakarta to Casablanca, and even in London and Houston. It is not “extreme”, but standard, mainstream Islamic law.

Next, let’s consider two videos, each of which shows an excerpt from a recent news story. The first is from a joint press conference held by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia about Koran burning:


President Karzai experienced the Florida church's plan to burn Korans (which was later cancelled) as an insult to 1.4 billion Muslims. President Yudhoyono urged the US government to take action to prevent the burning. Both statesmen obviously felt that this was a matter that should be of official — and punitive — concern to President Obama and the United States government.

The second video is a CNN report about a potential problem in Afghanistan, which was handled adroitly by the U.S. military authorities:


So the United States is required to protect the lives of its troops serving in Afghanistan by:

1. Making sure that no Americans burn Korans, and
2. Burning Bibles.

Hmm… What’s wrong with this picture?

And what conclusions can we draw from it?

Now, we can certainly say that Islam is violent and barbaric, that Muslims are intolerant and exhibit a double standard, and that our leaders are craven appeasers who invariably cave in to Islamic extortion. All of these assertions are true, but virtually everyone reading this post has already been there, done that. So let’s not bother rehashing it all.

The most important conclusions to be drawn from these news stories are the following:
- - - - - - - - -
1. The Muslim world is demanding that the United States enforce sharia law, both in Afghanistan and within its own borders.
2. The United States is actively and willingly complying with this demand.
3. American officials are unaware of #1 and #2, with the exception of highly-placed agents of the Muslim Brotherhood (and possibly President Barack Hussein Obama).

The desired goal of both jihad and da’wa (Islamic proselytization) is to induce the nations of the unbelievers to obey sharia law. Jihad is the sharp end of the spear, and will be used when necessary, but da’wa is the preferred technique, because it is less costly — and, when dealing with powerful but gullible Westerners, it is much easier to accomplish.

In other words, by its own standards, the Muslim Brotherhood is now approaching victory against the infidels of the West, and the kafir doesn’t realize that he is being beaten, nor does he understand the nature of the war that is being fought. With the United States in voluntary submission — even as it fights “terrorism” and “violent extremists” abroad — Islam is more than halfway towards its goal.

Yusuf al-QaradawiAll this, mind you, without engaging in a shooting war, without doing battle with the enemy, without levying a single company of soldiers. Terrorist attacks serve both as diversions and as a threat: a few suicide attacks are enough to persuade frightened Western leaders to lie down and expose their naked underbellies to the scimitars of the hosts of Mohammed.

When examined in this light — by the standards of Islam itself — this is a magnificent achievement, one of the greatest victories in the history of warfare.

How is this possible? How could such a thing come about?

Islam has had fourteen hundred years to refine its techniques of stealth, deception, infiltration, sabotage, and demoralization. These are the preferred techniques of a weaker and devious power against a stronger but naïve enemy.

As Dr. John J. Dziak described in his recent article, the behavior of the Ummah bears all the hallmarks of what he calls the counterintelligence state. Subterfuge and covert operations are the natural métier of Islam, especially when it is surrounded by more powerful infidel nations.

These successful techniques bear a strong resemblance to those used by the Communists in the mid-20th century:

  • They are international in scope, transcending national boundaries and languages.
  • Their clandestine networks are guided and funded by shadowy, secret central groups abroad.
  • The dissemination of propaganda and disinformation is a central strategy for their cause.
  • They are aided and abetted by apologists and fellow travelers in the West.
  • One of the prime vectors for the spread of their contagion is the Academy.

Lenin as inspirationThis is no coincidence. Not only did al-Banna, Qutb, Qaradawi, and many other members of the Muslim Brotherhood borrow techniques and methodologies from the Soviets, but Islamic ideology lends itself naturally to these sorts of practices. Any inherently totalitarian ideology — which Islam most certainly is — inevitably tends to form a counterintelligence state.

So the structure and function of the international networks of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates are uncannily like those of the Comintern. They engage in the time-honored practices of misdirection and obfuscationkitman and taqiyya — which are eerily evocative of the classic KGB playbook:

1.   provocation (provokatsiya)
2.   penetration (proniknoveniye)
3.   fabrication (fabrikatsiya)
4.   diversion (diversiya)
5.   agent of influence (agent vliyaniya or agent po vliyaniyu)
6.   clandestine work (konspiratsiya)
7.   disinformation (dezinformatsiya)
8.   wet affairs (mokrye dela)
9.   direct action (aktivnyye akty)
10.   combination (kombinatsiya)

When contemplating the actions of Muslim agents in the West, it is important to keep these ten categories in mind. Those which involve violence — wet affairs and active measures — are reserved for the final jihad phase of operations, when the enemy has already fallen to his knees and is ready to have his head lopped off.

