[Vision2020] US military course: "Islam is the enemy"..."Mecca and Medina may have to be obliterated"

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/11/us-military-course-islam-enemy
US military course taught officers 'Islam is the enemy'

Pentagon suspends course after study materials posted online suggested that
Mecca and Medina may have to be obliterated

   - Associated Press in Washington
   - guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Friday 11 May 2012 03.28
   EDT

A course for US military
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-military>officers has been
teaching that America's enemy is
Islam <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/islam> in general and suggesting
that the country might ultimately have to obliterate the Islamic holy
cities of Mecca and Medina without regard for civilian deaths, following
second world war precedents of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima.

The Pentagon suspended the course in late April when a student objected to
the material. The FBI also changed some agent training last year after
discovering that it, too, was critical of Islam.

The teaching in the military course was counter to repeated assertions by
US officials over the past decade that America is at war against Islamic
extremists, not the religion <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/religion>itself.

"They hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless
you submit," the instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Dooley, said in a
presentation last July for the course at Joint Forces Staff College in
Norfolk, Virginia <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/virginia>. The college,
for professional military members, teaches mid-level officers and
government civilians on subjects related to planning and executing war.

Dooley also presumed, for the purposes of his theoretical war plan, that
the Geneva conventions that set standards of armed conflict, are "no longer
relevant".

He adds: "This would leave open the option once again of taking war to a
civilian population wherever necessary (the historical precedents of
Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki being applicable to the Mecca and
Medina destruction decision point)."

His war plan suggests possible outcomes such as "Saudi Arabia threatened
with starvation ... Islam reduced to cult status".

A copy of the presentation was obtained and posted online by Wired.com's
Danger Room blog <http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/total-war-islam/>.
The college did not respond to the Associated Press' requests for copies of
the documents, but a Pentagon spokesman authenticated the documents. Dooley
still works for the college, but is no longer teaching, said the joint
chiefs of staff chairman, General Martin Dempsey. Dooley has refused to
comment.

A military service record summary provided by army human resources at Fort
Knox, Kentucky, shows that Dooley was commissioned as a second lieutenant
upon graduation from the US military academy at West Point, New
York<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/new-york>,
in May 1994. He has served tours in Germany, Bosnia, Kuwait and Iraq. He
has numerous awards including a Bronze Star medal, the fourth-highest US
combat award.

In what he termed a model for a campaign to force a transformation of
Islam, Dooley called for "a direct ideological and philosophical
confrontation with Islam", with the presumption that Islam is an ideology
rather than just a religion.

He further asserted that Islam has already declared war on the west, and
the US specifically.

"It is therefore illogical" to continue with the current US strategy, which
Dooley said presumes there is a way of finding common ground with Islamic
religious leaders, without "waging near total war".

The course on Islam had been taught since 2004, but was not part of the
required core curriculum. It was offered five times a year, with about 20
students each time.

Though Dooley has been teaching at the college since August 2010, it was
unclear when he took on that particular class, called Perspectives on Islam
and Islamic Radicalism.

The joint staff suspended the course after it had received a student
complaint, and within days Dempsey ordered all service branches to review
their training to ensure other courses do not use anti-Islamic material.

On Thursday, Dempsey said the material in the Norfolk course was counter to
American "appreciation for religious freedom and cultural awareness".

"It was just totally objectionable, against our values, and it wasn't
academically sound," Dempsey said. "This wasn't about ... pushing back on
liberal thought; this was objectionable, academically irresponsible."

In his July 2011 presentation on "counterjihad", Dooley asserted that the
rise of what he called a "military Islam/Islamist resurgence" compels the
US to consider extreme measures, "unconstrained by fears of political
incorrectness".

He described his purpose as generating "dynamic discussion and thought",
while noting that his ideas and proposals are not official US government
policy and cannot be found in any current official defence department
documents.

A Pentagon inquiry is seeking to determine whether someone above the
professor's level is supposed to approve course materials and whether that
approval process was followed in this case, said Colonel Dave Lapan, a
spokesman for Dempsey.

The problem of negative portrayals of Islam in federal government is not
new. A six-month review the FBI launched into agent training material
uncovered 876 offensive or inaccurate pages that had been used in 392
presentations, including a PowerPoint slide that said the bureau can
sometimes bend or suspend the law in counterterror investigations.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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