So now I guess the Pentagon's own Deputy Counterterrorism Director hates America.
Oh, and I guess he is an evil "flip-flopper" too.
Not that I ever agreed with the "there's only a finite amount of terrorists and if we kill them all quickly, then we should be ok" nonsense, but what happens when those who are that feeble minded (and scarier, in charge) start to question their own ass-backwards policies?
My guess is either a Medal of Freedom or a kick in the ass out the door.
More below:
As reported in the (gulp)
Moonie Times, we have this little nugget about the "catastrophic success" of Dumbass in Chief's chest thumping, "yee-hah, bring 'em on" approach to foreign diplomacy:
Thirty new terrorist organizations have emerged since the September 11, 2001, attacks, outpacing U.S. efforts to crush the threat, said Brig. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the Pentagon's deputy director for the war on terrorism.
"We are not killing them faster than they are being created," Gen. Caslen told a gathering at the Woodrow Wilson Center yesterday, warning that the war could take decades to resolve.
Gen. Caslen said that two years ago the Department of Defense had not settled on a clear definition of the nature of the war. Moreover, because each government department had its own perspective, "we all had different strategies," he said.
OK - take that one in for a second. This "war on terror(TM)" started back in 2001. The illegal invasion of Iraq started in 2003. Yet, in 2004, after both of these "events", the DOD was still confused about what the nature of the GWOT was all about.
Let me repeat that, because something that asenine and shocking (but not shocking at all) bears repeating. Years after we declared war on an enemy that the Bush Administration ignored and invaded a country that had nothing to do with the biggest terrorist attack on American soil, the Pentagon HADN'T EVEN COME UP WITH A CONSENSUS ON WHAT THIS "WAR" WAS ABOUT.
This is fucking criminal.
But don't worry for a second longer as the Pentagon seems to have finally come to such an agreement. Kind of like laying the foundation of the building after the building you just built is crashing down underneath you due to a shitty foundation.
The Defense Department now has defined the nature of the war, he said. The enemy, he said, is "a transnational movement of extremist organizations, networks and individuals that use violence and terrorism as a means to promote their end." It is not a global insurgency, the general said.
"We do not go as far as to say it is a global insurgency, because it lacks a centralized command and control," he said.
So that sounds clear as mud to me. It is everywhere but not global. And what "end" is it that they are promoting through the use of violence and terrorism? And does the Pentagon understand what is behind this use of violence and terrorism?
The Pentagon official said Muslim thought ranges from secular and mainstream to extremist and intolerant.
The takfir (infidel) view of the world that falls under the Salafist teachings of the Sunni sect -- such as al Qaeda in Iraq -- is an example of the extremist view that condones violence to accomplish ideological ends, he said.
The general said the extremists' goal is to remove U.S. troops from Iraq and establish a radical state under Shariah, or Islamic law, remove what they consider the apostate governments of Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt, and destroy Israel.
"The ideology is not popular among most, even Muslims," he said. "We need to undermine support by amplifying the moderate forces and undermining the enemy's repressive and corrupt behavior."
Ok, besides the fact that there were no US troops in Iraq before this illegal invasion, nor was there any radical state under Islamic Law before this illegal invasion, I find this a bit of the symptoms determing the cause of something that wasn't there before the symptoms.
And not to compare (ok fine, to compare), how is this different from another "movement" that is:
But the saddest part is that this country, with all of its technology, advancements, propoganda-controlled media and brainless yahoos can't even keep up with
dead enders when it comes to recruitment:
"We in the Pentagon are behind our adversaries in the use of communications -- either to recruit or train," he said. Compared with historical jihads, or enduring Muslim wars, this one "is accelerated because of its capability in communications."
Gee, I wonder why we would have a problem with recruiting.....