RAND REPORT SAYS COLD WAR OFFERS LESSONS ON ENGAGING WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD

Rand Corp. ^ | 3/26/07

[Valin]

Click on Source for more

[RexBeach]

Paralysis by analysis.

[Puppage]

LESSONS ON ENGAGING WITH THE MUSLIM WORLD

LESSON # 1

HERE NOW ENDS YOUR LESSON

[KarlInOhio]

We should be (and hope are) dumping money on "moderate" mullahs to make sure they can get their message out. The Saudis and Iranians are flooding the Mideast and outwards with their radical interpretations of the Koran. We should be aiding anyone who is stating "You don't go to heaven and get 72 virgins for killing innocents. You go to hell for doing that. Israel isn't the cause of Islam's problems it is a tiny slice of land. We Muslims are the cause of our own problems."

We should be broadcasting like crazy about those bomber who left children in the back seat of their car bomb to be able to get through checkpoints and then blew them up. The Muslims of the Mideast should be so fired up about it that they want to rip apart the nearest Jihadist rather than cower before them.

We should be slipping in secular humanist ideas to make Muslims doubt their religion. People doubting whether Allah exists aren't as likely to strap on explosives and walk into a market.

I hope we are starting to do all of these, but I really doubt that the CIA or State Department has the capability or will to work on a 50 year project like these would require to pacify the Mideast.

[zerosix]

"Just as it fought the spread of Communism during the Cold War, the United States must do more to develop and support networks of moderate Muslims who are too often silenced by violent radical Islamists, according to a RAND Corporation report issued today."

Totally incorrect, but usual liberal double-speak. What will work is to let "moderate" Muslims know that we will hold their feet to the fire until and unless they stand up to THEIR OWN evil, Islamofacists (which would face sure reprisal but more certainly, deny the rantings of that idiot Prophet Muhammad in his "Mein Kampf" Koran, for it is that "religion" claims that beheading infidels is honorable and the only way to Paradise!)

[Valin]

Well as plans go that is one. A stupid one to be sure, and one guaranteed to appeal to the slack jawed mouth breathers among us, but it is one.

[outofstyle]

“We cannot come in as outsiders, as a non-Muslim country, and discredit the radicals’ ideology,” Rabasa said. “Muslims have to do that themselves. What we can do is level the playing field by empowering the moderates.”

This is exactly the strategy that will lead to our destruction. The goal of both radical and "moderate" Muslim's is world domination. Some moderates believe that it can be accomplished with minimal violence. Great.

[Puppage]

Well as plans go that is one. A stupid one to be sure

I guess for those FReepers w/o a sense of humer I should have added /sarc.

[Puppage]

Or, even a sense of humor

[Valin]

For way to many people here nukeing Mecca is not a joke, but a good idea.

[Valin]

The goal of both radical and “moderate” Muslim’s is world domination.

You might tell that to the Iraqi soldiers dying right now fighting the terrorists.

The radical loser (Long Read)
Der Spiegel ^ | 1/12/05 | Hans Magnus Enzensberger
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1694568/posts

(snip)

There is also no mistaking other similarities, such as the fixation with written authorities. The place of Marx and Lenin is taken by the Koran, references are made not to Gramsci but to Sayyid Qutb. Instead of the international proletariat, it takes as its revolutionary subject the Umma, and as its avant-garde and self-appointed representative of the masses it takes not The Party but the widely branching conspiratorial network of Islamist fighters. Although the movement can draw on older rhetorical forms which to outsiders may sound high-flown or big-mouthed, it owes many of its idées fixes to its Communist enemy: history obeys rigid laws, victory is inevitable, deviationists and traitors are to be exposed and then, in fine Leninist tradition, bombarded with ritual insults.

The movement’s list of favourite foes is also short on surprises: America, the decadent West, international capital, Zionism. The list is completed by the unbelievers, that is to say the remaining 5.2 billion people on the planet. Not forgetting apostate Muslims who may be found among the Shiites, Ibadhis, Alawites, Zaidites, Ahmadiyyas, Wahhabis, Druze, Sufis, Kharijites, Ishmaelites or other religious communities.

(snip)

Contrary to what the West appears to believe, the destructive energy of Islamist actions is directed mainly against Muslims. This is not a tactical error, not a case of “collateral damage”. In Algeria alone, Islamist terror has cost the lives of at least 50,000 fellow Algerians. Other sources speak of as many as 150,000 murders, although the military and the secret services were also involved. In Iraq and Afghanistan, too, the number of Muslim victims far outstrips the death toll among foreigners. Furthermore, terrorism has been highly detrimental not only to the image of Islam but also to the living conditions of Muslims around the world.

The Islamists are as unconcerned about this as the Nazis were about the downfall of Germany. As the avant-garde of death, they have no regard for the lives of their fellow believers. In the eyes of the Islamists, the fact that most Muslims have no desire to blow themselves and others sky high only goes to show that they deserve no better than to be liquidated themselves. After all, the aim of the radical loser is to make as many other people into losers as possible. As the Islamists see it, the fact that they are in the minority can only be because they are the chosen few.

(snip)

[AU72]

Communism is a western atheistic philosophy that precludes an after-life but can build a heaven on earth.

Leninism is the political bible that preludes offensive action against the enemy unless the 'correalation of forces' is in their favor.

Mutally Assured Destruction rested on the assumption that the communist bloc would be consistent to their philosophy and not initiate a suicidal war.

Radical Islam is built on doing Allah's work to convert the whole world or die trying, in which case eternal paradise awaits the martyrs.

Treating Radical Islam as we treated communism would be suicidal for us.

[sitetest]

“It’s a struggle within Islam to define the character of Islam.”

Yeah, it’s that 95% of Muslims that give the other 5% a bad name.

[Wormwood]

Very interesting post. Thanks.

[theBuckwheat]

MAD will only work when the Muslim world knows that the western world is willing to destroy Mecca and Medina.

Islam’s Ground Zero:
http://googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=1021&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=21.42262,39.826126&z=18

[The Great RJ]

One key difference is that the Soviets could be expected to act rationally in their own self interests. The MAD doctrine that kept the world from nuclear annihilation was based on the assumption that the Soviets would not launch a nuclear attack if they knew that the nuclear retaliation on them would be equally massive.

The Islamic fascists are not rational and see a global nuclear war as bringing about a new era of Muslim dominance. Any one who is willing to use children as a means to deliver a homicide bomb is not rational.

[outofstyle]

You might tell that to the Iraqi soldiers dying right now fighting the terrorists.

You might ask them. Most, I believe, consider Christian's and Jews to be infidels and envision a world Caliphate. I agree, there are competing visions and violent disagreements as regards the methods of achieving that end.

[Tokra]

What won us the Cold War was not empowering "moderate communists" it was the simple winning of the arms race.

The Soviets were convinced that we could and would annihilate them.

We need to convince the jihadists that we can and will do the same to them.

[outofstyle]

Valin, for another perspective on this issue, read “Future Jihad” by Dr. Walid Phares. He is a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He is a Lebanese Christian who grew up in the region.

[newcthem]

Wonder how many petro-dollars paid for this hog-wash?