General foresees ‘generational war’ against terrorism
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 13, 2006The American people need to prepare for a long-duration war against radical Muslims who are set to fight for 50 to 100 years to create an Islamist state in the region, a top Pentagon strategist in the war on terror says.
Air Force Brig. Gen. Mark O. Schissler said in an interview that the current strategy for fighting Islamists includes both military and ideological components that make it similar to the 40-year Cold War against communism.
“We’re in a generational war. You can try and fight the enemy where they are and where they’re attacking you, or prevent them and defend your own homeland,” said Gen. Schissler, deputy director for the war on terrorism within the strategic plans office of the Pentagon’s Joint Staff.
“But that’s not enough to stop it. We’ve got to break the chain, and that’s … the ideology. We really need to show the errors in Islamist extremist thinking.”
Gen. Schissler said he is concerned that Washington politics is weakening the will of the nation.
“I don’t care about the politics. I care about people understanding the facts of what’s our enemy is thinking about, what’s our strategy to defeat them, and for [Americans] to understand that it will take a long fight, mostly because our enemy is committed to the long fight,” he said. “They’re absolutely committed to the 50-, 100-year plan.”
“One of my concerns is how to maintain the American will, the public will over that duration,” he said.
America’s past wars lasted three to four years and sustaining support for longer wars “is very difficult,” he said.
A Joint Staff briefing on the long war against terrorism states that since 2001, more than 3,000 al Qaeda terrorists are held in more than 100 nations, including 500 in Pakistan, while two-thirds of al Qaeda leaders are dead or in prison.
More than 17 terrorist attacks were disrupted since 2001, including three in the United States and two in Europe.
Al Qaeda’s ultimate goal, the general said, is to set up an extremist “caliphate” stretching from western North Africa through southern Europe and along a path through the Middle East to Central and Southeast Asia.
“We’re pretty convinced that the extremists are not ever going to give up the fight,” Gen. Schissler said, noting that they are driven by the concept of jihad that makes it a religious duty to wage terrorist war.
The current war on terrorism requires fighting with ideas. In the Cold War, “we didn’t beat …the communists by militarily taking them to the battlefield,” he said. “We took them to the intellectual battlefield and beat them against their ideas, the ideology of communism.”
One goal is to disrupt al Qaeda efforts to “radicalize” young people ages 19 to 25 through educational efforts. Another objective is to assist moderate Muslims who see extremism as unacceptable.
Ultimately, Muslim scholars, clerics and other religious and government leaders will have to “take a stand,” albeit one that carries grave risks because of the extremists’ harsh methods, Gen. Schissler said.
These clerics that need to make a stand have yet to even show annoyance with the acts of terrorism that is done in their “religion’s” name. So why does the general think that they will stand up enough to make this type of thing stop.
More than 17 terrorist attacks were disrupted since 2001, including three in the United States and two in Europe.
I wish the news would report on this instead of celebrities.
‘Armchair Generals’ = military soap-opera stars.
Don’t be so cryptic. What brings you to this conclusion?
They do not want a democracy. Theocracy is their game. OMO, this is just about the most evil way to run a government. The right to religion needs to be given to the individual, not the government.
Which is why i put quotes around the term religion. Islam is meant to run every detail of ones life, not guide your decisions, your decisions are made for you by the book or one of the self annointed religious scholars.
If only politicians and many Americans would see it this way. Regardless of policy, we are in this for the long haul. It’s not like the Islamonazis are going to stop hating us. It is better to have a policy that is in touch with reality, not one that scratches its head with every new terror attack, wondering why these people are so darned mean.
This type of thinking is altruistic nonsense, whether it comes from the average citizen, politician, or military officer.
A war against Islamic Totalitarianism should take no longer than a few years to achieve a complete victory for the United states, if we actually treat it like a real war and not this farce that we have been involved in for the last 5 years.
For anybody who would like to read a truly profund (but lengthy) article on the matter:
I would have to disagree. After all, we’re fighting an idea. A mindset. We can defeat this enemy in terms of arms fairly easily, but fighting the idea is much harder. Look at how long it takes for attitudes towards things to really change, like the rights of minorities or women. Those things took generations to change, and we’re still short of the real goals of those movements.
I don’t see how it’s possible to change a mindset that has been a certain way for over a thousand years in just five years.
Japan’s centuries olf militaristic and imperial culture were changed in just a few years by our military might.
Given enough pain, anyone will change their mind pretty quickly.
How long would Muslim resolve last if one day Mecca, Medina, Tehran, and Damascus all vaporized into mushroom clouds at about the same time?
+1
We changed the minds of millions of German Nazis and Japanese Imperialists in a few years.
This all is why I said they were the soap opera stars of the .mil. For one, we are not fighting against Islam. The views given by ‘intelligence’ and the media are completely twisted and unrealistic versions of Islam. If the terrorists actually based themselves off the Q’oran then they would no longer be terrorists. They would be trade partners. For terrorists to claim the Q’oran guides their actions would be similar to claiming that Moses didn’t mean for the 10 Commandments to be what they are and they actually are 10 reasons to kill your neighbor and store his/her body in your freezer. It’s completely wrong and twisted. Also Jihad isn’t just going out and killing people. For real Jihad you’re supposed to try and convert people kindly and if they staunchly refuse you then kill them or sell them into slavery. All of what we call ‘Jihads’ involved no religion at all except as a convenient excuse for their actions. In addition, Muhammad brought Islam to life because he believed in virtues extremely similar to those found in The Bible.
