Dr. John Alexander is a private consultant and serves an adviser to the Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command. His books include The Warrior's Edge (1990); Future War, with a Foreword by Tom Clancy (1999); and the sequel, Winning the War, which was published in August 2003. In May, he presented a paper at the Conference on the "Changing Nature of Warfare," in support of the "Global Trends 2020" Project of the U.S. National Intelligence Council.
It should be read by all policymakers.
Our adversaries thrust at the inherent weaknesses of a democratic and open society. Foremost is the battle for public perception, at which we have performed dismally. The core issues are conflicting belief systems. Required is a better understanding of the nature of conflicts we face, the ability to establish the parameters of the war, and the wisdom to understand the strategic implications of use of force. It is at our peril that we continue to define conflict in anachronistic terms.
Here is a pdf of the entire paper.
'Foremost is the battle for public perception, at which we have performed dismally.'
- Dr. Alexander.
Perhaps not so much dismal, as Co-Opted by those who side (to some idealogical extent) with the terrorists?
Witness Al-Jazeera being given carte-blance at the Democratic convention.
How have we "performed dismally"? Just look at the blogosphere. There's ample information about jihad on sites like this one, LGF, and a host of others, and yet scores of leftist bloggers with access to that information continue to devote their time to Bush-bashing instead.
We need to move past this polite fiction that people don't really know what's going on. They know very fucking well; they just don't care. Or at least, not as much as they care about putting their party back in power.
True that, Allah. Our two great political parties very much are fiddling while Rome burns.
Once again Huntingon's "Clash of Civilizations" gets mentioned in a clear, educated, no-nonsense treatise.
I guess I have no choice but to order a permanent copy for my library now.
This PDF by Dr. Alexander is outstanding. I hope people in Washington are aware of it.
I've been trying at several forums at about.com, (the agnostic/atheist forum, and the US current affairs forum) and trying to convince people there, that Islam is a threat is pretty much hopeless. A few people are aware that Islam is a threat, but most see Islam as just another religion. Most say that fundamentalist Islam is no worse than fundamentalist christianity. People dredge up verses from the Old Testament to "prove" that christianity is just as bad as Islam.
I think that it will be a long time before Islam is seen for what it really is: as a threat to western society.
Voltaire,
I am sorry to here that your endeavor is not going well, although I am not surprised.
Man has not learned from the past ,therefore he will pay a greater price in the future.
I am told that when Kennedy averted the cuban missile crisis which came within a hairsbreadth of nuclear war, Mc Namara said to him that to resolve the crisis , america's leaders must learn to think like russians and more specifiaccly like Kruschev. They did that and left him his dignity and a way out.
So it is important that we do the same with Islam, if we wish to defeat it or at least send it into retreat.
We must temporarily abandon our ideas and warm feelings towards human rights, democracy, respect of human life and so many other aspects of our wonderful culture if we wish to start understanding the problems that face us.
This means that we must fight fire with fire. only then will we be feared and respected.
This is precisely what our abcestors did when they removed the threat from our lands.
Voltaire and all the rest. Do not lose hope. No one said that the fight would be easy or that Americans or anyone else would be easily convinced.
We must take a play from the Islamists play book:
patience and persistence will win the day. Brilliance is often overcome by those that doggedly refuse to give in. Go back and knock on those doors again. Perhaps you will need to use a different tactic - use the appropriate tool for each audience.
Voltaire:
You could try providing links to jihadist websites so that they could "see" for themselves.
EVERYONE
The answer is simple, we need to get as many letters and emails to newspapers and magazines poitnig the finger at islamic extremist websites that we are aware exist as well as posting some of the crappy links Reza gives us and maybe some of his/her comments.
If enough of us do this they've got to listen and print an article in the tabloids. Lets do it folks
The process of informing the collective consciousness of the true threat of the islamic ideology is picking up momentum so there is no reason to despair. It will take time but it is a monotonic process, meaning that each day that passes brings us to a new level of general awareness.
The first major step will be the dawning of the realization in bowling alleys around the US that islam is not a "religion" in the way that the framers of the US Constitution had in mind. It is rather the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing, a violent and oppressive political/social/economic ideology parading as a religion.
Here's a link I found,it's maps and pictures
of sacred Mosques in the MiddleEast,I say we
lock in on this temples of doom and put the Jihadists and the supporters on notice.
Kill one more Christian or Jews and Ka-Boom,kill one more and Ka-Boom Ka-boom Ka-boom.
This mathematical progression will assure that the "Good Muslims" do something about these bang of thugs that hijacked Islam from 1200 Million Muslims.
Sorry,the link didn't transfer correctly,below is the actual hypertext.
http://www.al-islam.org/ziyarat/index.htm
Many thanks for the pdf. We are well into WWX, and must focus every sinew on how to win. To have advanced civilization this far and at such human cost only to see it fall to islam ..... over my dead body.
Take note of these "career Victims" that love to live in the West and Bitch about the bias media and Islamophobia they suffer under freedom and Liberty.
The C.I.C. harps at the slightest perception of unfare portrayal of Islam,well just try to find a notice of condemnation of the vile cowardly slaughter of worshippers at 5 Churshes in Iraq.
Their silence is deafening.
http://www.canadianislamiccongress.org/
Huleqa Khan, i totally agree.
But how long will it take those europeans to wake up, for the german and french 'bowling alley' conversation to move from its normal anti-american, self rightous arrogance to a realistic appraisal of islam the hideous ideology;
HELP NEEDED:
Could anyone do me a massive favour please, send as many relevant exerpts from the Q'ran that prove how dangerous the religion is.
My brother works with a pretty young muslim girl who claims to be against all forms of terror, and now as a result he has fallen for her charms, and won't listen to anything I have to say against islam.
He now believes that the terrr groups have distorted the teachings of the q'ran, and that most muslims are peaceful. This is a hugh step backwards for my brother , who I love dearly, he is not and never has been as clued up about the global threat of islam as me, but used to be very un-PC and against Pakistanis because they got his ex-girlfriend addicted to heroin (and some of his friends), turned her into a desperate whore who ended up O.Ding.
My sister is as anti-islam as me, as is my other brother and even my mother(who is not really interested in world affairs anyway, and has a simple life) has started to listen. The last thing I need is my brother unraveling all of my hard work just because my bro has the love bug.
Please help me, my email address is :
borgdestroyer@yahoo.com
Ethelred,
I got your email with the link and can't thank you enough. But I've just accidentally deleted it while attempting to add you to my address book , Please could yopost it again. Sorry for any inconveniance.I'm still kicking myself now.
PS-Yes I'd love to help with your website.