Part of the Problem
Tech Central Station's got several articles demonstrating just how cockeyed the situation is in the United Kingdom.
The Logic of Pacifism - Michael J. Totten deconstructs the irresponsible and illogical argument that the 7/7 and 7/21 attacks can be blamed on British involvement in Iraq.
The Guardian of the Caliphate - Val MacQueen calls Britain's Guardian "newspaper" out for continuing to publish the articles written by a member of a radical Islamist group.
Is There a Place Called Londonistan? - Salil Tripathi outlines the counterproductive moves on the part of the British government in combatting terrorism in recent decades, and notes the extent of protection that radical Islamists enjoy on British soil due to such policies.
'We Don't Need to Fight, We Are Taking Over!" - Paul J. Cella questions the continuing growth of totalitarian Islam in the Western World, and provides several ideas for stifling it in its infancy.
Bottom line? We in the West, and particularly in England and some other European nations, have a problem. One of the most influential publications in my life has been Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1 - Warfighting. One of the central concepts it introduced into my consideration of the art of warfare throughout history is that of centers of gravity and critical vulnerabilities. (If you take the link, it's on page fifty-three.)
In warfare, in politics, in business, wherever, your centers of gravity are the elements that are crucial to your success. For example, a couple of the centers of gravity in the American strategic plan are our air power and our ground armor. Americans fight wars with overwhelming air capacity, and on the ground the U.S. Army fights and structures its units around armored vehicles like the M1-A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, the M2 Bradley IFV, and the Light Armored Vehicle. These systems, and their proper and expert employment, makes us essentially unstoppable under normal combat circumstances. That's why we so easily beat the Taliban's advanced technology of twenty year old AK-47's, expired surface-to-air missiles, and rocks. That's why we so easily creamed the poorly maintained, poorly operated Soviet-made Iraqi tanks in Gulf War I.
The flip-side is what you have to look especially hard at: critical vulnerabilities. An example of an American military critical vulnerability is our reliance on fuel. Your critical vulnerabilities can be tied to your centers of gravity, but they don't have to be. Americans in combat, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, protect their supply and fuel lines, just like a fencing champion will protect those parts of his body not covered with protective padding.
Why am I giving you all of this background? Because it's important to understand when I come to my final point. In the Western world, where "liberalism" (meaning in this case representative democracy, freedom and liberty, pluralistic government, et cetera) is highly esteemed, one of our critical vulnerabilities has become the very values that we treasure. These values are being used against us. Islamists, whether al Qaeda or Abu Hamza al-Masri or the thugs over at al Jazeera, use the news media to their advantage. They use freedom of speech to incite impressionable young men to turn to violence. They take images and stories from the liberations of Afghanistan and Iraq our of context in order to sew discord and strife within Western societies. They clothe themselves in the protective blanket of freedoms fought for and firmly established by the Christian West, then turn around and engineer violent acts, whether military or political, with the eventual goal of obliterating those very freedoms and establishing a restored caliphate.
Hopefully the recent attacks in London will serve as a wake up call to the Brits. The French, as much as I hate to admit it, have been cracking down on radical Islamists for several years now. The terrorist attacks of September, 2001 were our wake up call in America, and many in the conservative and "neoconservative" movements have recognized the need for a reconsideration of just how to deal with those who would use our freedoms against us. Democrats, at least the ones in high profile positions, have ignored the facts, putting a continued emphasis on the "basic human rights" of people like the terrorists detained at Gitmo.
Unequivocally, Americans, Europeans, Australians, and other moderate, Western-influenced nations such as Turkey, Japan, and the like need to wake up to the fact that the Islamofascists aren't going to give up without a fight, and they're not stupid. They will continue to use our freedoms against us to sew the seeds of hatred in those who are weak minded, or frustrated, or angry, or impetuous. We need to examine our culture and find ways of countering and reversing such attempts.
If one of America's worst presidents can avoid being ousted by debating the meaning of the word "is", then we can certainly discern ways to make our own culture, laws, and values work for us, and against our enemies, instead of vice versa. As Paul Cella's article notes, the time has come to do just that.
Bottom line? We in the West, and particularly in England and some other European nations, have a problem. One of the most influential publications in my life has been Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 1 - Warfighting. One of the central concepts it introduced into my consideration of the art of warfare throughout history is that of centers of gravity and critical vulnerabilities. (If you take the link, it's on page fifty-three.)
In warfare, in politics, in business, wherever, your centers of gravity are the elements that are crucial to your success. For example, a couple of the centers of gravity in the American strategic plan are our air power and our ground armor. Americans fight wars with overwhelming air capacity, and on the ground the U.S. Army fights and structures its units around armored vehicles like the M1-A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank, the M2 Bradley IFV, and the Light Armored Vehicle. These systems, and their proper and expert employment, makes us essentially unstoppable under normal combat circumstances. That's why we so easily beat the Taliban's advanced technology of twenty year old AK-47's, expired surface-to-air missiles, and rocks. That's why we so easily creamed the poorly maintained, poorly operated Soviet-made Iraqi tanks in Gulf War I.
The flip-side is what you have to look especially hard at: critical vulnerabilities. An example of an American military critical vulnerability is our reliance on fuel. Your critical vulnerabilities can be tied to your centers of gravity, but they don't have to be. Americans in combat, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, protect their supply and fuel lines, just like a fencing champion will protect those parts of his body not covered with protective padding.
Why am I giving you all of this background? Because it's important to understand when I come to my final point. In the Western world, where "liberalism" (meaning in this case representative democracy, freedom and liberty, pluralistic government, et cetera) is highly esteemed, one of our critical vulnerabilities has become the very values that we treasure. These values are being used against us. Islamists, whether al Qaeda or Abu Hamza al-Masri or the thugs over at al Jazeera, use the news media to their advantage. They use freedom of speech to incite impressionable young men to turn to violence. They take images and stories from the liberations of Afghanistan and Iraq our of context in order to sew discord and strife within Western societies. They clothe themselves in the protective blanket of freedoms fought for and firmly established by the Christian West, then turn around and engineer violent acts, whether military or political, with the eventual goal of obliterating those very freedoms and establishing a restored caliphate.
Hopefully the recent attacks in London will serve as a wake up call to the Brits. The French, as much as I hate to admit it, have been cracking down on radical Islamists for several years now. The terrorist attacks of September, 2001 were our wake up call in America, and many in the conservative and "neoconservative" movements have recognized the need for a reconsideration of just how to deal with those who would use our freedoms against us. Democrats, at least the ones in high profile positions, have ignored the facts, putting a continued emphasis on the "basic human rights" of people like the terrorists detained at Gitmo.
Unequivocally, Americans, Europeans, Australians, and other moderate, Western-influenced nations such as Turkey, Japan, and the like need to wake up to the fact that the Islamofascists aren't going to give up without a fight, and they're not stupid. They will continue to use our freedoms against us to sew the seeds of hatred in those who are weak minded, or frustrated, or angry, or impetuous. We need to examine our culture and find ways of countering and reversing such attempts.
If one of America's worst presidents can avoid being ousted by debating the meaning of the word "is", then we can certainly discern ways to make our own culture, laws, and values work for us, and against our enemies, instead of vice versa. As Paul Cella's article notes, the time has come to do just that.
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