Military Review English Edition March-April 2016 | Page 15

WINNING WARS

(Photo from BBC News, courtesy of Wikipedia)

The BBC posted this photo on its website 25 August 2015 with the caption, “Islamic State (IS) has published images of what appears to
be the destruction of the Temple of Baalshamin at the ancient ruins of Palmyra in Syria.” BBC noted that IS had announced “the complete
destruction of the pagan Baalshamin temple.” The destruction of the second century BCE temple was consonant with an IS policy of systematically destroying all vestiges of non-Sunni Islamic history and culture as it expands control over territory, including ancient pre-Islamic archeological sites, Shia Muslim shrines, Christian churches and monasteries, and libraries.

world today; such are normal for conflicts involving
irregular fighters and terrorists. However, what is new
is the traction IS has with vast numbers of potential
recruits from among disaffected elements around
the globe, and the speed at which IS is able to recruit
and organize such recruits, primarily through the
Internet. This means that IS has the realistic potential
to eventually swell its ranks of fighters and supporters
to hundreds of thousands in both the western and
eastern hemispheres, especially if the West allows
what appears to be the creation of a physical and radicalized Islamic state that would serve as an IS staging
base of operations and focal point for further expansion and sanctuary.
Consequently, to win this war, we must defeat IS
not only by direct action against its claimed land space
and physical assets, but also by attacking the value
system and moral code it uses to recruit through an information war. In doing so, we must refute the excuses
the radical Islamists use to justify their actions, and we
must make clear to all people the unacceptability to
us of the justifications IS uses to wage war against us.
MILITARY REVIEW  March-April 2016

At the same time, we must promote an unambiguous
alternative value system that stands in stark contrast
to the primitive and barbaric dogma the grotesque and
radical IS espouses. It should be made clear in disciplined information war that IS doctrines are anathema
to modern peoples of any race, nationality, ethnic, or
religious group, since they are counter to what civilized
peoples everywhere have been trying to establish for
generations in terms of universal agreement on basic
human rights, values, and morals.
Such a conflict between competing values systems
will be challenging because, too often, IS effectively
appeals to the deep resentment many Islamic populations have for the West in general and in particular
the United States, justifying their war against the West
on philosophical grounds derived from radical Islamic
scholars who use seventh-century moral codes to
justify their actions. In this respect, IS enjoys a great
advantage due to its intimate understanding of the
mentality of the young Muslims it is attempting to lure
by enticing them to join a cause that appears to offer

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