2 posts tagged “long war”
Here is some interesting insight from a Marine General on the Long War. I would evaluate General Robert Magnus’ insight as Center Right.
JRH 3/15/08
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The Long War: A Marine Perspective on the Global War on Terrorism
By Andrew Lubin
March 14, 2008
The Global Interdependence Center hosted General Robert Magnus, Assistant Commandant, United States Marine Corps, at the University of Pennsylvania Wednesday evening.
Using the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a backdrop, Gen Magnus spoke about using various types of power in order to advance national security and the national interest. “Clausewitz said that you need to understand the war you are in,” Magnus explained, “war is an exercise of politics, but by other means.”
But having a ‘hammer’, as he described the Marine Corps and the American military, does not mean that the military should be the primary method of enforcing national strategic interests. There are many ways to utilize the American military, he explained, citing Marine efforts in training Afghan Police, reconstruction efforts in Ramadi, and the Provisional Reconstruction Teams in Iraq who are involved in job creation that ranges from opening shops to vaccinating cows. “If we don’t help them find jobs,” Magnus commented,” then they’ll go back to earning money by dropping an IED on our troops.”
Part of the utilization of national power, Magnus said, is that it includes making choices. Using the example of arms sales to Pakistan, he explained that while selling arms assists the American economy, and is cheaper than sending troops, it also takes scarce money out of Pakistan, who tends to fund arms purchases by short-changing their education budget and social services “Then the parents send their kids to the madrassa schools, with the obvious consequences.”
According to Magnus, there are five elements of national power, with their value depending on the country involved. “Military and Economic Power are the first two, as well as the most obvious”, he explained. “On one hand, kinetic power is good when we killed Zarkawi, but bad when we bombed an Afghan wedding. And while Adam Smith’s hand is invisible, its effects certainly are not- our GNP is $ 14 trillion annually and we’re the world’s hyperpower.”
Magnus listed Diplomatic Power as the third element, although he noted that this is usually the weakest element of the five. “When Abbas and Hamas and the Israeli’s stop negotiating, they fall back to the military option far too quickly.”
The remaining two are far more subtle, yet almost as important as the military and economic factors. Culture is vitally important, he explained,” Japanese kids playing baseball are now playing in the major leagues. I saw kids wearing Mike Tyson t-shirts when I was in Djibouti; like him or not, Michael Jackson is often seen as a representative of our culture. It’s a question of how we as a people are perceived.” Moral Power remains the final element, said Magnus. “It’s our ability to believe in our righteousness that helps rally the national will, and on the other side it either rallies others to our side – or forces them away.”
The moral element is extremely important, according to Magnus. Citing Clausewitz again, who wrote that moral is to physical as 3:1, he explained that people are more likely to be influenced by moral, instead of physical factors.
This is where the United States is too often lacking, Magnus said. “To change someone’s mind is a contest of wills, and the problem is that we don’t spend time or money on foreign affairs until there is a problem.” Using a domestic problem, Magnus noted that fixing the New Orleans levees before Hurricane Katrina would have saved billions of dollars and numerous other problems.
Gen Magnus said that he expects the war on terror to be a generational struggle, and a 9/11 type terror attack could too easily be repeated “America needs a hammer; some of these bad guys don’t want to sit down and talk – you can’t negotiate with Nihilists.”
While globalization affects everyone, it affects everyone differently; while 50% of the Iraqi’s are literate, with many western-educated and following America on satellite TV; the remaining 50% are illiterate, and too easily influenced by the Islamic extremists teaching in the madrassas. “We need to think of the 26 million people who make up Iraq,” Magnus explained, “and how our strategic and tactical actions affect them” The problems are worse in Afghanistan, he continued, a country with a larger population and a larger illiteracy rate. The question, Magnus said, is that as a moral society, we need to decide how we want to influence the neighborhood.
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Andrew Lubin is a proud member of the distinguished USMC Combat Correspondents Association, Andrew spent much of 2006 and 2007 in Iraq, and Afghanistan. Embedded with Marine - Army - National Guard units, he's out in the field with the "boots on the ground," and covering the story with the 0311's and 0811's in Ramadi, Mahmudiyah, and the Khyber Pass who are getting the job done.
© 2005-2008 Small Wars Journal, LLC
Here is an important message from Brigitte Gabriel founder of American Congress for Truth and ACT for America. Both websites are dedicated to educating Americans about the very real threat of Islamism (and some would say of Islam) to the American way of life. Islamists seek to transform the globe into their vision of Mohammedanism after the actions and sayings of the cruel man Mohammed as he brought death and destruction and the initiation of an empire. This empire would maintain cohesion of Theo-political cult that inspired fanatic devotion to the violent way of Mohammed.
The e-newsletter is entitled, “Do We Have The Will? Part One.” It really is a synopsis of a book written by Lee Harris. Here is a snippet of what Gabriel says of Harris’ book:
“… The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam’s Threat to the West, argues convincingly that one of the reasons “radical Islam” is such a looming and powerful threat is because most people in the West, including our government leaders, fail to understand the nature of the threat and lack the will to resist it.”
