The West Has Lost The Ideological War Against Al Qaeda

Why’s Al Qaeda So Strong? Washington Has (Literally) No Idea -- Bruce Riedel, Daily Beast

In the years since Bin Laden declared war on the West, we’ve learned how to kill his followers, but not how to defeat his ideology.



It’s been more than 16 years since Al Qaeda declared war on America and it's allies, civilians as well as military, whenever and wherever they could be found. Terror, said Osama bin Laden, was a “moral duty” against “Crusaders” like the Americans, and the Jews, and what he decreed to be their Muslim collaborators. The young people who answered the call of al Qaeda, he said, would be like knights of old under the Prophet Mohammed’s banner.



That was well before 9/11. From the beginning, al Qaeda was building its plans for war on a foundation of ideas, and today its spin-offs like the self-declared Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are following much the same script.



After many long years of open combat, intelligence operations and police work, the West is in fact better protected than ever against major terrorist attacks. But it continues to fail in the ideological war against Al-Qaedaism. And there is little, given the current political climate in the United States, to suggest Washington will come up with any bold or compelling answers on that front. The spectacle of American politicians at each other’s throats about how to deal with al Qaeda or Islamic State plays right into the hands of terrorist strategists.



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My Comment: To say that the West has lost the ideological war against radical Islam is an understatement .... but what has not helped the situation is that many Islamic leaders and our Arab allies have remained silent and/or discreet in denouncing groups like Al Qaeda.