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Death by a Thousand Cuts
Islam, Fiscal Irresponsibility, and other Threats to Destroy America
Richard Hobbs
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Front/Table of Contents
Preface
About the Author
Chapter 1
Testimonials
FRONT/CONTENTS (from the book)
To Diane, Deanna, Christian, and Lily
With the hope that they will know a world in peace
Books by Richard Hobbs
La Grande Illusion, La Victoire Totale
Notebook and Readings for International Relations, "Operation Statesman," Co-Editor
Readings in International Relations, 2 Volumes, Editor
Operation Statesman, Focus on Southeast Asia, Editor
THE MYTH OF VICTORY What Is Victory In War?
THE NEW WORLD ORDER Tribalism, Nationalism, and Religious Fundamentalism
WORLD WAR IV China's Quest for Power in the 21st Century
YOU AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER How You Can Influence the Alarming and Growing International and Domestic Problems
WORLD WAR IV AND BEYOND Islamofascism, the Third Jihad, and other threats to the USA
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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
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without permission in writing from the author.
Copyright © 2012 by Richard Hobbs
CONTENTS
Preface vii
About the Author ix
Part I The Islamic Threat 1
Chapter 1 - World War IV 3
1979 - Muslim Reawakening 4
Islamofascism 6
The Third Jihad 7
Know Your Enemy 10
Notes 12
Chapter 2 Muhammadism - The Cult of Muhammad - Moism? 15
Muhammad 15
Muhammad in Medina - The Warlord 19
Muhammad and Women 22
The Legacy of Muhammad 26
Fear and Obey - Hell and Paradise 29
Notes 32
Chapter 3 Islam 37
Islam 37
Allah and his Messenger 38
The Qur'an 42
The Trilogy 45
Dhimmitude 46
Wahhabism 49
Abrogation 50
Taqiyya 51
Sex and the Frustrated Muslim 53
Honor Killings 53
Gender Segregation 55
Rape - Adultery 56
Temporary Marriages 57
Harassment/Abuse of Women 58
The End of Reason - The Closing of the Muslim Mind 60
Notes 64
Chapter 4 Sharia and Jihad 71
Sharia 71
Islamophobia 77
Concessions 80
Apostasy and Blasphemy 85
Sharia-Compliant Finance 88
Jihad 89
Salafis 96
Inbreeding and Culture 97
Notes 99
Chapter 5 What is the Real Islam? 105
The Terrifying Brilliance of Islam 105
Islamic Fundamentalism 106
Khomeinism 108
The Poverty of Islam 109
Islamization 111
Islam: Historical Roots and Contemporary Threat 115
The Annihilation of Civilizations 117
Allah is Not God 119
Mo's Nos 120
Logic Fails 120
Conclusion 121
Notes 124
Chapter 6 Terrorism 127
Al Qaeda 128
Organizations 132
Tablighi Jamaat 132
Muslim Brotherhood 133
Jemaah Islamiyah 134
The Islamic Republic of Iran 134
HezbAllah 135
Hamas 135
Hizb ut-Tahrir 135
Goals 137
Techniques 140
Terrorists 140
Suicide Bombers 142
Beheadings 145
Terrorism at Sea 146
Chemical and Biological Attacks 148
Nuclear Weapons 149
Radiation Attacks 150
The So-Called War on Terror 151
Notes 155
Chapter 7 Islamic Extremists in America 159
Tablighi Jamaat 162
Jamaat ul Fuqra 163
The Fethullah Gulen Movement 164
US Prisons 165
Muslim Brotherhood 166
Muslim Students Association 167
North American Islamic Trust 168
Islamic Society of North America 168
Muslim Public Affairs Council 170
Muslim American Society 170
Council on American-Islamic Relations 171
Muslim Brotherhood Documents and Holy Land Foundation Trial 173
American Muslim Council 175
Fiqh Council of North America 176
American Muslim Task Force 176
Infiltration into US Society 177
Mosques 177
Education System 178
US Government 179
Sleeper Cells 183
Apologists 184
Notes 186
Summary 189
Notes 201
Appendix A - The Mujahedin's Roadmap 203
Appendix B - The Terrifying Brilliance of Islam 207
Part II Other Threats 221
Chapter 8 US Foreign Policy in a World in Turmoil 223
The Communist Threat 224
The Crucible of Crisis 225
Israel - Outpost in the Arab World 226
Iran/Iraq 231
The Arabian Peninsula/Horn of Africa 236
Afghanistan/Pakistan 237
