OT Islamic fundamentalism:
The scariest thing I see, is that we have lost the HeartsAndMinds contest, in the Islamic world. The War On Terrorism is a guerrilla war, and such wars cannot be won by conquering territory or a high body count. Guerrilla wars are won by ending the civilian support for the guerrillas. Using that criteria, we are losing the war.
I've read several news articles detailing polls taken recently. Throughout the Moslem world, even in countries whose governments have been our allies for decades (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morrocco), 90-95% of the people think that:
1. The War On Terrorism is a pretext for seizing oil fields
2. Bin Laden didn't order the 9/11 attack; it was done by Bush or the Israilis, to provide a pretext for attacking Moslem nations (endless variations of this ConspiracyTheory).
3. The U.S. supports terrorism, by giving Israel money and weapons to attack Palestinians.
4. The U.S. seeks to re-colonize the Middle East; American troops will not leave Saudi Arabia willingly.
5. Arab and Moslem culture is under attack, and is in danger of being destroyed, even in the Moslem heartland, by an aggressive and insidious Western culture.
As long as those beliefs are widely held, Bin Laden has a billion-strong recruitmnet pool. For every guerrilla our Special Forces hunt down in the mountains of Afghanistan (or the suburbs of L.A.), there will be 3 new suicide-bomber volunteers. |
