Well Intended but Largely Mistaken Attacks on NCTC and DHS “War of Words” Advisories

Parts 4, 5 and 6 of 6.

Part 1.

Parts 2 and 3.

Part # 4: Proofs of The al Qaeda Apostasy

And as proof positive that the terrorists do truly deserve such harsh condemnations, here is a partial "Bill of Particulars" of their many transgressions and willful violations of Qur'anic prohibitions of which the AQ radicals are enormously guilty -- as is further explained in Is it Holy “Jihad” of Unholy “Irhabi Murderdom”???

• Wanton killing of innocents and noncombatants, including many peaceful Muslims
• Decapitating the live and desecrating the dead bodies of perceived enemies
• Committing and enticing others to commit suicide for reasons of intimidation
• Fomenting hatred among communities, nations, religions and civilizations
• Ruthless warring against nations in which Islam is freely practiced
• Issuing and inspiring unauthorized and un-Islamic fatwas (religious edicts)
• Using some mosques as weapons depots and battle stations, while destroying others
• Forcing extremist and absolutist versions (and perversions) of Islam on Muslims, when the Qur'an clearly says that there shall be "no compulsion in religion"
• Distorting the word "infidels" to include all Christians, all Jews and many Muslims, as well - when the Qur'an calls them all "Children of the Book" (the Old Testament) and "Sons of Abraham," and calls Jesus one of Islam's five main Prophets
• Deliberate misreading, ignoring and perverting of passages of the Qur'an, the Hadith and the Islamic Jurisprudence (the Fiqh)
• Ruthless recruiting of very young and easy-to-brainwash children into lives of hatred, revenge and suicide mass murder, long before they have reached the age of reaso
• Heartless use and abuse of mentally handicapped women, some of them carrying infant children for disguise, in acts of suicide bombing of fellow Muslims

Both the number and the gravity of these acts of disobedience and disrespect for the "peaceful, compassionate, merciful, beneficent and just" Allah who is so described by the Qur'an clearly identify the hyena-like perpetrators not as the Godly "mujahideen" and the "shahideen" (the holy warriors and the martyrs) they claim to be but as the "mufsiduun" and the "munafiquun" (the evildoers and hypocrites) they really are...

Continue reading "Well Intended but Largely Mistaken Attacks (Parts 4, 5, and 6)" »

Well Intended but Largely Mistaken Attacks on NCTC and DHS “War of Words” Advisories

Parts 2 and 3 of 6 parts.

Part 1.

Part # 2: George Orwell to the Rescue?

Turning to the New York Post's editorial, which sees no problem whatever in the current lexicon, both its eye-catching title and its message throughout argue that the legendary George Orwell -- author of "Newspeak" fame in his great works "1984" and "Animal Farm" -- would disapprove of these NCTC and DHS recommendations and would opt for retaining these two controversial "holy war by holy guys" labels forever more.

With all due respect, I emphatically disagree. As the 20th Century's supreme authority on the manipulation and cynical distortion of language and labels, Orwell would have wanted these two words (and others like them) of asserted "holiness" and "martyrdom" on the part of al Qaeda, Hizballah, Hamas and their hater-mongers and suicide mass murderers to be rejected outright as the worst sort of "Newspeak" disinformation.

He would have strongly favored such sharply negative and condemnatory Arabic and Islamic terms as "Irhab" (Terrorism), "Hirabah" (unholy war, war against society, crimes against humanity), "mufsiduun" (evildoers, sinners, corrupters) and "shaitani" (satanic) -- along with several more of these demeaning and demonizing labels recommended below.

Those commentators who allege that these new sharp-edged labels would somehow "soften the Lexicon" and "blind us to the real nature of the enemy" would do well to reconsider their (unintentionally) pro-al Qaeda conclusions in that regard. After all, the Terrorists WANT to be known by the halo-polishing language of "Jihadi Martyrdom" and never, ever by the harsh and condemnatory language of Irhabi Murderdom (Terroristic Genocide)...

