My friend, Bill Polk, a distinguished historian specializing in the Middle East, is busily writing a series of extended essays aimed at increasing our understanding of the conflict in Syria and, by extension, our seemingly perpetual war with the Islamic world. I posted the first part of this series, collectively entitled Understanding Syria, on 8 November 2013 here. Attached below is the next essay in the series. More will follow.
I found this essay to be a particularly powerful argument. Those on this list who follow the strategic theories of late Colonel John R. Boyd will find Bill’s analysis of the intellectual/philosophical basis for moral and political cohesion in the first half and the basis of the strategy for Jihad laid out by Abu Bakr Naji (in the last half of the essay) to be entirely consistent with Boyd’s ideas — from grand strategy to tactics. I found the discussion of Jihadist strategy rings lots of Boyd’s bells — particularly those relating to Sun Tzu, Boyd’s critique of Clausewitz’s failure to address the idea of pumping your adversary’s friction to increase his expenditure of effort, his conception of generating non-cooperative centers of gravity, and Boyd’s dissection of insurrection, revolution, and guerrilla war.
What I find to be particularly disturbing about Bill’s analysis is that the counter strategy being pursued by the United States to counter militant Islam fits Naji’s strategy — to paraphrase Eric Von Manstein’s description of the French strategy in 1940 — like a “hand fits a glove.” If you doubt this, think about the nature of our strategic “achievements” in Iraq and Afghanistan.
No doubt, T.E. Lawrence would be smiling ironically at the “Lob-Ottomanization” of U.S. counter-terror strategy.
Readers are feel free to distribute/post Polk's analysis (including my intro if they so desire).
Chuck Spinney
The Intellectual and Political Foundations of 21st Century Jihad
Sayyid Qutub’s Fundamentalism and Abu Bakr Naji’s Jihadism
William R. Polk, December 1, 2013