Having said that, the idea of vaporising Mecca, Medina, etc. is SICK AND WRONG. That type of thinking is no different than the thinking of gun-ban advocates. ‘Well the criminals claimed it was the gun so it must be the gun’s fault.’ That sort of thinking is the same type of thinking that prehistoric humans (I do believe in evolution. after all, who said God uses the Gregorian calendar?) used when they were duking it out with other prehistoric humans! If that was the world’s mindset then african americans would not exist (the whites would have exterminated them) Lutheranism, America, The new world, democracy, science, and life as we know it would not exist. If somebody didn’t agree with somebody else, they would just kill each other. Where does that get us?
This war is not against Islam at all. In fact, it comes closer to promoting true Islam (other than the women’s rights thing) than not doing anything.
To propose the destruction of extremely important artifacts whose histories can lead us to insights into ourselves is disgusting. While we’re at it why dont we just tear down the Great Wall, oh and the pyramids at Giza, too. They were built by religious folk so they need to go as well. Oh yeah and all those European castles, we should destroy them. And the Dome On the Rock, it’s an arab mosque so that should get 2 nukes. Jerusalem is predominantly a religious area so it can go, too.
Do you see now why your idea offends me? Sprry for the rant but when I read that it filled me with so much disgust that I felt it necesary.
The only thing that I find “sick and wrong” is the way that this undeclared “war” is currently being “fought.”
It would appear that the United States government places more value on the lives of enemy civilians than on American Soldiers and Marines.
I personally do not advocate vaporizing Mecca and/or Medina - that is unless it would help us to win. If destroying either/or those two symbolic places would expeditie American victory and the end of Islamic Totalitarian aggression, then I am all for it.
Attacking military, infrastructure, government and communications targets in Iran and Syria might be a good start. They after all are fueling the Iraqi insurgency and have been our declared enemies since 1979.
If destroying Mecca and Medina breaks the will of our adversaries, all I have to say is “weapons free”.
Don’t care much who that offends. The survival of my country and my culture trumps all.
I personally do not advocate vaporizing Mecca and/or Medina - that is unless it would help us to win. If destroying either/or those two symbolic places would expeditie American victory and the end of Islamic Totalitarian aggression, then I am all for it.
Agreed. The whole glass desert is a last resort. But it’s worked before, so although my fellow members may be a bit brash. They are correct. These people (Muslim fundamentalists) understand force. It seems to me it’s the only thing that they understand.
The USA need to realize that this is a war against Islam, not oil, not democracy, and not WMDs. Sure you may want to be PC and say that declaring war on a religion is wrong, but what does denial do for us? America needs to stop being PC and wake the f*ck up. Yeah maybe not all of Islam is radical, but a significant percentage is. Significant enough to necessitate force (declaration of war)
If the Christians were doing this I would be saying the same exact things about them. They had the inquisition and later reformed. Now we occasionally get an abortion clinic bomber, but we sure as hell don’t praise them as martyrs like this significant percentage of Muslims do.
When are these “peace loving” Muslims I keep hearing about going to say enough is enough and take back their religion? The Christians did it. Why the heck can’t they? Revolt Muslims. Revolt! If you don’t someone’s going to do it for you.
Have you guys heard of the recent conference Iran held concerning the denial of the Holocaust? Iran is freaking loony there is no denying that.
Alright, so say we did. Then the Palestinians start yelling that we did it for Israel, to the international community not much appears to the contrary. Almost every African country starts yelling, too. Germany and France will moan about it for sure, the English would never admit to knowing about it. China, S. Korea, Russia, all the eastern Bloc and some of the Western Bloc countries will back everybody else. Next come trade embargos and suddenly it’ll be the Cold War all over again except against the whole world. While we may understand the potential benefit from it, the rest of the world won’t. Their heads are in a place far to dark or remote for words to make it there. Plus each day hundreds if not thousands of Americans are at either Mecca or Medina. And during the Hajj months it reaches the tens of thousands. Many people who are citizens have extended family in the area would probably start riots or outright revolt against the US government. The trade embargos with China alone would completely cripple us, let alone every other country in the world. We aren’t prepared to face the consequences.
Not to mention declaring war on a religion echoes distinctly of Hitler. If killing millions of devout people solved problems, we would all be shouting “Sieg Heil.” Not to mention it would be an insane irony on our part. One of the reasons the administration cited for going to war in Iraq was to end Saddam’s genocide of the Kurds; trying to subdue Islam with violence would be no different.
The hardest blow of all though, would be turning terrorist propaganda into fact. They call us cold-hearted killers, evil warriors against Islam. While being quite the opposite, most people don’t know that. And in the representative democracy we have, majority rules.
I support the troops, the war, and the administration (on most issues) but like you said, there comes a point when we have to wake up and smell reality.
ETA: About Iran, I don’t think many people would miss it…
Oderint dum metuant
Deadwood,
I hear you, but I have to ask, how do you stay so tolerant of RADICAL Islam? They are calling for the destruction of the West and Israel. They want to see Sharia law i [/i]rule Earth and they will not stop until they have accomplished this. That means that this war is never-ending without extreme violence of action. I for one am tired of living with my head in the sand, thinking that if we leave them alone, they will let us be. That is not the answer. As for the Hitler comment, I’ll just let that one slide.
For anyone who is interested, here is a list of radical Islamic attacks from '79-'88.
If you can find a list of attacks from '88-present please share them.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/target/etc/cron.html