The Jasmine Revolution - The Arab World Erupts 242
Tunisia 242
Egypt 244
Yemen 247
Bahrain 247
Libya 248
Muslim Brotherhood 249
The Non-Arabs - Iran and Turkey 250
Notes 253
Chapter 9 Fiscal Irresponsibility - Is America Committing Suicide? 259
The Decline of the US Dollar 261
Government Out of Control 262
Government Employees Pay 264
Government Employees Unions 265
Will America Face Up to Its Crisis? 268
Is the US Becoming a Socialist Nation? 274
What to Do? 277
Notes 280
Chapter 10 Illegal Immigration - Deamericanization of the USA 283
Anchor Babies 284
Lack of Assimilation 286
Reconquista 288
Amnesty 292
Greed - Politicians and Business 297
Gangs, Drugs, and Mexican Cartels 299
Cost 303
Deamericanization 305
Multiculturalism 307
Notes 312
Chapter 11 The New World Order 321
Al Qaeda in Africa 322
Horn of Africa 322
China - Rival or Partner? 324
China's Domestic Situation 326
China's Military 331
From Harmonious World to New Assertiveness 334
Cyber Warfare 338
Leftist Surge in Latin America 340
Hugo Chavez - Background 340
Hugo Chavez - Socialist Dictator and Demagogue 341
The Threat to the USA 341
Trends in Latin America 343
USCRIB 344
Notes 345
Chapter 12 Eurabia - Muslim Europe 349
No-Go Zones 349
Demographics 351
Multiculturalism - Non-assimilation 353
Organizations 359
Violence and Terror 363
Sharia and Dhimmitude 367
Europe's Rising Islamophobia 371
Notes 374
Chapter 13 Hostage to Black Gold 379
Oil in History 379
The 1973 Oil Embargo 382
Peak Oil or Plenty of Oil? 387
Energy Independence 390
Vulnerability 392
Notes 396
Chapter 14 White Gold 401
World Situation 402
The Himalayas - China, India 402
Africa 404
United States 404
Tension - Conflicts 406
Solutions 407
Notes 408
Chapter 15 Dumbing Down and a Flood of People 409
Overpopulation 411
Global Aging 415
Food - Famine 416
Unemployment 420
Disease 420
Migration 421
Notes 423
Conclusion 425
Notes 438
Glossary 439
Index
Resource Directory 433
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PREFACE
Islam swept out of Arabia in the 7th Century and in the first great Jihad spread across North Africa to the Atlantic and east as far as Indonesia and north into Southwest Asia. The second Jihad, the Ottoman Empire, swept into Europe but it decayed and faltered and died after World War I. Little was heard about Islam in the early 20th Century, but a renaissance was underway. After World War II, the world was preoccupied with the Cold War, which, since it was extremely expensive, dangerous, and worldwide, was really World War III. Even before the end of World War III, two events reinvigorated the Muslim world: the mujahedin resistance against the Soviets in Afghanistan and the rise of a theocratic government in Iran after the fall of the Shah.
The rise of terrorism in the Middle East, some of which was aimed at Israel, alarmed us but we did not really react. It took the attack on 11 September 2001 to get our attention that there are people out there who really would like to destroy the United States and our way of life. Since then we have been in continuous conflict with various Islamic groups. As a country, we have been woefully ignorant about Islam and, unfortunately we still are. That is why Part I of this book is about Islam.
It is not that there is a big secret; the tenets and dogma of Islam, as pronounced by Muhammad and those who wrote of his words and deeds, have not changed in 1,400 years. True Islam is a totalitarian ideology with only a façade of religion and is more a cult of Muhammad, considered by the faithful as the perfect man.
This ideology is totally incompatible with liberty and democracy. We do ourselves a grave disservice when we refuse to recognize the true nature of Islam. Every where it has advanced, all other religions have been annihilated and the populace devolved into a form of mental slavery. This is the long range threat to America and human civilization and must be judged that way.
