MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

"I have deceived even your very eyes: what your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light, who in the night overheard me confessing to this man, how Don John your brother incensed me to slander the Lady Hero."
- William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, 5.1

Tonight I’m watching the coverage of Osama bin Laden’s (UBL) videos being released.  Again, the media is missing the point.  As the West, we get focused upon appearances and not what UBL represented.  Americans have been overly focused on Al Qaeda as a loosely-organized terrorist organization.  I was duped, too.  Then I saw the raid and inferred that if he was able to operate inside a city with his courier, he was still in charge of Al Qaeda, and likely still calling the shots.  

Again, these are my own inferences, and could be wrong and may later change my thoughts.  However, after seeing these things I now think of Al Qaeda as more of a military organization that uses the weapons at its disposal to accomplish its goals.  I didn’t before.  Should we worry how UBL looks?  Knowing his history and willingness to live the Spartan lifestyle, no, we shouldn’t focus on his appearance.  What decisions was he making and what was he planning?  That’s what I would focus upon, and I’m guessing that our professionals are doing the same.  

Also recall that he was a master of the media.  He uses it much better than we do- Michael Hastings, anybody?  Additionally, his audience in the Muslim world respects him and respects what he’s saying.  Don’t believe me?  Look at the reaction from regular Muslims across the world and judge for yourself.  

So how do we win?  We understand our enemy.  Period.  I’m not so certain we would have won WWII if we would have thought of the Japanese Army as a bunch of terrorists who didn’t have a goal.  Al Qaeda is not a group of idiots who don’t understand how to fight.  They’re complex and think of themselves as soldiers.  Think of Al Qaeda as the Commander in Chief and each of his organizations as army units.  They think of themselves as soldiers who won’t stop fighting until they’re dead or they accomplish their mission.  Is Al Qaeda using terrorism as a tool to attempt to defeat us and drive us out of the Middle East?  You bet.  This organization has a goal.  It wants to reclaim their holy lands- that includes the US presence in the Middle East and Afghanistan.  I get it.  We’re not going to change these guys’ minds with a great counterinsurgency campaign. I understand that there’s nothing that a counterinsurgency fight is going to do to defeat Al Qaeda if we don’t understand their goals. In fact, I would argue that the longer we stay in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, the more appealing we make it for young Muslims to join Al Qaeda.  So let’s find out who they are and kill them.  Simply put.  If we're going to stay in the Middle East we need to understand that we're not going to be welcomed and prepare ourselves for that fight.  It's not going to get easier, even as we're able to defeat them tactically.  

At the end of the day, I want to defeat these guys.  I don’t really care if Afghan women are allowed to read and write.  Callous?  Maybe, but at the end of the day, they’re not Americans and our championing of women’s rights in the Middle East won’t particularly inflame the Muslim population with a great respect for the US, particularly if we’re in their homelands in great presence.  Are we going to develop a great noncommissioned officer corps in Afghanistan and Iraq?  No.  Let's not fool ourselves.  Their officers don't even possess the leadership abilities of our worst soldier, and we're not going to develop that. 

        All that said, I support my commander’s goals if I am ever in command of anything.  I didn’t feel like talking to sheikhs in Iraq, holding their hands, giving man hugs and kisses, and working with the idiot Iraqi policemen that will never, ever represent any semblance of professionalism of the worst police force in any civilized Western nation.  However, we did it.  We caught a lot of bad guys, largely in part thanks to Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s horrible execution of his commander’s (UBL) strategy and a generally secular group of Iraqis willing to turn in what had become not Al Qaeda, but Takfiri.  

Understand your enemy in order to defeat him.  They don’t understand us.  They don’t get that, as soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, we won’t quit- our politicians might, but we won’t.  Our people need to understand that this is a long fight.  I get it.  I’m ready.