Yes, the world has gone absolutely stupid in the face of Islamic State atrocities. As the Islamic State (IS) grows and its atrocities intensify, so does the global race to see whose thinking can become the most ignorant, simplistic, and … well, flat-out stupid. In this new world of discourse, stupidity is heralded as genius, and intelligent thought is eschewed if it is even recognized at all. The IS terror has accomplished what it was intended to accomplish. It has removed from the human race the ability to engage in critical analysis and think creatively and unconventionally. It has made us forget lessons that we only superficially learned and has presented us with a false dichotomy, and our choice is between two equally ignorant, simplistic, and stupid choices.
On the one side, we ignore the fact that IS is driven by a radical fundamentalist ISLAMIC ideology. We acknowledge the “legitimate grievances” of IS and its ideological cohorts, but put our politically correct blinders on to the fact that those grievances are the product of a contrived, histrionic cultural sense of RELIGIOUS persecution at the hands of the west. We claim to understand enough to blame the Crusades, but that’s as far as it goes. I guess it’s more important to be politically correct than it is to be informed and actually correct in the face of this existential threat. On this side, there is no will whatsoever to do anything meaningful about IS and its ilk. We can’t, because they have legitimate grievances, and it would just be wrong to annihilate them. No; we must seek to bind their centuries-old festering wounds and soothe them with the salve of apologies and superficial understanding which is really no understanding at all. Thus this side seeks a continuance of the strategy of the last 13 years – only less intense – while we seek an impossible political solution. If we truly understood them, we would understand what radicalizes them. I’m not talking about understanding why they hurt and trying to kiss it and make it better. I’m talking about understanding their major malfunction and refusing to play into it anymore. In his book, the Crusades through Arab Eyes, Amin Maalouf closes out the epilogue with a very poignant paragraph which explains to anyone with a brain that hasn’t been robbed of all meaningful function by the IS atrocities that we are dealing with a culture in which to this day the Crusades are deeply felt as an act of rape. If we understood this, we would understand that current strategy, which is heavy on the kicking in of doors and the liberating of cities by turning them to rubble only feeds into this false sense of religious persecution and creates far more radicals than it kills. Even a substantially toned down version of this strategy has the same effect, and thus it can never prevail.
The dichotomy presents us with only one other option.
On the other side, we have made recognizing the Islamic nature of IS extremely important but place no importance whatsoever – I mean absolutely none – on understanding the Islamic underpinnings and how they must inform our strategy. On this side, there is an extreme arrogance which rejects the need to understand this enemy in order to defeat it. After all, we didn’t have to understand Hitler’s Germany and Hirohito’s Japan in order to defeat them. Well, those were conventional political entities we were fighting in a conventional war. In such cases, the enemy can be defeated with brute force alone without the need to understand them. That is not the case when your enemy is an irregular force driven solely by a contrived and histrionic sense of religious persecution born of a radical fundamentalist Islamic ideology. In this case, brute force may indeed provide tactical victory after tactical victory, but it will inevitably yield a strategic defeat. Just take the last 13 years and change. We have fielded a much larger and far superior fighting force against greatly inferior numbers, and we have achieved tactical victory upon tactical victory; that much is true. What is also true is that, in that time, the ideology has metastasized and grown by as much as 2,000%. Each new group seems to have a hatred that burns brighter than that of the one before it. Applying brute force only feeds the cancer, but we have been stupefied to this fact, and this side calls only for the application of more brute force. It can never work, because, as stated, it only feeds into this false sense of persecution born of a centuries-old grievance and therefore creates more radicals than it has killed.
This is a false dichotomy where both options will have the same result – the net growth of radical fundamentalist Islam and therefore an increased danger to the West and indeed to all who do not yield to this sick ideology. Both sides have lost the capacity for creative and unconventional thought, and it is only through creative and unconventional thought that we may arrive at a solution. For months a solution has existed, and I have been screaming at the top of my lungs about it while the whole world – governments and media and political parties – have been busy putting in ear plugs. It is a common human character flaw that we do not expose ourselves to – and indeed dismiss out of hand – any arguments or information that do not fit with our worldview, whether that worldview is legitimate or not. The capacity for critical analysis – especially of one’s own beliefs and opinions – has never been the strong suit of our species, and we tend to lose that ability altogether in the face of terror. Instead, we retreat into our worldviews and abdicate what capacity we had for logic, reasoned thought, and fact-based critical analysis. Creative and unconventional thought – the only way to arrive at a solution – is viewed as the province solely of the lunatic fringe. If we remain caught in this trap, we are doomed.
Why do both sides assume that the solution must have – or even can have at all – a political component? When in the history of mankind has a political body legislated a religious ideology out of existence? What logical reason is there to believe that it could happen now? None! Why do both sides assume that the military component must be a conventional one? While one side seeks brute force writ large, the other side seeks brute force light. The only way brute force could ever succeed is if we killed off or effectively subjugated everyone who doesn’t believe as we do. Now, isn’t that what IS and their ILK are guilty of seeking to do?