But the others — disinformation, provocation, penetration, diversion, conspiracy, and all the rest — are routinely and repeatedly employed against us to good effect. And all indications are that the national security community — at least at the highest levels, where it interfaces with our political leadership — is completely clueless about the whole thing.

We are pursuing the goal of “force protection” by instituting what the enemy openly states as his war aim: the institution of sharia law in the nations of the West.

This is not just stupid. It is insane.

While we play these idiotic ideological games about “violent extremism” and “the hijacking of a noble religion” and “showing respect for Muslims” — all of which terms are disinformation planted through conspiracy by agents who have engaged in successful penetration — the enemy is employing the entire arsenal of the counterintelligence state to defeat us handily.

Until we consciously adopt the counterintelligence mindset, and are ready to think and act on the same terms, we haven’t a prayer of winning.


Hat tips: DF for the Karzai/Bambang video, Vlad Tepes for YouTubing it.

25 comments:

Zenster said...

So the United States is required to protect the lives of its troops serving in Afghanistan by:

1. Making sure that no Americans burn Korans, and
2. Burning Bibles.

Hmm… What’s wrong with this picture?


What's wrong? For starters, this is what happens when moral inversion becomes a virtue. All else is just window dressing.

Not only did al-Banna, Qutb, Qaradawi, and many other members of the Muslim Brother borrow techniques and methodologies from the Soviets, but Islamic ideology lends itself naturally to these sorts of practices.

What's wrong with the foregoing statement is that one of these famous Islamists − Yusuf "Beat Your Wife Lightly" Qaradawi − is still stealing oxygen from more deserving life forms like cockroaches, scorpions and lice.

If "wet works" are good enough for Soviets and Islamic terrorists, they are good enough for us.

Until we consciously adopt the counterintelligence mindset, and are ready to think and act on the same terms, we haven’t a prayer of winning.

Agreed, and let us not forget that we can use such tactics while not risking any descent to their level. We defeated Germany's Third Reich without become Nazis and we will defeat Islam without becoming the barbarians that they are.

There is No Substitute for Victory.

Anonymous said...

Baron, I notice that the GoV does not have a "back" button that allows the reader to find articles that were posted earlier. Nor is there an archive. Please, I need to refer to some of those articles!

Baron Bodissey said...

Mary --

This is a result of Blogger's new "feature" which limits the number of bytes on any displayed page. This effectively destroyed our archives, because only a handful of posts in any given month will appear.

The feature that you request requires a new-style blogger template, and is not allowed in the version of the template that I currently use.

Conversion to the new template will take many hours, if I can manage to figure it all out. This is why I haven't done it yet. I want to replicate the general appearance of our blog, because this is our "brand".

So if you know of anyone who has the skills to take our existing template and convert it to tne new style, please refer him or her to us. I can pay a modest amount of money, but not much.

In the meantime, a workaround...

Use the "Recent Posts" list on our sidebar to find the latest posts. If you open one of them, it will have its own list of even older recent posts. By this method you can track back until you find what you want.

I know it's cumbersome, but it's the only way I know to do it. I use it myself. You can also try Google searches, but they are of limited value.

Steve said...

Without a conversion to Christ, the only thing that will work militarily is what has worked in the past, whether with Roland at Tours or Jan Sobieskii at Minas Tirith///Vienna in 1683 - force them back into Hudna by defeating them in battle. Since we will not and ought not kill every man and manchild among them, that means retaliatory strikes in force against any terrorist-harboring State, and a public statement that we will spray Mecca and especially the Ka'aba with bacon grease if they ever attack us again.

christian soldier said...

posted this May 17, 2009 and again June 2009-and last week-Sept-2010--there was no out-rage then and I see little Christian 'out-rage' now...
carol-CS

laine said...

Surely the salient point is that Islam would have gotten nowhere in the West, would have been like a flea bouncing off an oblivious elephant if the communist Left had not opened the gates to Muslim immigration and done better propaganda for the enemy than he could possibly manage on his own?

Presumably the Left believes that it can use Islam as a battering ram (along with enviro junk science) to help destroy the West's institutions, then build a world communist utopia on the rubble. According to leftist magical thinking, their totalitarian Islamic genie will obligingly just shrink back into his lamp and let the judas leftists rule what they conquered together. Instead, leftist heads would be the first ones lopped off for their depraved libertinism, for their propensity to betray, and for their power hunger as not even converts are elevated to positions of power in Islam.

Therefore western leftists are stupider than barbarians following an 8th century desert nomad screed but how stupid are conservatives to have allowed either to get a foot in freedom's door?

1389 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Zenster said...

1389, I recommend that you delete the last sentence of your most recent comment. Speaking on a strictly personal basis, it may not be an appropriate thing to post at this web site.

