I watched a mixed martial arts fight recently which pitted a large muscled-up brute against a scrawny little opponent. A loud guffaw was released from the crowd as the two fighters stepped into the ring. I thought MMA fighters had to be from the same weight class but this was clearly not the case for this fight. I leaned over to my friend and whispered, “This little dude is about to be destroyed.” The big man started the fight with a flurry of punches. The little guy kept retreating when approached and continued to run in circles around the octagon. The big fighter proceeded to chase his opponent while constantly swinging and missing. This continued for the first two rounds. In the final round, the big guy became frustrated. His arms had become tired and he looked exhausted. Suddenly, the little fighter came in with a right hook and landed it right on the other guy’s chin. The big man fell to his knees and the little guy pounced. The fight ended with the smaller fighter sitting on the big guy’s chest and pounding away at his defenseless skull. The big guy was powerful and aggressive. He was determined and he was fearless. But most importantly… the big fighter was dumb. The smaller guy did not have to be as powerful because he was patient and he was smart.
This fight that I just described is very similar to the United States and its current war on terror. We are fighting in a manner that is profoundly stupid. We initially came out flailing wildly after we were blindsided on 9/11. We were using an old and tired fighting tactic against a new enemy. We are now becoming frustrated and exhausted while our enemy circles us. We know deep down that we are losing but we seem bewildered. If we don’t change our fighting tactics soon, we run the risk of losing the fight.
In order to understand this concept, you need to look at the age of the typical Islamic militant. The average age of an ISIS fighter in Iraq right now is just twenty-two years old. Just think about that for a second. This means that our current enemy was approximately eight years old when the 9/11 attacks took place. An angry American public cried for revenge after the twin towers fell back then. Our strategy became focused on getting Osama bin Laden and blowing up terrorists anywhere that we could find them. The United States couldn’t have cared less what the average eight-year-old Muslim child was thinking when this fight started.
We launched our counterattack with drone strikes and hellfire missile while our enemy launched a new war with false promises and propaganda. We provided our enemies with the ammunition for their war with our mea culpa regarding mistreatment at the Abu Ghraib prison. We fed into our enemy’s narrative by attacking innocent wedding parties with predator drones. We supported brutal dictators in their region because it served our best interest. Hell… we should have just printed up their propaganda pamphlets for them and dropped them from our own airplanes. In summary, we did not give the average eight-year-old Muslim child living in the Middle East back then any reason whatsoever to trust us.
It is much easier to prevent an innocent young person from becoming radicalized than it is to return this person back to the civilized world once they have already converted. We cannot continue to fight these battles on the wrong front. Most conventional wars in our past had a leader whom we could directly focus on. If you toppled that leader then you won the war. The war we find ourselves engaged in today is not with any one military leader or country. The civilized world is at war today with an idea… and that idea is called radical Islam. This war will not be won with military power alone. This war will either be won or lost in the arena of ideas. We have to start fighting intelligently or otherwise this smaller opponent will soon be sitting directly on our chest while pounding in our skull.
The best way to fight propaganda is with counter propaganda. Of course these brutal Islamic militants need to be killed… but even more importantly, their message needs to be silenced. We need real leadership to rally Muslim countries to counter radial Islam. These radical Islamic militants need to be defeated by good Muslim people willing to fight for what is right. Jordan and the United Arab Emirates would be willing to lead the way if the United States would offer real leadership and support. The United States should be willing to provide tactical support and equipment. Our non-Muslim allies could assist as well but the main fighting on the ground must be from a groundswell of Muslims willing to attack other Muslims. This will counter our enemy’s own propaganda if they are defeated at the hand of other Muslims. We are never going to win the hearts and minds of this current batch of Islamic militants on the battlefield today. Every single one of these Islamic extremists must eventually be eliminated.
The most important role for the United States going forward is to focus on the next batch of young and impressionable Muslim children that are currently being brought into this world. We have to show them the goodness that is the United States of America. We have to work with local Muslim leaders regarding education and prevention of future radicalization. Most importantly, we have to conduct ourselves in a manner where we do not leave these children with the impression that we might be the evil bad guys that our enemies describe. We have to be patient and we have to be smart. We have to stop chasing our opponent endlessly around the octagon. We have to study our opponent and adapt accordingly.
It would be a glaring omission to finish discussing my fighting analogy without even mentioning the “bolo punch”. You do know what the “bolo punch” is, right? The bolo punch is a fighting technique in which a fighter will move one arm in a large circular motion in order to distract the opponent from the other hand. While the opponent is focusing all of his attention on the movement of the one hand, the fighter will then use the other hand to blindside the opponent. Right now, ISIS is the circling hand that is getting everyone’s attention… but Iran is sitting quietly with the other clenched fist. Iran has a vast stockpile of enriched uranium and they have just developed an intercontinental ballistic missile according to recent reports. The mullahs of Iran have already vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. ISIS may be “small potatoes” compared to what might actually lie ahead in this fight.
If we are not careful… the world may soon receive the mother of all bolo punches.
The time for training camp is now over.
The gloves have come off.
It is time to learn how to fight properly in this new world order or we are soon going to get knocked the hell out.
I don’t think the solution is in either military force or propaganda. The solution is to give Arab youths hope. Leaders need to adopt meaningful political and economic reforms that will attract investment and create jobs, giving the youths in the Arab world something meaningful to do as well as a future to look forward to. They need hope. In most cases now they really have none. This is why groups like ISIS are so successful at attracting recruits. Radical Islam offers desperate people something that they believe gives them meaning and a better future. If there were jobs and careers available as an alternative path, I think these extremist groups would lose a lot (not necessary all, of course: look at the 9/11 crew) of their allure.
You make a very good point. I was using to term “counter propaganda” with the intention of being a bit absurd. I don’t think we necessarily have to lie or deceive people. But I do think that our counter efforts should at least consider how they will be perceived by the current young skulls full of mush in the Middle East. We have to focus on the recruitment efforts for the next generation of Islamic extremists. Giving this next generation a real opportunity and genuine hope would be ideal. Thank you for coming to my website and sharing your thoughts.