Continue reading "Well Intended but Largely Mistaken Attacks (Parts 2 & 3)" »

Part 1 of 6 Parts

In recent days, many "war of words" op-ed essays and newspaper editorials have been linked to by Small Wars Journal -- and appropriately so, for the issues they raise must surely be resolved in a far more adequate way than is now the case.

Most of these postings have been written by well-intentioned but, I think, mistaken authors who are angrily objecting to recent advisories -- not mandates but preliminary advisories -- by the National Counter Terrorism Center (NCTC) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that we begin avoiding the very familiar "Jihad" (Holy War) and "mujahideen" (holy warriors) labels in the ongoing War on al Qaeda-style Terrorism.

For my own part, when I first saw these two documents long before they became public, I gave one of them a C- and the other a C+ at best -- but for reasons entirely different from those of the critics who are now attacking them in their entirety. At this point, I agree with only about half of their dozen or more specific recommendations of words to use and not to use.

Unfortunately, both of these advisories are insufficient to the situation and are, therefore, vulnerable to charges that they let both the terrorists and the despotic perversions of Islam which sponsor them "off the hook" -- and leave us with an unclear idea of exactly who and how very dangerous the "Jihadi" (but no longer to be called that) enemy really is.

This essay will attempt to describe the truth-in-language path which the NCTC, DHS, Department of State, Department of Defense and National Security Council experts should now follow in correctly and adequately defining what I have long called "The al Qaeda Apostasy" -- and doing so in several of the Islamic religious words they say should be avoided. In other words, I am a critic, too -- but in a largely constructive and supportive way rather than an angry and confrontational one.

Rather than trying to deal with each of these commentaries individually, I have selected a representative one -- a May 1, 2008 New York Post editorial, entitled "Jihad Newspeak" -- and will attempt to respond not only to its rationale and particulars but also to many of the individual columnists' worries, objections and understandable confusion...

Continue reading "Well Intended but Largely Mistaken Attacks on NCTC and DHS “War of Words” Advisories (Part 1)" »

In a "Small Wars" context but with very serious implications relating to the worldwide Cold War II now being waged between (a) America and the West on the one hand and (b) our new "Islamo-fascist" enemies and some of our "Socialist" enemies from Cold War I on the other, there was a close electoral victory for our side recently in Venezuela.

That South American country's egomaniacal, "Socialism or Death" dictator Hugo Chavez was narrowly defeated in the carefully contrived December 2, 2007 referendum which would have enabled him to follow in Fidel Castro's "President for Life" footsteps. So, a genuine "Hooray For Our Side!!" is very much in order...

Continue reading "Venezuela Si! CUBAzuela NO!!" »

It has come to my attention that a Joint Staff memorandum by Information Operations analyst Stephen Coughlin describing the nefarious aspirations of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Salafi-Wahhabi-al Qaeda look-alikes has been circulated in the anti-Terrorism community -- and includes patently false inferences that I am somehow in collaboration with these self-proclaimed "Death to America" killers and hate-mongers.

The outrageous charge is that my "Truespeak" efforts to promote a new truth-in-language glossary of terms for use in the "war of words" aspects of the broader War on al Qaeda-style Terrorism are being done in league with fomenters of suicide mass murder who, like Mr.Coughlin himself, insist on calling their atrocities "Jihadi Martyrdom" -- but which I propose to condemn as "Hirabah" (unholy war, forbidden "war against society") and as "Irhabi Murderdom" (terroristic genocide), instead...

Continue reading "TrueSpeak Responds" »

In his June 2007 State Department E-Journal article, New Paradigms For 21st Century Conflicts, Dr. Dave Kilcullen of General David Petraeus' senior staff in Baghdad called for, among other things, a "New Lexicon" for better defining and more effectively defeating enemies which subscribe to the faith-based mantra of "Death to America, the Great Satan".

