Disney World, Donald Trump and ISIS

We must defeat it without making ISIS the winner of the jihad Super Bowl.

By MIKE EVANS
A member of a militia kneels as he celebrates victory next to a wall painted with the black flag commonly used by ISIS militants (photo credit: REUTERS)
A member of a militia kneels as he celebrates victory next to a wall painted with the black flag commonly used by ISIS militants
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A single shooter made history early Sunday morning in Orlando, Florida when he entered a gay nightclub and opened fire with an assault rifle.
When the carnage ended, 53 people had been wounded and 50 lay dead, including the Islamic terrorist, Omar Mateen.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called for the resignation of President Barack Obama when Obama failed to use the words “radical Islam” to describe the horrific event. According to the Houston Chronicle, Trump tweeted: “Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism? If he doesn’t he should immediately resign.”
President Obama and Hillary Clinton, presumptive Democratic presidential front-runner, described the assault as an act of terrorism and hate. Both stopped short of calling the attacker a radical Islamist even though Mateen, whose parents had emigrated from Afghanistan, dialed 911 at some point during his rampage. He allegedly told the operator that he had pledged allegiance to Islamic State (ISIS).
Clinton also revisited gun control as an effective means of eliminating attacks such as this. We tend to forget that no guns were employed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Terrorists will employ any weapon at hand to wreak destruction.
I am a proud Republican, who has spent 40 years in the Middle East, but in this instance I agree with Obama. I am convinced that playing the “radical Islam war card” only benefits the jihadists. “Radical” to the Muslim world means “Salafi.”
“Salafi” (Arabic for ancestor) and “Islam” (submission) provide the entire basis for the Islamic religion and for Sharia law.
Perhaps we need to rethink the label we attach to those who terrorize the world in the name of radical Islam. To declare war on radical Islam is to declare war on all Islam, since 60 percent of all Muslims are fundamentalist, radical Salafists – no less than 750 million Muslims. It’s exactly what jihadists want. It is much wiser to define all jihadists as “Islamic infidels” and control the terms of the ideological war.
In the Muslim world, calling someone honorable is the highest compliment and humiliation is worse than death. Do we really want to declare war on radical Islam and 750 million Muslims? Do we really think we can humiliate them into submission? An attempt to do so would only result in another Hundred Years War.
Former Republican challenger Ted Cruz called for every authentic Democrat to denounce the ideology of radical Islam, including ISIS and Iran, a supporter of militant Islam worldwide. He released a statement regarding the Orlando slaughter: “The next few days will be sadly predictable.
Democrats will try to use this attack to change the subject. As a matter of rigid ideology, far too many Democrats – from Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton – will refuse to utter the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ They will claim this attack, like they claimed every previous attack, was isolated and had nothing to do with the vicious Islamist theology that is daily waging war on us across the globe. And they will try to exploit this terror attack to undermine the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms of law-abiding Americans.”
Saudi Arabia is the fertile ground in which radical Islam and ISIS grows. The kingdom relies on its alliance with radical Islamic clergy which produces, legitimizes and defends Salafism. The West shakes the hand of one while waging war with the other. Ninety-nine percent of all suicide bombers are Salafi Muslims. Salafism is the purest form of radical religion. The word “radical” means fundamental and goes to the root of Salafism.
If we are going to war against radical Islam, we need to go to war against Turkey, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and a dozen other countries. That is simply not possible. If we really believed that, then why did we go to war to save Kuwait, a radical Islamic Salafist state? Or sacrifice countless American lives for years in another radical Islamic state, Iraq? The US knows how to defeat ISIS, but it will require the same surge strategy that was utilized to defeat al-Qaida in Iraq. The problem now is that we will not have the support of Sunni tribesmen. The corrupt Iraqi Shi’ite, pro-Iran government was the virus from which ISIS sprang and grew.
After the war in Iraq, there is no desire to go back into Iraq and sacrifice more American lives. The total number of US troops killed in combat in Iraq was 4,487, with 32,223 wounded, and ISIS knows it.
How, then, does the US defeat ISIS? America must fight an ideological war. Ideological warfare is ground zero in defeating ISIS. In order for ISIS to grow it needs need a war with the “Great Satan,” America, and the “Small Satan,” Israel.
ISIS is not al-Qaida. The US built a trillion- dollar infrastructure of intelligence and military operations to defeat al-Qaida.
Similar tactics will not work against ISIS. The group is in urban areas and is integrated into the civilian population.
