Saturday, July 29, 2006

Strategies and Tactics

The difference between tactics and strategies is like those between the battle and the war. At least, that's the operational definition I'm establishing lest all the political scientists scream about their own definitions or preferences, which may include terms like "will". I further state that the higher up the command chain you are, the more likely you are to be moving out of the tactical and into the strategic, as a leader. This is a normal business model, too, where bosses worry about bigger issues as their window space grows. In my opinion, they need fewer windows so they are less distracted and can concentrate better on sweeping decisions, but I'll leave that for another day.
If you look at the foot soldiers of Islam, you'll see tactics galore. These guys do everything from marching with huge (and costly, I guess) pictures of their favorite sheikhs, to throwing stones and tear gas canisters that were originally lobbed in the other direction. They also blow themselves up on the way to the mall, or when they get there, and do some interesting things with plastique and cars. In the end, though, it's a single person or small group doing the thinking, and they generally repeat what's been done already. Strictly tactical.
By contrast, look at the Usama-level operators. Flight school, not a bottle of gas and a torn t-shirt! It's not only that they're organized, but they're organized, too. What I mean is that they have an organization, and the organization does things in an organized way. Strategies are turned into tactics and carried out. This is the general staff of the Islamic Holy Army. What we have to do is become educated to view the Middle East issues as either foot soldier background noise or general staff activity. I'm not talking about the government or the military, but the public. Being able to distinguish between roadside bombs and embassy bombings will enable us to be alert to the right things. It will also help us understand the difference between the war on terrorism, as expressed in Afghanistan, and the war on Iraq, as expressed by the neocons. The failure to discern between tactics and strategies is also a failure to discern between something more real and something that is nothing more than ideology.
Islamicist movements have the Middle East in such a conservative hold that many societies don't even hear the sound of a dissenting voice. It's not that there aren't reformers or dissenters, it's that they have soft voices. Muslims are not entirely happy in a social environment that tells them that there's a Muslim way to tie their shoes. That's what totalitarian regimes, like Iran's, are like. Muslims are like you and me (no, this isn't the Sesame Street blog). They like their food, they deal with their temptations, they play with their kids, and they like their tunes. The bearded brethren of the bereft aren't the people we see fleeing or talking to reporters about the bomb that went off next door, on the telly. No, we don't see the ones who pull even the smallest strings unless they stage something to show us. We see the average Alis who are perpetually on the run from the (fill in the blank) Israeli Army; Hizbollah rockets; American troops; Syrian Army; people they owe money to; angry wife #1; or some mujahid who heard they supported some other faction. Life's pretty edgy in places where bombs go off every day.
I was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia a couple of years ago. I happened to be working in the Ministry of Defense when the nuts tried to blow up a radio station (not a Top-40 operation, but a government-controlled operation like all media in Saudi Arabia). This was a big'un, boy! Like Stevie Ray Vaughan said, "when the joint is a-rockin' don't bother knockin'." It didn't seem to faze the military types, so I figured the blast was attached to some ever-present construction going on nearby. Only later did I learn it was far more. Well, the Saudis hunted those poor bastards down and forgave the ones they didn't kill. But how can it be that this happened in Saudi Arabia? Strategy equals acting on Usama's Fatwah (see my previous posting for the text of this document), and it says the Americans are working with a corrupt Saudi royal family. This was bringing the war to the battlefield it must inevitably be waged on. That act was worth noting, but how many of you did. Keep away from the tactical! It's the chips and salsa of the Middle East's political diet, and you know you shouldn't eat that stuff all the time or you'll get intellectually fat and soon turn diabetic.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Text of Usama's Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans

