A masked man speaking in what is believed to be a North American accent in a video that Islamic State militants released in September 2014 is pictured in this still frame from video obtained by Reuters October 7, 2014.
In Battle to Defang ISIS, U.S. Targets Its Psychology -- New York Times
WASHINGTON — Maj. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, commander of American Special Operations forces in the Middle East, sought help this summer in solving an urgent problem for the American military: What makes the Islamic State so dangerous?
Trying to decipher this complex enemy — a hybrid terrorist organization and a conventional army — is such a conundrum that General Nagata assembled an unofficial brain trust outside the traditional realms of expertise within the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies, in search of fresh ideas and inspiration. Business professors, for example, are examining the Islamic State’s marketing and branding strategies.
“We do not understand the movement, and until we do, we are not going to defeat it,” he said, according to the confidential minutes of a conference call he held with the experts. “We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.”
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My Comment: Since the founding of Islam 1300 years ago .... it's grip on this part of the world has resulted in centuries of war and bloodshed. Understanding this history will help to understand what makes the Islamic State tick .... and more to the point .... a realization that unless the U.S. wants to be actively involved on a massive level to change the culture in this region for the next century or two .... any hope to deter it with minimal U.S. involvement will probably result in failure.
5 comments:
Sorry, WNE, but this is just stupid.
This is an area where the post Colonial, post Monarchies , early democracies got strangled in their graves by the Western Democracies,
Arab Socialism died stillborn in the Cold War.
Massive numbers of youth, massive poverty, massive wealth misspent,
So far, the only thing that hasn't been tried, ( and failed) is Ancient Islam, the Calpinate.
ISIS is the natural result of killing all political and economic social and economic justice in the region, for oil.
No disrespect WNE but I have to agree with Jay. The statement that the region has been consistently at war since the dawn of Islam is simply inaccurate. Sure for the most part there was always a war going on somewhere in the vast region but how is that any different from Europe?
The current troubles in the region though are certainly some of the worst in the world we now live in. That has little to do with Islam (which like Christianity has seen its periods of ups and downs in terms of violence) as much as the underlying social/economic conditions that push the perverse interpretations of that religion to the fore to the detriment of the other more moderate interpretations.
When did the U.S. put down a revolt in Saudi Arabia?
When did the U.S. tell the Syrians, Egyptians and others to bulk their militaries and attack Israel in 1948? 1956? etc?
When did the U.S. stop Qaddaffi from spending money on social programs in Libya?
D_mn Saudi Arabia bought out ARAMCO and the U.S. got a smaller cut.
That is imperialism?
The Al Sauds set up themselves.
With defence deals from the US.
"
ISIS is the natural result of killing all political and economic social and economic justice in the region, for oil."
In your staunch defemce of the US, are you claiming that because I said "oil", I must mean the US, because it's the US's oil?
Or don't the French, English and the zero sum game of the Cold War matter?
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