JRH 2/12/08
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Do We Have The Will? Part One
An Important Message From Brigitte Gabriel
Brigitte Gabriel
ACT for America E-Newsletter
Monday, February 11, 2008 1:58:09 PM
Over the past six weeks, we have emailed you information about:
- The Archbishop of Canterbury stating that the imposition of sharia law in Great Britain is now “unavoidable,” and would be beneficial for “social cohesion.”
- A Des Moines, Iowa imam who gave the opening prayer at the Iowa 2008 legislative session, in which he called on Allah to “give us victory over those who disbelieve” – meaning victory over “infidels.”
- A Muslim demonstration in an American city, in which Muslims trampled the American flag while proclaiming allegiance only to Allah and Islamic law.
- Al Qaeda aggressively using the Internet to recruit German Turkish Muslims to go to Pakistan to train to be terrorists.
- New York legislation that has been introduced to protect authors from being harassed and intimidated by Muslims who are filing libel lawsuits in foreign courts.
- How Islam is being advanced in our public schools, through distorted and sanitized depictions of it that gloss over or deny the Qu’ran’s repeated commands to subjugate and kill “infidels.”
We have also posted on our news site stories such as:
- British Bishop Dr. Michael Nazir-Ali’s announcement that there are now “no-go zones” in Great Britain, where non-Muslims dare not go under threat of violence. As a result, the Bishop has received death threats from Muslim extremists.
- How al Qaeda is re-focusing its attention from Iraq to planning for new terrorist attacks on the United States.
If we wanted to report on every instance, every day, of the continued and growing threat of Islamic terrorism and cultural jihad, we could fill your email boxes with dozens and dozens of reports. Once one begins seeing what is happening around us, it’s as if scales drop from the eyes, and what we once were oblivious to we now see with clarity. And what we see is that we face a determined, tenacious foe who is ultimately more dangerous to the peace, prosperity and liberty of the world than Communism was.
Lee Harris, in his recent book The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam’s Threat to the West, argues convincingly that one of the reasons “radical Islam” is such a looming and powerful threat is because most people in the West, including our government leaders, fail to understand the nature of the threat and lack the will to resist it. On page 244 he states: “We have come to believe that we are invulnerable, that we have accumulated such power and wealth that it is unimaginable that our dominance could be challenged.”
He goes on to say that the standard “moral outrage” response from the West whenever a terrorist act occurs is literally dangerous, in that it “deludes us into thinking it has any appreciable effect... It doesn’t.” (p. 261).
He notes, correctly, that Islamists see the world as “us” vs. “them” – “believers” vs. “infidels” – and that the “believers” are dedicated to disrupting the current “world order” by creating chaos and disorder, so that through that chaos they can seize “historical momentum” to advance Islam through jihad.
This is why they engage in terrorism – not because such acts will necessarily bring down governments (though in Spain they in fact did), but they create fear, disorder and potential anarchy – golden opportunities for jihad to advance.
Harris writes, “The jihadists are not interested in winning in our sense of the word. They can succeed simply by making the present world order unworkable, by creating conditions in which politics as usual is no longer an option…” (p. 229). “Muslim fanatics believe that by destroying the Western status quo they will be ushering in a golden age of human happiness” (p. 262).
We engage in the ultimate act of self-deception if we believe that the radical Muslims can be “reasoned with.” They can’t. They not only think different things than we do, they think differently. Their view of the world is so foreign to us that it’s difficult, if not impossible, for many in the West to understand why they do what they do.
Towards the end of the book Harris argues that, if our enlightened civilization is to survive, we must be prepared – and have the will – to defend our way of life. But he observes that societies that achieve our level of peace, prosperity and rationality typically have a very hard time mustering the will to resist fanatical threats to their existence.
Radical Muslims around the world believe that America does not have the will to resist jihad, and that victory for Allah is inevitable. That they believe this gives them a strength, patience and determination to fight a war that they acknowledge may not see its successful conclusion – the domination of the world by Islam – for decades if not centuries. Harris notes, “While we think little further than our retirement, they think in terms of centuries…” (p. 260).
The good news is this -- the will to fight for our nation’s security and founding values does not need to be shared by all, or even most, Americans. History demonstrates that an organized, informed and committed minority of Americans, a minority who have the will, can change the course of the nation.
So, do we, members of ACT! for America and American Congress for Truth, have the will to resist the rising tide of Islamofascism?
Do we have the will to vigorously defend the values of Western Civilization that have produced the greatest peace, prosperity and liberty the world has ever known?
Do we have the will to fight for our safety, security, liberty, peace and prosperity, for ourselves now, and for the children and grandchildren who will follow us?
Do we have the will? That is the question I will explore in tomorrow’s email.
Yours in defense of America,
Brigitte Gabriel
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ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam.