As you read this, note one important thing: Israel isn't mentioned except as a petty state under US support, or as a Zionist co-conspirator. That sort of statement is practically progressive, given the screed that comes out of people with much smaller hard-ons than the signatories of this fatwah. That would seem to mean something, but I'm not sure what. Anyway, when you're asked, "Why do they hate us," you can offer this written explanation.
Text of Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans
Published in Al-Quds al-'Arabi on Febuary 23, 1998
Statement signed by Sheikh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the Jihad Group in Egypt; Abu- Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, a leader of the Islamic Group; Sheikh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan; and Fazlul Rahman, leader of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh
Praise be to God, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said "I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but God is worshipped, God who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders." The Arabian Peninsula has never--since God made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas--been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies now spreading in it like locusts, consuming its riches and destroying its plantations. All this is happening at a time when nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events, and we should all agree on how to settle the matter.
No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone:
First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.
If some people have formerly debated the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it.
The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, still they are helpless. Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, in excess of 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.
So now they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.
Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there.
The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula.
All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in "Al- Mughni," Imam al-Kisa'i in "Al- Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said "As for the militant struggle, it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life."
On that basis, and in compliance with God's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God."
This is in addition to the words of Almighty God "And why should ye not fight in the cause of God and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated and oppressed--women and children, whose cry is 'Our Lord, rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!'"
We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.
Almighty God said "O ye who believe, give your response to God and His Apostle, when He calleth you to that which will give you life. And know that God cometh between a man and his heart, and that it is He to whom ye shall all be gathered."
Almighty God also says "O ye who believe, what is the matter with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of God, ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least. For God hath power over all things."
Almighty God also says "So lose no heart, nor fall into despair. For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith."

OSAMA BIN LADEN'S FATWAH ON AMERICANS In case you don't know "why they hate us so much", here's a start. It's a translation of Osama's Fatwah (opinion). Note the other signatories, and the obvious fact that Israel isn't mentioned until the big issue of Americans on Saudi Arabian (ie: Holy) soil is taken care of. Don't be misled. It's important to understand that Jerusalem is not first on the list, the way many Americans might believe it is. These guys have the biggest hard-ons on earth, and even they are yelling about keeping infidels out of Mecca and Medina and away from their oil and their brethren. Israel is practically an afterthought for these guys.

Text of Fatwah Urging Jihad Against Americans
Published in Al-Quds al-'Arabi on Febuary 23, 1998
Statement signed by Sheikh Usamah Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin; Ayman al-Zawahiri, leader of the Jihad Group in Egypt; Abu- Yasir Rifa'i Ahmad Taha, a leader of the Islamic Group; Sheikh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan; and Fazlul Rahman, leader of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh
Praise be to God, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book "But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said "I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but God is worshipped, God who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders." The Arabian Peninsula has never--since God made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas--been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies now spreading in it like locusts, consuming its riches and destroying its plantations. All this is happening at a time when nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current events, and we should all agree on how to settle the matter.
No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone:
First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.
If some people have formerly debated the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it.
The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, still they are helpless. Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, in excess of 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once against trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation.
So now they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors.
Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there.
The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula.
All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in "Al- Mughni," Imam al-Kisa'i in "Al- Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said "As for the militant struggle, it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life."
On that basis, and in compliance with God's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims
The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies--civilians and military--is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty God, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God."
This is in addition to the words of Almighty God "And why should ye not fight in the cause of God and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated and oppressed--women and children, whose cry is 'Our Lord, rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!'"
We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.
Almighty God said "O ye who believe, give your response to God and His Apostle, when He calleth you to that which will give you life. And know that God cometh between a man and his heart, and that it is He to whom ye shall all be gathered."
Almighty God also says "O ye who believe, what is the matter with you, that when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of God, ye cling so heavily to the earth! Do ye prefer the life of this world to the hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least. For God hath power over all things."
Almighty God also says "So lose no heart, nor fall into despair. For ye must gain mastery if ye are true in faith."

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Morocco's King Muhammad and Islamic Reform
(Thanks to cuz1 for the support. Can't reply to everyone, but wanted to say I appreciate the comments.)

