Winning the War of Words -- And, Only Thus, The War of Ideas
Jim Guirard -- TrueSpeak.org
Author’s Note: The following is my mid-February, 2008 entry in the Ft. Bragg Psyop Essay Contest for 2009 -- which incorporates virtually all of the truth-in-language and truth-in-Islam themes about which I have been writing and lecturing since the post-911 War on al Qaeda-style Terrorism began in 2001.
Please be aware that this "war of words" essay has been approved by and distributed to a number of his senior colleagues by Marine Corps General James Mattis, who is Commanding Officer of the Joint Forces Command -- and co-signatory with General David Petraeus of the 2007 Army and USMC Field Manual for Counterinsurgency.
With respect to this Ft. Bragg submittal (copy attached, with both permitted alternative endings), it is most unlikely that I will win the competition. But General Mattis' proactive support might well be more important than that in the long run.
JIM GUIRARD -- TrueSpeak.org 703-768-0957 Justcauses@aol.com
Throughout the War on al Qaeda-style Terrorism, many counter-terrorism experts have correctly ascribed great importance to the "War of Ideas" and "War of Words" aspects of this life and death conflict.
In a "Know the Enemy" context, it is a "Cold War II" ideological confrontation (with several military wars embedded) in which US war-fighting Doctrine has clearly defined the enemy not as Islam but as those Terrorists who are radical deviants to the "religion of peace and justice" they pretend to honor.
Such frames of reference as Psyops, Soft Power, Hearts and Minds, Public Diplomacy and Cultural Awareness have become almost as important in achieving victory as Firepower, Strategic Mobility and Full Spectrum Dominance are.
Yet, in the vital area of words and labels -- the essential building blocks of most "soft war" initiatives -- there is still no reliable (non-Wahhabi/Salafi) Glossary of the Arabic and Islamic terms that characterize this religiously motivated warfare.
Avoiding Matters Religious
For fear of "getting into matters religious" we allow our "Death to America" enemies virtual carte blanche to manipulate language to their militant advantage -- and to our enormous disadvantage. In a good-versus-evil context, this is not a very bright idea.
o They call their sinful criminality "Jihad" (Holy War), anoint themselves "Mujahideen" and "Shahideen" (Holy Warriors and Martyrs) and promise young "Jihadi Martyrdom" recruits a 72-virgins Paradise -- and we carelessly parrot these laudatory terms..
o They object to being called "Terrorists" (especially in Arabic) and we oblige by calling them "insurgents," "extremists" and "foreign fighters," instead -- while not even knowing the Arabic words for Terrorism and Terrorists: Irhab and Irhabiyuun.
o They (Moqtada al-Sadr in particular) claim protection from the "Mahdi Army" -- a term we echo without noticing that in Shi'a Islam it means the Messiah's (the Twelfth Imam's) Judgment Day Army. (Why not al-Sadr's "Jaish al-Maout" -- his Army of Death, instead?)
o They call us "infidels" and "Crusaders" and the "Great Satan" -- and we sheepishly accede to these deceitful condemnations.
Tyranny in False Religious Garb
Many of these self-legitimizing labels constitute what USMC General James Mattis -- now CO of the Joint Forces Command -- meant in 2007 when he condemned al Qaeda -style Terrorism as "Tyranny in false religious garb."
http://smallwarsjournal.com/
And this false labeling is surely what David Kilcullen, a senior aide to General David Petraeus, had in mind when he called for "A New Lexicon" to properly define the semantic weapons which should be used -- or avoided -- in this vital War for Hearts, Minds and Souls.
http://smallwarsjournal.com/
While there is no "silver bullet" solution to this problem of what the late, great Senator Pat Moynihan called "semantic infiltration," here are several recommendations for re-labeling the Irhabi Murderdom crowd not as "holy guys" and "martyrs" but as the Abd'al-Shaitan -- the "Slaves of Satan" -- they would detest being called.
1. Revise USG "Guidance" to allow prudent use of certain religious words -- evildoers, hypocrites, satanic, Islamofascists, apostates -- which undermine the Terrorists' legitimacy in "peaceful, compassionate and just" Islam.
http://truespeak.org/content.
2. Develop contingency plans for when we finally decide to begin attacking pseudo-Islamic Terrorism in religious terms -- which will also help to draw a sharp line between the Allah-conceived Qur'an and the highly parochial, contradictory and even schizophrenic Shari'a, "Islamic Law."
http://truespeak.org/content.