Just sayin'.

Jewish Odysseus said...

Thanks for a magisterial, PACKED short essay!

Today's enws brought word that the American public now has a 49% "bad opinion" of Islam. This seems very low (maybe a little kaffir kitman going on from the poll subjects?), but it compares to a 39% figure from **1 month after the 9/11 attacks!** So it has been painfully slow, but progress is being made. (And we can only speculate what it wd be like if we had even a few national leaders willing to speak candidly and informedly about Islam).

goethechosemercy said...

The one thing I've learned here is that it doesn't take much to force Muslims to drop the mask and show their true, primitive and ugly faces.
More provocations will be necessary to call them out and to keep the negative opinion of Islam high.
And perhaps, after enough exposure, most Westerners will understand the tremendous threat Islam and these cultures present to Western Civilization and the rule of reason.

rickl said...

Jewish Odysseus:

Americans have been studying the history and ideology of Islam and are slowly getting up to speed. Blogs like this one, or Jihad Watch, didn't exist on 9/11/01.

Although the celebrated Florida pastor didn't go through with his plan to burn the Koran yesterday, others did. There was the guy in NYC who was captured on video and featured here. I wonder how many other Americans burned Korans yesterday, quietly, at home, without publicity or fanfare?

September 11 might become Koran Burning Day in America in future years.

I think the sleeping giant is beginning to stir.

dienw said...

"So the structure and function of the international networks of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates are uncannily like those of the Comintern. They engage in the time-honored practices of misdirection and obfuscation — kitman and taqiyya — which are eerily evocative of the classic KGB playbook..."

This is true of the Democratic party for much of its history, of the Progressive movement which encapsulates both parties, and the Left: the Muslims have had the history of three native movements to both teach them and prepare the ground.

dienw said...

Articles such as this cannot be written and then followed by a condemnation of pastors such as Terry Jones and his threatened burning of a koran:Jones has flicked the kitchen switch and we have been witness to a multitude of cockroaches; some of which were supposed to be good conservative commentators and pundits: even some bloggers. Jones was not insane.

Baron Bodissey said...

njartist --

I'm confused -- when did I condemn Terry Jones or Koran burning? I've never done either of those things.

Not only do I defend the right of any citizen to burn any book he owns (while abiding by the fire code in his local jurisdiction), I think this meme may have strategic value for us by "galvanizing the base". Hence I would never condemn it.

SEL4636 said...

The comment that the sleeping giant is awakening reminds me that America is a different place today than it was on 911 and for sometime thereafter. If we are hit again and I fear eventually we will be, a large percentage of Americans are going to demand a fearful retribution, at least I would hope so and not just abroad, but at home.

Anonymous said...

And yet, Baron, yet, you still support the "democratizing" missions of Iraq and Afghanistan. I've been despairingly trying to persuade Conservatives I meet of the folly of continuing Muslim immigration at home while trying to impose liberalism on them abroad.

Pray, tell Baron how in the light of what you wrote above can you continue to support the Wilsonian mythical missions of "Democratization"?

Engineer-Poet said...

"Presumably the Left believes that it can use Islam as a battering ram (along with enviro junk science) to help destroy the West's institutions, then build a world communist utopia on the rubble."

I have met a self-defined socialist who is both a member of an atheist social organization and unashamedly pro-Islamist (and pro-Sharia, by the way he is strongly against anything which might offend Muslims).  This must be what he's thinking; he is not stupid enough to think that any Muslim country meets his standard of a desirable socialist outcome, so he must be naïve enough to think that Islamists could be used to bring down the US economic system and then step aside.

Another atheist organization I've been part of is divided roughly 50-50 on the issue.  I'm not sure how many are on the wrong side because of ignorance and a misplaced sense of fairness, and how many are "counterculture" because they were e.g. subjected to ridiculous piety as children and see any of its opponents as allies.  This is characteristic of people who have not done the thinking to establish clear principles and know with whom they should stand on what... and whom to stand against.

Baron Bodissey said...

contemplationist --

Where do you get the idea that I support democratizing Iraq and Afghanistan? You obviously haven't been reading my posts and comments recently.

Your ignorance of my stated positions reveals you as a "hit and run" commenter, without any basic familiarity with what I write.

I think we made serious a mistake with our "nation-building" nonsense, which has been an obvious failure. Overwhelming defeat of the enemy, then install a compliant regime, and withdraw -- that's the ticket.

As John Derbyshire likes to say, "Rubble don't cause trouble."

Zenster said...

Baron Bodissey: Overwhelming defeat of the enemy, then install a compliant regime, and withdraw -- that's the ticket.