In other public statements and in several Small Wars Journal postings, Kilcullen entered very slowly, very prudently into the virtually verboten realm of attacking al Qaeda-style Terrorism in Islamic religious context, rather than in Western secular terms only -- referring to the AQ terrorists as "munafiquun" (hypocrites to authentic, Qur'anic Islam) and pointing out that "they call themselves mujahideen" but are doing barbaric things which are anything but holy.

To which this word warrior says: Spot on! Two small steps for a good man, two giant steps for truth-in-language and truth-in-Islam in the War on al Qaeda-style Terrorism -- a.k.a., Irhabi Murderdom and the AQ Apostasy, as this essay recommends as its most appropriate new names.

But even these two measured Kilcullen attacks on the terrorists' religious legitimacy were in conflict with the State Department's basic rule in such matters. As stated on page 25 of the US National Strategy For Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication, the official advisory is, in part, as follows: Use caution when dealing with faith issues. Government officials should be extremely cautious and, if possible, avoid using religious language, because it can mean different things and can be easily misunderstood...

Continue reading "General James Mattis - Attacking the al Qaeda "Narrative"" »

In his multi-faceted article, "New Paradigms For 21st Century Conflict," David Kilcullen of General David Petraeus' senior staff in Baghdad recommends five major initiatives to be taken in developing truly effective counterterrorism (COIN) strategies, operations and tactics against al Qaeda-style Terrorism (AQST).

In briefest of terms, these are to (1) Develop a New Lexicon, (2) Get the Grand Strategy Right, (3) Remedy the Imbalance in Government Capability, (4) Identify New Strategic Services, and (5) Develop Capacity For Strategic Information Warfare. While others will comment in learned fashion on all five of these topics in due course, this commentary will concern only the first -- the proposed New Lexicon...

Continue reading "David Kilcullen's Call for a "New Lexicon"" »

Diana West's holier-than-thou attack on Dr. David Kilcullen of Gen. David Petraeus' senior staff in Baghdad must be a delight to al Qaeda and Hizballah propagandists and anti-American brainwashers worldwide.

In a June 1, 2007 Washington Times essay entitled “Pay attention to jihad,” she slams the Australian-born anti-Terrorism strategist for an assertion several months ago that so-called "jihad" (holy war in the name of Allah, etc.) has assumed the stature of heroic "adventure" in the minds, hearts and souls of many young Muslims.

She distorts Kilcullen's words into the preposterous speculation that  he approves of this development and asks whether if he had grown up in Hitler's Germany he “might have become a Nazi” -- when, in fact, the man and his fellow counterinsurgency (COIN) experts are attempting to discover an effective antidote for a highly seductive “Jihadi martyrdom” factor which is providing al Qaeda-style Terrorism with an endless supply of enthusiastic young suicide mass murderers.

Continue reading "Unwarranted Attack on Petraeus Aide" »

SWJ friend Jim Guirard of the TrueSpeak Institute e-mailed us his latest Words Have Meaning related commentary.

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Dear SWJ Blog,

David Kilcullen of General David Petraeus' staff in Baghdad makes a fine start but has much farther to go in attacking the pseudo-religious scam of al Qaeda-style Terrorism (AQST) in Islamic religious terms.

To date, the State Department, the White House and the Defense Department -- and even the otherwise excellent new COIN Manual itself -- have studiously avoided this approach in favor of Western secular words only. This is because of an understandable but, I think, inordinate fear of making mistakes (as indeed we would from time to time) if we were to begin combating AQST in religious terms and frames of reference.

Continue reading "More on Religion and Insurgency" »

SWJ friend Jim Guirard of the TrueSpeak Institute e-mailed us his latest Words Have Meaning related commentary.

Peter Beinert's "The War of the Words" essay in the Washington Post (Op-ed, April 1) is seriously lacking on several counts. He demonstrates the same blind spots and faulty analysis as the Pelosi-Murtha House Democrats do when they issue a cut-and-run document which, along with other nonsense, condemns use of the "Global War on Terrorism" label...

Continue reading ""War on Terrorism" is the Correct Label" »