The Radical Islamic Problem

I am watching the CBS news about what we are doing about national security after the attacks against the French in Paris.

Once more, I share the warning given by former CIA Intelligence Officer Michael Scheuer after 9/11.

Michael Scheuer warns:

"Since the year of 1996, Islamist leaders, sub-leaders, theologians, field commanders, and fighters-in-the-trenches have said U.S./Western interventionism had motivated them to wage war, that they would kill as many of their enemies as was necessary to rid the Islamic world of Western military interventionists, and that they were waging a religious war, one that their faith required them to fight until they won or were eradicated.

The Islamists also told their foes that they intended to geographically expand their war as quickly and as far as possible, and that they believed that, while victory could only be granted by Allah, they could assist the divinity by inflicting casualties on their sophomoric, casualty averse-enemies. They also explained that, Allah willing, they would cause a steadily increasing drain on Western nations’ treasuries — especially that of the United States — which had already been bankrupted by the devastatingly destructive spendthrifts who govern them. Allah, it seems clear, has delivered in spades to those on whom his favor falls."

Michael F. Scheuer is a former CIA intelligence officer, American blogger, author, historian, foreign policy critic, and political analyst. He is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies. One of his assignments during his 22-year career was serving as Chief of the Bin Laden Issue Station.

Not many people in power in this country and also overseas paid any attention to Scheuer, even though he was our primary expert on the middle east terrorist threat. We have paid dearly for that neglect. He wrote the book, "Imperial Hubris" anonymously to warn the west but unfortunately his warnings were ignored.

We cannot fight a guerrilla war with "boots on the ground". We should have learned this lesson with our experience in Vietnam but obviously, we did not learn anything and continue to send our troops into the middle east to fight against people who are willing to die for their ideology.  In a guerrilla war, our troops cannot tell the enemy from the civilians because they integrate the civilian population.