Armed with tanks, artillery and armored Humvees, it would be like the US going to war against the Taliban in Pakistan. Essentially, al-Qaida dropped out of the terrorism business and the corrupt pro-Iranian Shi’ite government ignited the disintegration of the country and the birth of ISIS.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was a low-key al-Qaida lieutenant. Many of Baghdadi’s top generals served in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein. Unlike al-Qaida ISIS does not require outside funding. It has rebranded itself from al-Qaida, which was nearly wiped out as Sunni tribes partnered with the Americans. When president George W. Bush sent 20,000 troops to Iraq to nurture the Sunni Awakening (aka, the Surge), 40 Sunni tribes switched sides and fought with the US against al-Qaida.
Many from those same tribes have joined ISIS because the pro-Shi’ite Iraqi government has lost legitimacy with the Sunnis. The US knows how to defeat ISIS but after the war in Iraq there is no desire to go back to Iraq and sacrifice American lives. The Kurds are the only present credible force capable of defeating ISIS on the ground. Turkey and Baghdad refuse to allow the Kurds to be sufficiently armed.
With Iran and Russia siding with Assad in Turkey and against Saudi Arabia, it’s checkmate. Saudi Arabia provides the food that helps grow ISIS. The kingdom relies on alliances with radical clerics who legitimize and defend Wahhabism in the hope of restoring a global caliphate.
Traditional warfare is like killing flies: we kill one and rejoice; they kill one, and 100 come to the funeral. The traditional wars of the twentieth century are obsolete.
Twenty-first century wars are ideological, economic, media-driven, proxy wars. Unless or until America wins the ideological war the cancer will continue to mutate.
I asked the late prime minister Ariel Sharon to tell me how many Arab Christians blew themselves up attempting to kill Jews. His response was, “None; why?” I made that point because not all Arabs want to blow themselves up; the vast majority of Muslims are not jihadists.
Yes, they may be radical, but they don’t want to blow themselves up. It will not be possible to defeat radical Islam as long as we are at war with radical Islamists, and if we paint the target with such a broad brush. Jihadist organizations pay nothing for advertisements.
Why must a terrorist’s name be declared? Why not simply place an “X” or label them “she” or “he” instead of using a name? Why must a terrorist even be acknowledged as a radical Islamic jihadist? Would it motivate them if the last words used to describe them were “Islamic Infidels?” If the jihadists are at war with the infidels, do you think they want to be labeled as one, as well? Since 9/11, America has focused on who kills us, but not on why they kill. The answer is always the same: they believe we are infidels.
First, we must play the Islamic infidel card on them, and we must persuade the Muslim world to join us, especially since the majority of those whom jihadists kill are Muslim. He who defines the terms controls the debate. How about taking a few million of the dollars we use on bombs and blanket the Internet with an “Islamic infidel” campaign? Secondly, we must employ Israel as a strategic proxy. Israel helped America win the cold war in the Middle East without the US sacrificing lives. Israel can assist the US in defeating ISIS, and we need Israel to do just that. Israel cannot be of assistance if she is weakened. America needs to move its embassy to Jerusalem and stop negotiating with Palestinian terrorists.
Jurgen Todenhofer, a former member of the German parliament, spent time with ISIS fighters behind enemy lines. He related to The Jewish News that “The only country ISIS fears is Israel. They told me they know the Israeli army is too strong for them... they know the Israelis are very tough as far as fighting against guerrillas and terrorists.... They are not scared of the British and the Americans, they are scared of the Israelis... the Israeli army is the real danger.... These people [the IDF] can fight a guerrilla war.”
Thirdly, the US must fight a special ops war. You cannot bomb ISIS into hell, especially since it is able to use the bombing videos of civilians being killed to recruit 10 times more jihadists than are killed.
In an Islamic Netflix business, America is perceived as a Goliath to their David. We must not allow that perception to take root.
Fourthly, Islamic infidels must be bankrupted.
When the Islamic state of Iran receives $150 billion compliments of the US, this nation is not serious about defeating Islamic infidels. ISIS will not go away any time soon. It can be defeated, but not without an ideological war that demonizes ISIS and all jihadists as Islamic infidels.
Leaders of ISIS wish to be legitimized as radical Islamic terrorists. Why? It affords them a recruiting pool of 750 million radical Muslims. President Obama is right about one thing: the US needs the help of radical Muslims in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and even Iran to repel ISIS, not join its ranks.
The surge in Iraq under the leadership of General David Petraeus was successful by joining forces with fundamentalist Muslims in that country. Saddam Hussein was defeated under the leadership of General Norman Schwarzkopf by employing the same tactic, and with the assistance of radical Muslims in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
To win the ideological war against terrorism, the label needs to be replaced with “Islamic Infidels.” To legitimize ISIS by making it the official representative for 750 Muslims will only grow the war on terrorism, not win it. IS must be marginalized.
We must defeat it without making ISIS the winner of the jihad Super Bowl.
The author is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. His book, Islamic Infidels, is available at www.Timeworthybooks.com.