I often wonder if even a few Muslims have ever paused to consider how such properly "compliant" regimes will make Saddam Hussein look like a veritable Caspar Milquetoast.

The sort of militarily installed dictatorships needed to quell any further spread of Islam and shari'a law will, of necessity, be far more brutal than the Muslim theocracies they are intended to interdict.

Islam needs to be very careful about what it wants because someday soon, it will get it.

Anonymous said...

Baron, are you aware of the Wordpress feature, in which you can import an entire blog to your Wordpress blog? It only takes a couple of minutes to set everything up, and then Wordpress copies everything automatically to your mirror site. I don't know if it would work for such a huge site as this, but if it did, it would solve all your archive problems for free.

Baron Bodissey said...

latte --

Wordpress has several problems from my point of view.

1. I would have difficulty reproducing the general look of GoV. I've checked with a couple of Wordpress experts, and they were doubtful that the template could be converted or mimicked in WP to keep the same appearance.

2. I don't like the interface. I use it at Big Peace and have used it at other places, and it is non-intuitive and difficult to work with compared with Blogger.

3. If you host your blog at Wordpress itself, you face the same problem that you have with Blogger -- arbitrary removal without warning for PC reasons. Some accounts say WP is worse than Blogger in that regard.

4. If you want to buy and use your own copy of Wordpress software to blog at your own site (and thus be immune from arbitrary takedown), you face the problem of DDOS attacks, and have to pay quite a premium to buy space on a protected server. This is what happened to IFPS a couple of years ago. A major advantage about Blogger is that I don't have to worry about DDOS.

I complain about Blogger sometimes, but it seems to be the best available free service, given the conditions described above. I'm open to having my mind changed, though.

Jocke said...

Baron,

I fully agree with everything in this excellent post, but I would like to further stree that the success so far of the Islamic aggressors would not have been possible at all without the long preparations made by the Communist infiltrators of the Western intellectual élites, the systematic attacks on each and every "Bourgeois" institution of the Western culture which succesfully softened our defences. Most certainly, it wouldn't even have been possible without detailed "military" aid step-by-step through all the phases of the recent decades. The co-operation between the Brotherhood and the Leftists have been really tight and there are lots of evidence that Leftists write essays, op-eds and articles for the Islamists to just sign. The recent wave of Lawfare is just one other indication of their co-operation. The Communists are definitely the brains behind the Islamist attacks and that shows clearly the absolute evil of the Communist hatred of western civilization, now as a whole branded as "Bourgeois".

For the Communists it doesn't matter what will take its place or (as usual) how many victims will suffer a brutal death as long as the "Bourgeoisie" is destroyed. What is new since the 70s is that the Communists doesn't even recognise the existence of a working class in the West, since in a global perspective westerners according to their view are all rich and "bourgeois" or belonging to a "workers aristocracy" compared to most of the rest of the world...especially compared to Muslims.

You must also recognize that the co-operation dates very far back, at least to the late 60s, when young "radicalized" westerners started to travel to the Middle East to study "the Palestinian Revolution", that is the many new terrorist organizations, like the PFLP, DPFLP and other nominally Marxist organizations that started to attack Israeli civilians in the 60s and went on to hijack planes and kill hostages in the early 70s. There was especially a very tight co-operation between the leftist terror groups of the 70s and those Palestinian groups, in which the European groups funnelled information and money from drug-trafficking and bank robberies to the Palestinians in exchange of weapons. The Soviet KGB and other East-bloc spy-organizations provided training for all of these groups, which also included training in psychological warfare for journalists. Those people have been creating havoc undisturbed ever since.

Jocke said...

Needless to say. It was the Leftists, the more extreme, the stronger advocats, that most advocated the Multicultural society and free immigration policies long before it became the main-stream, or only, rather, European policy.

Now of course we can clearly realize that this was the first obviously conscious step, to first build up the beach head base with reliable "revolutionaries", as the immediate results of the revolts of -68 were deemed a failure of the most radical Lefties.

Baron Bodissey said...

Jocke --

Absolutely. We often cover the topic here. The Left is the real enemy -- Islam is simply the virus of opportunity attacking a weakened culture.

Not every essay can cover all of this, however. I have to pick and choose what to write about.

The best way to fight the Left is through the Counterjihad, because resistance to Islam can gain support where fighting Socialism cannot. The Koran-burning meme is evidence of that.

gsw said...

I note that he, and most muslim leaders, agree that 1.4 Billion muslims agree with him.
Where are the 1.3 Billion disagreeing, shouting no, he is an extremist! He doesn't speak for us moderates!

There are more catholics condemning the pope than muslims condemning islamic violence!

@Steven, "Without a conversion to Christ," - actually atheism works very well if you are looking for "an end to religiously motivated violence"