THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 225, September 12, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
WINNING THE BATTLE AGAINST AL-QA'IDA,
LOSING THE WAR AGAINST JIHAD
By Raymond Ibrahim
OUR NARROW APPROACH TO THE GLOBAL TERROR WAR BEING WAGED AGAINST US BY THE WORLD-WIDE ISLAMIST
MOVEMENT -- THE BROADER CONTEXT THAT IS NEEDED FOR WESTERN ANALYSIS & ACTION: AL-QA'IDA HAS NEVER
BEEN THE SOURCE OF THE
ISLAMIST TERROR THREAT TO THE U.S.A. & THE WEST, BUT SIMPLY ONE OF THE MANY MANIFESTATIONS OF THAT
THREAT. THE SOURCE OF THE TERROR THREAT IS ISLAM & ISLAMIC CULTURE. THE MUSLIM WORLD HAS LARGELY
REJECTED WESTERN SECULARISM & IS RECLAIMING ITS JIHADIST HERITAGE, LASHING OUT AT WESTERNERS IN A
MANIFOLD OF WAYS. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ISLAM & THE WEST CONTINUES TO GROW. THERE ARE COUNTLESS
JIHADIST GROUPS THAT SEEK TO SUBJUGATE THE WEST. DOCTRINAL IDEOLOGIES FLOATING AMONG MUSLIMS AROUND
THE WORLD (INCLUDING MUSLIMS RESIDING IN WESTERN COUNTRIES) CREATE THE ISLAMIST TERROR THREAT.
FULL STORY:
So long as the West focuses on names and faces in the socalled "war on terror" — as opposed to focusing on ideas and
motivations — so long will it possibly win battles, even as it slowly loses the war.
As we approach the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, we win another battle with the recent slaying of al-Qa'ida's number 2.
According to the Associated Press, "U.S. and Pakistani officials said Saturday that al-Qa'ida's second-in-command,
Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the U.S. believes
to be on the verge of defeat."
Splendid news. However, some context:
Before Osama bin Laden, the face of al-Qa'ida, was killed, it made sense to announce, by way of prelude, the killing of
various al-Qa'ida members, such as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, Abu Ayub al-Masri , Abu Laith al-Libi, the notorious Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, and any number of other "Abus" (and "Ibns"); it also made sense to exult, even if with hyperbolic
headlines — "al-Qa'ida receives devastating blow" — by way of saying the noose is tightening around bin Laden, who
was next.
However, with the killing of bin Laden — the snakes head, the face of terror, the heart of al-Qa'ida — it is becoming a bit
redundant for the U.S. government to continue boasting over the killing of yet one more al-Qa'ida member; just as it is
redundant to continue asserting that al-Qa'ida is on the "verge of defeat."
After all, any number of analysts insisted that, with the killing of bin Laden, al-Qa'ida was as good as dead, thereby
implying that, whether this or that member gets killed, is irrelevant. Peter Bergen, for example, declared that "Killing bin
Laden is the end of the war on terror. We can just sort of announce that right now…. It's time to move on."
More to the point: the Obama administration's inordinate focus and optimism over the killing of the latest al-Qa'ida
member (one can place past and future names here ___) ultimately exposes its myopic approach — an approach that
tries to localize the problem, to give it a face, to treat it as a temporal and tangible entity that can be defeated through
arms.
The unfortunate fact is that, even if al-Qa'ida were totally eradicated tomorrow, the terror threat to the West would hardly
recede, since al-Qa'ida has never been the source of the threat, but simply one of its manifestations. The AP
report obliquely reflects this: "Senior al-Qa'ida figures have been killed before, only to be replaced," even as the Obama
administration is optimistic that "victory" is at hand.
To get a better perspective on the overall significance of the latest killing of an al-Qa'ida member, consider how, at the
turn of the Twentieth Century, the Islamic world was rushing to emulate the victorious and confident West — best
exemplified by the Ottoman Empire itself, the preserver and enforcer of Islam, rejecting its Muslim past and embracing
secularism under Ataturk. Today, 100 years later, the Muslim world has largely rejected secularism and is reclaiming its
Islamic — including jihadist — heritage, lashing out in a manifold of ways.
Consider how many Islamist leaders, organizations, and terrorists have come and gone in the Twentieth Century alone
— many killed like bin Laden — only for the conflict between Islam and the West to continue growing by the day.
It's in this context that the Obama administration audaciously evokes the word "victory," simply because yet another
jihadist has been killed.
This, of course, is to be expected, considering the Obama administration, which has a tendency to censor words — and
thus knowledge — concerning the nature of the threat, just released a much vaunted policy paper on countering
terrorism that never once uses the word "Islam," Islamism" or "radical Islam," while myopically fixating on al-Qa'ida, one
of countless jihadist organizations that seek to subjugate the West.
Despite its narrow approach, the Obama administration itself has inadvertently conceded to the existential nature of the
threat, as it has begun to acknowledge that lone wolf terrorists — jihadists who have no connection to al-Qa'ida, other
than that they share the same worldview — are a greater threat.
As Attorney General Eric Holder put it, "the threat has changed … to worrying about people in the United States,
American citizens — raised here, born here, and who, for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to become
radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born."
Note how Holder ignores the most important factor to understanding and ultimately defeating jihadists — their
motivation — by dismissing it as "whatever reason." Even so, the Obama administration's acknowledgement of the lone
wolf jihadist proves one thing: it is doctrinal ideologies floating among Muslims around the world — not just the caves of
al-Qa'ida — that create terror threats.
So when Counterterrorism chief John Brennan says that "Taking him out of commission is huge. There's not another bin
Laden out there. I don't know if there's another Atiyah Abd al-Rahman out there" — he can rest assured that, while
those two are gone, countless are the no-names out to emulate them, in a myriad of ways.
To conclude, by all means, target and kill terrorists, singly and collectively, and rejoice over it; but keep in mind that,
even if al-Qa'ida were expunged from existence, while that would be a battle well won, it would not be the end of the war,
which has been prosecuted in various forms and frequencies for fourteen centuries, and will not end with the elimination
of this or that individual or organization.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim, a historian of Islam, Islamism and the Middle East, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom
Center, an Associate Director of the Middle East Forum, a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, and
the editor of The Al-Qa'ida Reader, a collection of tranlations of key texts and documents of the Islamist movement.
Ibrahim's translations of the religious texts and political propaganda comprising this collection help readers comprehend
the origins, development, history, and serious danger of the Islamist war doctrines of Usama bin Laden and Ayman
al-Zawahiri, the Founders of Al-Qa'ida.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in Pajamas Media, September 12, 2011, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/3037/battle-al-qaeda-jihad)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
September 12, 2011
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume XIII, 2011
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity