Calling Dr. Phares....War of ideas update: U.S. still losing
What the hell does that mean in english? What are we going to do, show pictures of naturalized Pakistani dentists and their families at Disneyworld?GERTZ - The State Department's point man for the war of ideas against terrorism testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week about the need to develop a better strategy for countering Islamist extremism.
James Glassman, the nominee for undersecretary of State for public diplomacy, said during a nomination hearing that Al Qaida is doing well in communicating its message on the Internet and is better than the United States.
Glassman said that the unilateral disarmament of U.S. government public diplomacy efforts are on the way to being fixed. "In many parts of the government, including the Department of Defense, including the intelligence community, there is an effort under way in ideological engagement or the war of ideas," Glassman said.
"That effort, however, is not coordinated and it is not led to the degree that it should be."
Glassman said the war of ideas will be his main focus. "So it's not just a matter of getting the right words or the right messages. It's a matter of leadership and getting that out."
Glassman said the Pentagon is providing some funding for such work "that is very important in the overall ideological engagement struggle."
Glassman said some officials in the Pentagon and intelligence agencies are concerned "about the commitment to the war of ideas by the State Department."
Effing ay, right on that
Asked about Al Qaida's use of Islam, Glassman said it is "a tremendously important question and it raises a difficult problem: The ideology of Al Qaida is based on a distorted view of a religion.
Hmmm...maybe there's a need for Mr's. Spencer and Bostom here
And it's very difficult for us, as Americans or as non-Muslims, to say to them or to their followers, 'You know, this is what the Koran really says; it's not what you say it says.'"
Maybe because no muslim authorities will come forward to say that these guys are wrong...maybe because they AREN'T or doing so gets you a ginstu or a special visit by someone with a funny vest.
Glassman said he hopes to organize more "Muslim voices" to denounce Al Qaida's ideology.
Pardon me while I don't hold my breath.
President Bush last week said that the power of liberty will be the most effective ideological counter to Islamist extremism, a notion that many military and Pentagon specialists say is insufficient because it does not take into account the role of Islam.
"The summary I've come away with is that liberty is transformative," Bush said. "People want to be free, and if given the chance, will be free, do the hard work necessary to be free. And liberty has got the capacity to transform an enemy to an ally. And therefore, we ought to have confidence in liberty's power to bring the peace we want, and not shy away from helping people realize the great blessings of freedom. We've got to be confident in the transformative powers of liberty, recognizing that deep in everybody's soul is the desire to be free."
Bush said he recognizes that some dismiss the idea that liberty can take hold in certain parts of the world, and that a foreign policy based on stability alone "just masked the hopelessness that seethed beneath the surface."
Sorry, GW but your actions in foreign policy in the last 2 years with the exception of the surge make it compulsory to find that stability is your goal.
Bush has argued that Islam is a religion of peace that was "hijacked" by extremists. Other U.S. specialists have argued against that position, stating that Islamists are correctly interpreting Islamic law in conducting terrorist attacks.
Someone actually SAID IT, wow ! If Islam were undeniably a religion of peace, then an avalanche of Tantawis, Qaradawis, and Jannati's would be telling the killers off every day, and especially every Friday. Instead, we have a few lone voices speaking out, like Kabbani, who become instantly reviled, and apostatized. This consequential equation has meaning.
The dispute has left the U.S. government and military without a clear understanding of the nature of the extremist threat, a key step needed before developing a counterproposal that can be used in an ideological offensive.
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