2012, by Patrick Sookdheo, et al.
This book was recommended to me by a newly promoted Special Forces Captain on Okinawa in February, 2019. I was impressed by the SF Captain and by this book – and that ain’t easy to do. At first glance at the title I was worried it was a rehash of Fighting the War of Ideas Like a Real War by J. Michael Waller. Waller’s book is a primer for Sookdheo’s. You should have both in your library.
I’m glad that an SF Captain has Sookdheo in his library. It should be in every military leader’s, every Congressman’s, every university professor’s, and every learning institution’s library. It should be read by every citizen of the United States. It should be taught at every military academy and every military’s version of command and general staff college. It should be inculcated into the Army’s TRADOC curriculum and the other branches version of that. This book is that important.
Every authors’ essay (with the exception of Sebastian Gorka’s) was a gold mine of in-depth knowledge of the abysmal “moral-political cowardice” conducted by several administrations up to (but not including) Reagan and afterward up to the Obama administration in kowtowing to Communism and Islamism. They describe the Sovietologists within the CIA who refused to believe G. Warren Nutter’s assessment of the Soviet economy*. They have written the most accurate historical description of why the Soviet Union was able to exist for so long – until President Reagan fought the Ideological War that brought down the Iron Curtain. They articulate the distinctions between the three factions within the religion of Islam. In my opinion those were interesting but irrelevant. All three, according to the authors, agree on their ultimate goal: a world dominated by Sharia Law. They only differ in the time line and only slightly in their methods to achieve it.
The authors clearly and unapologetically make the case that the only way to defeat Islamism is to first cleanse our souls then conduct a Reaganesque campaign to de-legitimize the false historical narrative of Islamism. Their arguments are clear and convincing. But I doubt even if we in the West were pure as driven snow that Islamists would surrender their quest for their world caliphate. First, no Christian or Jew is going to voluntarily accept Islam. Secondly, no Muslim is going to accept Christianity. The difference between the two is Christians and Jews are willing to live in peace with any religion that doesn’t continuously threaten to subjugate them. The Jews have striven to show this since surviving the ’47 War for their Independence. Muslims, on the other hand, can not tolerate anyone or any belief different than theirs. That in itself proves they are more Nazi/Fascist than historically legitimate. The authors show this more accurately than any other book on the subject I’ve read. So, thank you newly promoted Special Forces Captain!
* The CIA has been wrong -or totally ignorant – on just about every major foreign assessment since their beginning: Cuba’s Bay of Pigs; Vietnam, Russia. If they were a civilian corporation they would have been bankrupted out of business decades ago. It was the RAND Corporation that gathered the most comprehensive and accurate analysis of Vietnam. It was Nutter’s NERB assessment on the Soviet Union that was eventually proven accurate. They are wrong on Islam being a “Stateless Threat” because of several administrations’ political cowardice. Their problem is more often than not they are led by political sycophants who tailor intelligence to fit the Administrations’ political agenda – like George Bush’s manufactured invasion of Iraq.