The military solution is an unconventional one. First we stop the bombing. Leveling cities in the process of liberating them is just idiotic, and it only feeds into the sense of religious persecution and rape at the hands of the West and makes us the ones who radicalize the enemy. It is extremely arrogant and stupid to not see that our actions have consequences even though they shouldn’t and even though we have the perfect right to take them. Brute force begets radicals. Large occupying armies beget radicals. Kicking in doors and leveling cities begets radicals. Unfortunately, these are the only ways we know to win. We are trapped in conventional thought and must break free. So, what would not beget radicals? A light paramilitary force using guerrilla tactics. Doors are not kicked in, cities are not reduced to rubble, and infrastructure is not destroyed. The use of such a light force and these less-destructive tactics would not feed into the false sense of persecution that radicalizes so many. But how can such a force win? Through attrition, the erosion of morale, and the undermining of the legitimacy of IS. This is what the Viet Cong did with us in Vietnam. Their strategy was one of attrition which eroded morale and undermined the legitimacy of the war in the American public eye. We do the same to IS. We use constant and unyielding attrition through sniping and small unit guerrilla tactics to achieve tactical victories, send their morale into the toilet, and reduce their will to fight. Recruiting will suffer, because no one wants to join a cause that is getting its ass kicked all over the place. Daily, they become a more demoralized and less effective fighting force. With each tactical victory, and with every day of attrition, the very legitimacy of IS will be undermined. After all, how can Allah be on their side if they are being defeated on the battlefield by a far inferior number of warriors who are INFIDELS at that? Of course, the government is incapable of such reasoned thought, because it is beholden to a President with a radically skewed worldview. So, we’re doomed in the long run, unless we open our minds.
In their race to see whose thought can become the most ignorant, simplistic, and stupid, we have purposefully abandoned creative and unconventional thought. We assume that any military solution must be a conventional one, but this is a false assumption, and it is not only based on other false assumptions, but it ignores the reality of what drives the enemy. Even the few of us who are capable of recognizing the falsity of the dichotomy and the need for another solution are loathe to accept outside-the-box thinking. They feel the government must be convinced to act creatively and that is the only option. Nobody can get their head around the possibility of an extragovernmental solution – a solution arrived at and an end achieved not by the government but by We the People. Under this line of thought, If the government does not employ the right strategy, we are doomed, and the only option is to convince the government to employ the correct strategy. Yeah, that’s going to happen.
With a President firmly entrenched in his dangerously Islamophilic worldview and the rest of the civilized world blindly following his lead, the solution MUST be an extragovernmental one – a solution outside of government – a solution of the People, by the People, and for the People. Of course, the government and the political parties and the media are incapable of contemplating such a solution. Nope. It will be an inside-the-box solution, or we can just all die or be subjugated. We must open our minds and shed these deadly false assumptions.
The first deadly false assumption is that the solution must be arrived at and then executed by the government using the military. IS having declared war on the United States and having perpetrated acts of war against us (and the United States making war on IS), there is a legal state of war that exists between the United States and IS as recognized by the administration. Given this state of war, it is perfectly legal for Americans to form a militia and go fight the enemy on their ground. No federal or international law prohibits it. Some Americans have even gone over and started fighting with the Kurds and the Christian militia in Iraq. Such a militia would not be a state militia, so under the Constitution, it would not fall under the command of the President. It would be free to employ the strategy its commander felt best and would not have to answer to the President. Last I checked, in this country, the President answers to the People, and not the other way around.
The second deadly false assumption is that nobody can have an idea that is worth a damn unless they are people we know from cable news or have advanced degrees. The commentators and analysts we see on the news are not the only people capable of intelligent and informed thought and fact-based analysis. In fact, they may not even be the best. An offshoot of this way of thinking is that no one can have an idea that is worth considering unless they are verifiably credentialed. Did you know KarlRove does not have a college degree, but his ideas and opinions matter? True. He never completed college, but FOX News and millions of Americans pay attention to him. Another consideration is that, in the lines of work most related to the ability to formulate a viable IS strategy, there are a lot of people who have the right stuff but are not verifiably credentialed. Think about it. So, just because you haven’t seen me on TV touting a vast pedigree of education and experience, it does not follow that I am incapable of formulating and executing the only viable IS strategy. There are a number of reasons I haven’t been on TV and am not verifiably credentialed, but you can still tell I’m the real deal. Listen to what I say and how I say it. I obviously know what I’m talking about. Look at the fact that I have hundreds of former military / special operations / CIA signed on with me, and these guys would not be on board with an idiot.
Several friends and I formed Team Swandog in August of 2014, because it was clear our President is not going to be able or willing to destroy IS. This was not done lightly and was only done after several months of strategy development by 11 men with special operations and intelligence community backgrounds, but, most importantly, a knowledge of history and the ability to think creatively and unconventionally. In the formation process, it was determined that I would command this new militia and bear the primary burden of adapting the core strategy and developing tactics. In October and November, we placed our first two advance teams into the theater. Through November and December and into early January, we suffered setbacks including the loss of our website, email, and bitcoin accounts as well as an organized attempt on my life which involved me being drugged, poisoned, and left with a severe concussion. We returned with an online presence in mid-January, bolstering that presence with increased Twitter activity, a blog, and videos in February. In the first week, our videos garnered over 21,000 views. Also in February, we added four more advance teams in the theater. These six of a planned 40 total advance teams are carrying out various noncombat missions in preparation for major operations beginning in July … if we get the support we need. We have gotten a lot of individuals helping as well as a lot of churches getting involved, but we need much much more. It’s all going to hinge on national media exposure, but once that hits, we will have more than enough clear-thinking true patriots and patriotic businesses to fund us completely. It’s a matter of getting our strategy out there. Once that occurs, we will be much, much closer to destroying the Islamic State and eradicating radical fundamentalist Islam.