Saw a great piece of work on PBS yesterday, maybe on POV. A documentary about Morocco's reformer king and the first women graduates of a religious training program he set up. Fantastic glimpse at how Muslims can use contemporary ideas to modernize their societies, even as they maintain Islamic principles as their root values. Also, a nice glimpse at why (e.g.) the Prophet encouraged polygamy (protection of widows and orphans in the Muslim wars), and why, in modern times, polygamy is largely unnecessary. He did this symbolically by stating that his first wife would be his sole wife.) Naturally, the glowering, kidney-stone-passing-looking mullah from the gloom and doom school of Islam -- the Wahhabis, doesn't like any of it... nosireebob! He and his friends just sit around thinking how they can blow stuff up to the greater glory of God. They tried that a few years ago and found out that the people of Morocco don't like seeing fellow citizens coming at them in pieces. King cracked down, and his remaining mission is to create a better economy so that the Wahhabis have fewer disenfranchised young men to woo to their numbers.

It's pretty easy to woo the poor when you think about it. Hitler did it after the French made sure there would be a second world war by bankrupting Germany after the first one. All those loose cannons lying around with nothing to do but be organized into useful cogs in a larger machine. [By the way, Arabs virtually never used their current "antisemitic" language about Jews until after the Nazis gave them the words in the 20th century. Muslims have been at odds with Jews since the early 7th century when Jews of the Arabian Peninsula withheld their support from the Prophet Muhammad when he was at war to establish Islam. Despite that, no widespread hatred was apparent on the part of Muslims, and Jews even held some enviable positions in Muslim societies during the Middle Ages.] Yes, it's easy to rouse rabble, and that tells you why we know the phrase, and what we really think about the people themselves. I mean "rabble" is somehow lower than highway tar, isn't it.
The program I saw was really about young women, and they can also be roused. But poor men don't rouse poor women in the best direction. Reasonable men tend to support the activities of women along a broad range of issues, and women tend to respond well to having men's support. That Muslims in Morocco have carved out important places for women in religious affairs shows that even in the mosques, women have roles that are integral to society. It's wonderful to see religious women who feel empowered by being Muslim, not simply duty-bound. The women in this documentary were not about judging women, but about improving the lot of women. One must never be fooled by the hejab; women wear the scarf for different reasons. If we see Muslims on a continuum from liberal-minded (Ismailis) to very conservative (Wahhabis), we will see women all along that continuum who dress alike. Are they all the same? (Rhetorical)

So, good luck to King Muhammad of Morocco, and to the Muslims of the world. There are so many good and reasonable men and women among them that one must be essentially optimistic about their desire to undo the harm done by those who are far less reasonable. How should we support them? Write and tell us all.
PS: It occurs to me that a pop singer named something like Smokey Mo Al-Wahhabi might make a real difference with some nice love songs, or is that too, too obvious.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Remember when Hindus used to be the people who followed Mohandas K. Gandhi around doing good things for India and bad things for the British? Remember when they gave him the title Mahatma, or Great Soul? You probably know Hindus who have said to you that, historically, they have made great strides by incorporating external ideas into their existing ancient framework, so that history has only increased their knowledge and wisdom, not limited them. What you probably forgot was it was a Hindu who killed Gandhi. Today, that's a lot easier to remember. It's been fewer that two decades since Hindus in India's Western State of Gujarat decided to take on the spiritual attire of the Taliban and kill Muslims as readily as them. Oh, I know what Hindus are saying nowadays. They're saying things like, "We've been letting them walk over us too long!" Hey, no matter what, there are 85% Hindus in India compared with maybe 10-12% Muslims, so where's the threat coming from! Northern California Hindu parents send their kids to certain religious-based camps to learn how to do a hard days work and how to appreciate that Hindus are the best of all things under God's creation. And why not! Everyone else is also a chosen people. Except that Gandhi wasn't about any of that stuff, and some of these insidious camps use his name to promote their own vices, like inculcating kids into RSS ideology, a reactionary Hindu cultural entity. Gandhi encouraged high caste (yep, it's still around) Hindus to share food with Muslims and what he called "Harijans", Children of God, Hindu untouchables. None of that sentiment is practiced at some camps that freely use the Great Soul's name. Rather, such places are training grounds that turn what would have been normal American children into abnormal quasi-Indian children -- children who may have ended up being trained by their parents to feel out of place in both of their places. That's a difficult assignment, but mission accomplished, Sri Joshi! India is the disembodied, unintegrated, out-of-context, idealized dream, and the Bay Area is the familiar but ignorant place where Hindus like us are not understood. That leaves only "the family" as a place of comfort, which is fine for the more manipulative of Hindu parents out there. But don't kids wise up and react badly sometimes? Yes, they sometimes do. Sometimes, they say yes to Mommy and Daddy up to and including arranged marriage, and then dispassionately plunder Mommy and Daddy for all the money they can because they have done their duty. Others go overboard the other way and disavow their Hindu heritage entirely. Who knows where these people will land and how they will live. It's all a crap shoot anyway, but becoming like the Taliban is worse than being the Taliban itself. It mocks the best of Hindu culture and history, and cuts it off from its deeper meaning. Indian Kids raised outside the context of India will always be outsiders in a very real way, just like every child of immigrant parents raised in a different country. That's why John and Ruth Hill Useem coined the term "Third Culture". Give their works a good read. And don't believe any of that Hindu BS. Razing a mosque in exchange for a Hindu temple is not a higher act in anyone's culture or religious context. It's an act of barbarity.

