Ten years after 9-11, counterterrorist and intelligence operatives along with several policy makers flooded the media with their thoughts about America’s longest war. These persons are truly prominent in their fields and deserving of such thoughts and perceptions. However, very few of these professionals have actually considered the perceptions of the Middle East. Just this weekend, “The Middle East’s leading English Daily,” Arab News.com, had written an overly disturbing state approved article pertaining the current U.S. led war on terror–analyzing this is critical.
“…as it flexed its military, economic and political might in two wars, Washington forgot, or deliberately overlooked, the fact that its foreign policies, globally and toward the Arab and Islamic world in particular, were a crucial factor in generating the forms of violence it was combating.”
Throughout the Middle East, U.S. Foreign Policy has been nothing but overwhelmingly inviting for all Arabs–Muslims and Christians alike. We have continuously assisted in humanitarian needs such as in 1983, Lebanon, where a Marine Expeditionary team was sent into theatre to assist in peacekeeping operations to reduce death and turmoil among the Lebanese. This action was not to secure Muslims or Christians rather an entire nation state. Muslims perceived our actions as something gravely different than our intent hence they destroyed our Embassy killing approximately 300 of our best and brightest service members.
After the first Gulf War, the Saudis, Kuwaitis, along with other Arab nations asked the United States to remain in the region as a show of force against the Iraqi regime. Like 1983, in 1996, Muslim fanatics destroyed one of our military assets known as Khobar Towers leaving nineteen service members killed and hundreds injured.
The Middle East constantly seeks our military support yet their people fail to observe our kindness. Their governments have failed to express gratitude deserved–instead, falsely ridiculing our Foreign Policy. Maybe they are correct that our foreign policy is flawed. Instead, maybe we should simply exaggerate our price on food exports that they depend upon similarly to how they exaggerated their oil market.
“It is hard to escape the conclusion that the war on terror, to use its popular designation, became a war on Islam. The West was and is still not fighting to eradicate terrorism. Terrorism is just a tool. It is fighting to defeat an ideology. And given the global supremacy of the Western media, the net effect has been a distorted picture of Islam.”
You cannot fight a tool–terrorism is in fact a tactical tool. You can only fight the ideology that hides behind the tactic. Maybe the Saud’s have it right and we should now begin such concept in accepting that this war on terror is a war on Islam. Interestingly enough, even after the Saudi’s have made such claim, we will refuse to accept this. The United States never initiated this war on Islam rather Islamists continuously attacked our national interests domestically and abroad. As Islamists, they initiated this war–it’s about time we accept the truth and call it what it is.
“The US reaction was completely unrestrained, more impetuous and foolhardy than the act that provoked it. There was much sympathy for the US in the wake of 9/11 but Bush’s overreaction squandered it within no time. America reacted as a bigger Israel and ran amok. Nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11; in the first few years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan there was a 9/11 almost every month.”
If only the Saud’s knew how restrained the U.S. response truly were after 9-11. How they failed in American military history is proven by such statements. In World War II, we carpet bombed entire cities throughout Europe turning infrastructure into dust. Today, we have the capabilities to turn entire deserts into glass skating rinks. Even with our capabilities, we have implemented rules of engagements throughout this war which hinder tactical success–the very rules that have actually killed some of our own service members.
“Washington’s tendency to ignore the principles of democracy, justice and human rights should not drive Arabs and Muslims to discard these values as mere Western imports.”
The entire Arabian Peninsula has historically constituted more human rights violations against women and children than any other region in the world. Women still face unjust persecution and children are neglected in education. It is a land where stoning is a form of execution–a very long, drawn out, and painful death. Torture is a norm in the prisons. From a compare and contrast standpoint between the U.S. and our human rights initiatives versus the Arabian world’s atrocities, staff members from Arab News.com (the Saudi Government) would realize those who truly ignore principles of democracy, justice, and human rights is not Washington rather the entire Middle East.
This is what we are up against. Our enemies maintain an incredibly distorted perception about the United States. That perception has collaborated with an ideology. While ideologies long remain even after the deaths of their creators, they can be countered. Obviously, we have failed in countering the ideologies of those we attempt to influence and or defeat through this Saudi stated “War on Islam.”
To quote Gandhi, one of the world’s most peaceful activists, “It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.” Our kindness and restraint has utterly decapitated us. Those we fight and the nations who support them fail to observe who we are as a nation–instead, they perceive us as sheep. Today, we must become the world’s lion–a swift, deadly, fear mongering creature that will force our enemies to submit.
Kerry Patton is the Co-Founder of the National Security Leadership Foundation, a non-profit organization pending 501c (3) status. He has worked in South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, focusing on intelligence and security interviewing current and former terrorists, including members of the Taliban. He is the author of “Sociocultural Intelligence: The New Discipline of Intelligence Studies” and the children’s book “American Patriotism.” You can follow him on Facebook.