Posted on 06/06/2004 7:12:52 PM PDT by FairOpinion
MORE:
John Arquilla
Associate Professor
Department of Defense Analysis
Graduate School of Operational and Information Sciences
Monterey, CA 93943
Phone: 831 656-3450
Email: jarquilla@nps.edu
AND here is the address of the Chairman of the Department of Defense Analysis.
Did this guy know whom he is hiring?
Gordon H. McCormick
Professor and Chair
Mail Code: DA/Mc
Department of Defense Analysis
Graduate School of Operational and Information Sciences
Monterey, CA 93943
Phone: 831-656-2933
Email: gmccormick@nps.edu
see that is what I get for posting and not spell checking
These problems can be mastered. For example, the Palestinian nationalist cause is also a "big tent'' with many feuding factions, but all have given their assent, for many years now, to being represented by Yasser Arafat in peace talks with the Israelis.
Anyone who points to anything done by the Palestinians as an example of a successful model we should follow is a fool.
How in hell do you negotiate that?
Not a problem...if you have no soul.
That's what makes it so easy for the left...
If they somehow get in power, the continued existence of this country will be in great jeopardy.
not bad but a little too young for me ;)
Ten bucks says this guy will vote for Kerry.
The flawed premise is right here and after this it's all downhill. How can this guy be so stupid as to think (or so disingenuous as to pretend to think?) that our objective is "forcing an end to terrorism"? Yes, achieving that goal is very unlikely (in fact impossible). But that's a total straw man, a parody cartoon of our goal in this war. The only question is whether this guy is a moron (and really thinks "ending terrorism" is our objective) or a disingenuous propagandist (thus calls our objective "ending terrorism" so as to make people think our objective is impossible, when it is not).
Our objective is not to "end" terrorism but to fight against the group which most relies on terrorism as their tactic (Islamofascists). "Ending terrorism" is impossible but defeating Islamofascists most certainly is not. Again, either this guy is too stupid to understand that, or he's some kind of propagandist.
Establishing democracy throughout the Muslim world, as Bush has said he wants to do as a means of winning the war, may not be effective.
We'll see.
Another counter-terrorism strategy would shift our focus from rebuilding Muslim nations to dismantling al Qaeda and its affiliated networks.
We are doing that. We're not "not focused" on dismantling Al Qaeda and its affiliated networks. The idea that we can't walk and chew gum at the same time is idiotic. So the answer is, we can do both: try to spread consensual government (I shall not use the word "democracy" as that is a misunderstood term), and fight/dismantle known organized AQ-affiliates when we can.
But this process will be a long one. Former CIA Director George Tenet told the Sept. 11 Commission that it would take as much as five years to redesign American intelligence along more networked lines, with cells and nodes of our own sprinkled about in all the right places.
Five whole years!!! Wow I can't wait that long. We gotta wrap this thing up before the new fall TV season!
Sure would've hated to know this guy during the Cold War...
But we may not have five years. Each day al Qaeda stays in business it comes closer to acquiring weapons of mass destruction. And if Osama bin Laden is ever in a position to use, say, a small nuclear warhead, then our present problems will seem minuscule.
So, incidentally, will the present problems of the Middle East. If we don't have five years then neither does Tehran.
Perhaps, then, peace is the answer, and we should think about the practical and political problems that would bedevil any attempt at negotiations.
The first practical problem, a fatal one, is that our enemies are millenial fanatics and have no interest in conventional goals. "Negotiation" is useless with such people. If this guy doesn't understand this then he truly is a first-class moron. Why bother reading after this? Unless you want a few chuckles that is....
Do ya s'pose Osama knows the words to Kum-bay-ah?
We could let him lead the singalong...
I don't know, he sounds like a Nader man to me.
Me, I like them navels ripe like that!
This flight of fancy would not credit a 10 year-old fifth-grader.
Oblivious to the fact that the Islamofacists are not interested in a halt to their war, nor even in a pause save one enforced by us, this guy merely prattles.
He will have no audience save among his own kind - those with a total lack of mature judgement and good sense.
Democrats in other words.
Mr. exDemMom works there, at the NPGS. I'll have to ask him if he knows this guy, and if so, is the guy as irrational in person as he is in this article?
Didn't old Ben Laden write us a letter after 9-11? He spelled out his terms.
1. Get out of Arabia where "Holy Cities" are located
(we are doing this now)
2. Get out of the Middle East. (See above after June 30)
3. Give up on Isreal. (so guess who will win.)
4. Convert to Islam.
5. Stop all our sinful ways like in movies and Tv and stuff. (Old Ben might be a tad right in this).
We could give up on Isreal but I fear that there would be a lot of dead people over there if we did. As for that idea about bowing down to Mecca--I can't see it ever happening and it would be terrible for them if we did. Why? The first thing we would do is change things in Islam--It would be like a reformation that would change it into something they would hate.
Re-reading this piece, I think I was too easy on this guy.
Bluntly put, the man has lost his marbles.
Well there is also the demand for Islamic rule over all previous Islamic territories. (That's most of Spain, Portugul, SE Europe to the gates of Vienna, Southern Russia, Kashmir, East Timor, South Philipines) (plus whatever joins on to them).
Oh, and the US must sign the Kyoto Treaty.
I actually thought his analysis was interesting. And if it's not necessarily an option I'd choose, I do appreciate that he is actually considering something that I would expect GWB might seriously consider during the second term. After all, Nixon had a 'secret plan' to end the war in Vietnam and only he could have gone to China. Only GWB or another hawk will ever be able to end this war.
The author of this article is John Arquilla, a professor of defense analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Feel free to send him an e-mail... see post #41 for e-mail info.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
How much is Osama paying this idiot??? This is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, has the FBI seen this??? They might be quite interested.
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