Hizbollah Done Run Out the Pen

As if the Israelis had never before made clear exactly what they would do when their soldiers get kidnapped, people all around the world are reacting to Israeli aggression as though they had been asleep for forty years. Come on, people, wake up! Israelis respond to terrorism like American neocons wish they could every single morning -- kill anything that moves to the left. Thinking about how Jews can do today what only WASPs could do just a few decades ago must be infuriating to lots of people, including about 75% of those who spend hours every day justifying their graceless acts by finding New Testament quotes that fix things up just right. Oh, how the times must have changed at St. Albans and Exeter. The only thing WASP credentials buy you today is free admission to a neo-Nazi hate farm, and what reasonably well-adjusted person would ever choose that as a lifestyle. Don't tell me Israelis can't react to terrorists on their own border when we went to Afghanistan to hunt a similar crowd. And don't tell me that the Lebanese, Iranians, and Syrians can get away with talking out of both sides of their mouths when they condemn Israel and fund Hizbollah. Look, unlike some of you, I have lived in the Middle East -- not ever in Israel, but in Iran and Saudi Arabia. It does not make me happier to condemn Israelis, Iranians, and Arabs than to condemn Americans. Everyone's stupid enough to earn a chunk of the blame for the mess in the Middle East. Just don't think that I'm stupid enough to believe that when you kidnap Israeli soldiers you're shocked to see a serious reaction, especially when the kidnappers are terrorists who have seized control of parts of the government of Lebanon. I cannot apologize for being a rational person in the 21st century, but all you romantics have plenty to apologize for, including all your starry-eyed illusions about who's good, who's bad, and who's to blame. We're all good, bad, and to blame. So now what! Won't eat anything with a face? If that's the directional limit to your moral compass, then come to Berkeley and join the family.

Shameless Sandwich Stuff

The PATIO is the best sandwich joint in the East Bay, especially when you want to wash one down with a local microbrew or a Pabst Blue Ribbon! Whether it's a great 1/3 lb. Patio Burger, a Portobello Cheese Steak, an Avocado Grilled Cheese, or a signature Spicy Lamb Sandwich, you will never be disappointed. And if you want to do things Pittsburgh style, say, "Make it the Beast!" That means french fries or onions rings, and the Patio's own coleslaw, slapped right on the sandwich. Once you try it, you'll never understand why you hesitated. The Patio: 2525 Dwight Way, Berkeley, CA, (510) 704-4435, Noon-eves, Mon. through Sat. Free HotSpot!