3. Prepare Glossaries which correctly pull down the semantic masks and deceits of the Wahhabi-Salafi-UBL-Hizballah narratives of so-called "Jihadi Martyrdom" -- and which apply such truthful terms as Irhabis (Terrorists), al-Hirabah (Unholy War), mufsiduun (evildoers), munafiquun (hypocrites), Jahannam (Hellfire), al-Irtidad (apostasy), shaitani (satanic), khawarij (outside the religion deviants), Jaish al-Maout (Army of Death), istihlal (arrogance of "Playing God").
http://truespeak.org/content.
4. Encourage anti-Terrorist Muslim clergy to issue a Mega-fatwa which borrows from the ten most adequate earlier fatwas -- and which, in effect, declares a truly holy "Jihad against (UBL's false) Jihad" and in defense of authentic Islam.
http://truespeak.org/content.
5. In defining "authentic" Islam, encourage "peaceful and compassionate" clergy and scholars to differentiate the Qur'an's "99 Blessed Names of Allah" from the "99 (Godless) Antonyms" which define the Terrorists as enemies of Allah by contrast.
http://truespeak.org/content.
6. At the geopolitical level, equate bin Ladenism and its ruthless "Irhabi Murderdom" -- Terroristic Genocide -- with Communism, Fascism and Nazism, all four of them pseudo-religious deceptions of the Radical Left.
http://truespeak.org/content.
7. By Q&A analysis, differentiate sharply between the earnest anti-Terrorism of most Muslim-American organizations and those few which seem insufficient or even traitorous, and widely advertise such inherent differences via all appropriate avenues of Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy.
http://truespeak.org/content.
8. Explore all avenues for promoting both the Judeo-Christian "Rights of Liberty" and similar Muslim "Rights of Justice" referenced below as much-needed alternatives to the International Declaration of Human Rights which has been thoroughly perverted by the United Nations.
http://truespeak.org/content.
9. Re-establish the "wartime" functions of the USIA, RFE-RL, VOA and other assertive Information Operations -- and manage them in Cold War II fashion as the major "Hearts, Minds and Souls" beacons they were in Cold War I.
http://truespeak.org/content.
10. Complete a comprehensive list of "Proofs of the AQ Apostasy" (the many wanton violations of the Qur'an listed hereafter) and provide Qur'anic citations for each.
http://truespeak.org/content.
Original Ending
Finally, as stated in the several essays referenced above, none of this need be pontificated by non-Muslims. Most corrective initiatives can operate effectively
(a) via active support and quoting of Muslims who are already applying truth-in-language;
(b) via academic conferences and publications which stress objectivity and robust debate about "War of Words" issues;
(c) via imaginative essay contests and Q&A strategies which do the same;
(d) via prudent initiatives throughout academia, the think tanks and the global media;
(e) via truth-in-Islam fatwas throughout the Ummah which clearly differentiate authentic Islam from its eternal enemies -- the al Qaeda-style evildoers (mufsiduun), hypocrites munafiquun) and Martyrs for Satan (Shahideen al-Shaitan).
CONCLUSION: With Terrorism stripped of all "legitimacy" in authentic Islam -- and as Ronald Reagan correctly foretold in our Cold War I fight against Communism's equally illegitimate Evil Empire -- "WE WIN. THEY LOSE."
JIM GUIRARD -- TrueSpeak.org 703-768-0957 Justcauses@aol.com
Alternate Ending
Finally, although this action plan is focused primarily on Arabic and Islamist labels, there is an another major theatre of this Cold War II -- the Cubazuelan Empire’s collaboration with the Islamofascists.
Led by fascist-Left Cuba and Venezuela and now including Nicaragua, Bolivia and Equador, these five "Socialism or Death" regimes have largely set aside their religious differences with al Qaeda, Hamas and Hizballah and have adopted a common pseudo-religion of "Death to America."
http://truespeak.org/content.php?id=venezuelasicubazuelano
Clearly then, truth-in-language should include such condemnatory labels as
o Venezuela Si ! CUBAzuela NO !!
o Abajo la Revolucion "Chavista-Bolchevista"
o En Cuba: Abajo El Gulag Guevara
o Viva Una Teologia de LIBERTAD
o Abajo El Fascismo de la Izquierda
o El Fascismo, El Comunismo, el Caliphismo -- Son Lo Mismo !!
While such labels are not a magic wand for unmasking the enemy outright, each one reveals another truth about who these evildoers really are. Thus deprived of legitimacy before both God and Man -- and as Ronald Reagan foretold about the Evil Empire in Cold War I -- "WE WIN. THEY LOSE."
JIM GUIRARD -- TrueSpeak.org 703-768-0957 Justcauses@aol.com