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Rid the World of a Scourge–Support the Surge!
Fred Kagan has written a thoroughgoing analysis of al Qaeda for the current issue of The Weekly Standard. He reviews their history, tactics, and ideology.
One of the places that their recent history and ideology overlap is al Qaeda’s great frustration with the growing secularism of Muslim states:
When men make laws and judge each other according to secular criteria, they are usurping God’s prerogatives. All who obey such leaders, according to Qutb, are treating their leaders as gods and therefore are guilty of the worst sin–polytheism. Thus they are–and this is the key point–not true Muslims, but unbelievers, regardless of whether they otherwise obey Muslim law and practice.
This is the defining characteristic of al Qaeda’s ideology, which is properly called “takfirism” (even though al Qaeda fighters do not use the term). The word “takfir” designates the process of declaring a person to be an unbeliever because of the way he practices his faith.
After looking at all the facts, he concludes that the presence of American troops can not be used as an argument for why radical Islamists attack Americans:
Iraq has also disproved the shibboleth that the presence of American military forces in Muslim countries is inherently counterproductive in the fight against takfiris. Certainly the terrorists used our presence as a recruiting tool and benefited from the Sunni Arab nationalist insurgency against our forces. But there is no reason to think that Iraq would have remained free of takfiri fighters had the United States drawn down its forces (or should it draw them down now); it is even open to question whether a continued Baathist regime would have kept the takfiris out. The takfiris go where American forces are, to be sure, but they also go where we are not: Somalia, Lebanon, North Africa, Indonesia, and more. The introduction of Western forces does not inevitably spur takfiri sentiment. When used properly and in the right circumstances, Western military forces can play an essential role in combatting takfirism.
This is not to say that the United States should invade Waziristan and Baluchistan, or launch preemptive conventional assaults against (or in defense of) weak Muslim regimes around the world. Each response must be tailored to circumstance.
But we must break free of a consensus about how to fight the terrorists that has been growing steadily since 9/11 which emphasizes “small footprints,” working exclusively through local partners, and avoiding conventional operations to protect populations. In some cases, traditional counterinsurgency operations using conventional forces are the only way to defeat this 21st–century foe.
Muslims can dislike al Qaeda, reject takfirism, and desire peace, yet still be unable to defend themselves alone against the terrorists. In such cases, our assistance, suitably adapted to the realities on the ground, can enable Muslims who hate what the takfiris are doing to their religion and their people–the overwhelming majority of Muslims–to succeed. Helping them is the best way to rid the world of this scourge.
Another bumper sticker for our bumper sticker war:
Rid the world of a scourge–Support the Surge!