by G. Murphy Donovan
“Deception is a state of mind, and the mind of the state. – J.J. Angleton
James Jesus Angleton, former head of CIA counterintelligence, once said that the Intelligence business is a “wilderness of mirrors.” Surely he was speaking about Intelligence and policy at the merge, a junction now obscured by secrecy, bigotry, war, and abject incompetence.
Policy is ill served by intelligence bias and partisanship. The country, in turn is ill served by policy that gets lost in the tactical weeds at the expense of coherent strategy. The American approach to terror and Islamism is a hodgepodge of contradictions, naive and piecemeal at best.
American Intelligence knows the name and nationality of every Islamist terror group and also knows the names and nationalities of every state supporter of Islamism. Still, two decades hence, even after 9/11, America still does not have a coherent policy or a plan to take out the Mohammedan or the Islamist threat.
The real enemy is the collective Arab and/or Muslim tolerance of terror and support to Islamist haters, gunmen, and bombers. The real enemy is Ummah indifference, active and soft support to the shooters. Ironically, authoritarian countries like Russia, China, and Egypt have successfully crushed their Islamic jihads. Every authoritarian state in the Ummah could do the same – if they chose to.
Collectively, Arab and Muslim states could end religious terror tomorrow, just as Egypt did. The fact that the Ummah does not, tells us everything we need to know about Islam’s toxic fetish with ultimate religious and political supremacy.
Israel is a keystone state for Western civilization as we know it. If Israel goes, so does America. If Andrew Murray is correct, the EU is already on the ropes.
After 9/11, team Bush, attacked Iraq; a war that made as much sense as killing a roach to cure a rat problem. America didn’t have the courage to neutralize the real sponsors of 9/11 in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
And now we have October 6 as Israel’s 9/11.
America’s October fail in the Middle East is not just another warning, data or evidence failure. The perennial failure to act at all against all of Mohamed’s bad actors is the real fail.
American policy pathology guaranteed Israel would have their version 9/11 on 6 October 2023.
If we cut through all the blather, smoke, and mirrors; Israel is clearly expendable. When ‘little Satan” is gone, “big Satan” will be next – again.
We never learn.
_______
Murphy Donovan is a former USAF Intelligence officer who served as the Chief of Research and Russian Studies under General James Clapper, when Clapper was the ACS/I at HQ USAF.
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13 Responses
All the essentials for our survival simply put.
The Koran & its associated commentaries command conversion, enslavement, or murder of nonbelievers in Islam as the only way to live.
As GMD points out, bluntly, Israel is the canary in the coal mine as a perfect bad example of kindness as suicidal blindness.
Both points are excellent. Our primary enemy is political correctness — the fear to think, and criticize.
Indeed, Howard. “Kindness as suicidal blindness.” Spot on.
If Israel is “clearly expendable” according to the author why does the United States have two aircraft carriers, thousands of troops, and support vessels including destroyers, etc., off the coast? Why did the US president visit Israel and offer extensive promises of support? Why did the German chancellor visit Israel? Why is the president of France expected to visit soon? Why did the PM of the UK go to Israel today and pledge support? Why are British ships en route to Israel? This response does not look anything like an abandonment of Israel or any kind of message that Israel is “expendable.” It looks like the opposite message, that Israel will be supported and defended.
“Religious terror” cannot be ended. It is an obligation in Islam. Those who do not partake are in effect apostates, they just don’t know it! The “Tears of Jihad” and the taqiyya, the obligation to lie to further Islam are just two of the tragedies of Islam.
Dear new reader. It was a question, not a declaration. Hence the question mark. And maybe I could make my point a little clearer. If this POTUS told me he “had my back,” I would take my wallet out of my back pocket.
Have to ask the question. Given this hotbed situation……Now What?
Nice to hear from you, madam. What now? Well, as a former Intelligence slug, let me say policy is not my game, but I do have an opinion. We need to stop wasting resources on pyrrhic tactical chicken shit Islamists like ISIS and Hamas and be honest about sponsor states. If we really want to kill the Islamist snake, we need to go for it’s head – not its droppings.
On the contrary, you concluded your missive with the declaration, “If we cut through all the blather, smoke, and mirrors; Israel is clearly expendable”.
In addition to the examples of concrete support “Reader” has mentioned, I’d like to blow another couple of holes in your argument by pointing out that in Egypt, a country you claim has eliminated Islamic terror, an Egyptian shot two Israelis in Alexandria right on the heels of the Hamas killings, and the Muslim Brotherhood is alive and well.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia (a place I agree is a hotbed of fanaticism) hasn’t seen a terror attack resulting in loss of life since 2015, no appreciable extremist presence, and no regular violence since the early 2000s, violence which the Saudi regime crushed with overwhelming force. So when you discuss combatting extremism and which countries are successful at it and which aren’t, you clearly sound like you’re very knowledgeable and know what you’re talking about.
On the subject of supporting Israel, I’d trust the President who sent two aircraft carriers to the region, jetted there himself and hasn’t shown one single sign of either reluctance to support the Israelis or pusillanimity towards the Hamas apologists a hell of a lot more than I’d trust the petulant child who badmouths everyone he doesn’t like, including the Prime Minister of Israel, anytime his porcelain-fragile ego gets hurt.
Badmouthing old enemies and pointing fingers of blame sure sounds like the right thing to do when they’re still smack in the middle of a historic crisis.
You are such a bad writer.
Does our promoting Iran’s nuclear weapons development, aimed at Israel extermination, part of our support for Israel’s oblivion?
Does our non-imposition of strict sanctions against Iran, allowing it to supply weapons to its murderous surrogates a sign of sane support for civilization?
On a scale of 0% to 100%, where is Iran on the Pariah Scale of Inhumanity and how are they trending?
Who’s buying their oil and their BS?
Good get Lev, coherent common sense as usual. Even the NYT calls out POTUS for doubletalk, trying to play to both sides. If street demos tell us anything, the Democrat Party and the American left are playing for team Islam. Whenever I hear or read an administration comment about Israel, it always has a “however,” some contradictory caveat. I would do whatever it takes to save Israel, before I spent another dime on the Zelensky hustle. Puting Israel in the same basket as Ukraine is blatant anti-Semitism – endorsing neo-Nazis just to spite Russia. And as for those US Navy flotillas, as a guy with a smidgen of strategic experience, I would say we might be simplifying Iran’s targeting problem.