Part II deals with other threats. The most immediate threat is the terrible mess we have permitted our governments to make of our economy. Our fiscal irresponsibility can totally destroy the American dream. The political implications of immigration by groups which do not intend to assimilate have already been demonstrated in Europe which is well on its way to becoming Eurabia if they do not wake up. The multiculturalist disaster in the US is becoming more evident as we see this country deamericanized. The greedy politician's quest for votes and the businessmen's quest for cheap labor add to the deterioration of the American dream. America's insatiable drug habit feeds the Mexican cartels and the criminal gangs in this country. Mexico teeters on the brink of becoming a narco-state, with dire implications for US security.
Our refusal to face our dependence on foreign oil exacerbates the destruction of our economy and we continue to send money overseas to governments, some of which support the same Islamic groups that want to change our civilization. Other threats include a rapidly growing world water shortage and population explosions, both of which can cause increased tensions and potential conflicts.
China continues to boom, but its economy may be fragile and instability is the nightmare for Chinese leaders. Russia is flush with oil money and striving to regain lost glory, but its internal politics are unstable. China and Russia are rivals for power, and along with India and Brazil, are destined to play key roles in this century.
The Jasmine Revolution which started in Tunisia has grown into the Arab World in Turmoil. The future of Egypt, Libya, and Syria are unclear as people face a new situation with no experience and the Muslim Brotherhood as the most organized group. Samuel P. Huntington wrote in his The Clash of Civilizations, “Decreasingly able to mobilize support and form coalitions on the basis of ideology, governments and groups will increasingly attempt to mobilize support by appealing to common religion and civilization identity.” That does not portend well for the West. We should not expect democracy to take hold quickly in Muslim lands - we took 1,000 years to change the situation of man and to break the power of religion over government.
No one of these threats is enough to destroy America at this time but together they can. That is what prompted the title for this book. The “Death by a Thousand Cuts” torture technique was practiced in China as late as 1905. The victim was tortured by cutting/slicing him with the use of a very sharp knife. Torture usually started with the cutting out of the eyes. This was done to blind the victim for the rest of the act so as to increase mental agony. [That could be thought of as our ignorance and our refusal to face the facts.] Successive cuts would sever the victim's ears, nose, lips, fingers, toes and ultimately large parts of flesh. The entire process would take over 3 days. It was used from 900 until abolished in 1905.
Each one of these threats and concessions represents another cut into our body politic. If they are not addressed and stopped, the body can bleed to death.
A new world order is still evolving. With only a short respite after the demise of the Soviet Union, we were terribly slow in realizing that we were already in World War IV and that we have been for over 30 years. In this book, we will try to address these threats. We need to regain our government; we need to reinvigorate our economy; we need to wake up to the threats to our great country so that these seemingly small cuts do not end the noblest adventure in human history. We are in fight for our national survival and it is a global conflict for the very existence of Western civilization. Wake up America!
RICHARD HOBBS
Reno, Nevada
February 2012
Every man ... should periodically be compelled to listen to opinions which are infuriating to him. To hear nothing but what is pleasing to one is to make a pillow of the mind.
-- St. John Ervine
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Hobbs graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1954 and entered the Infantry. As a paratrooper, Ranger, and Pathfinder, he had various troop assignments, including attending the British Jungle School in Malaya during the Emergency and in charge of Tropical Training for the 25th Division in Hawaii. He was selected as one of the original Olmsted Scholars and attended the University of Lyon in France receiving the degree of Docteur de l'Université in international law and international relations.
Two tours were spent in Viet-Nam (one year each) advising Vietnamese paratroopers, serving as Executive to the Deputy Commander in Viet-Nam, managing a large fire base, and commanding a US infantry battalion. Instead of attending the Army War College, he was an Army Research Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. He had the pleasure of working with Admiral Arleigh Burke, the Founder of CSIS, and Dr. Alvin Cottrell. During that time he worked on a conference about the Western Mediterranean and reworked his thesis from Lyon which was later published by Westview Press as THE MYTH OF VICTORY What Is Victory In War? with a Foreword by Admiral Burke.
After serving in the Pentagon, his last assignment was as Politico-Military Advisor in the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs in the Department of State in Washington. He was responsible for politico-military activities in international relations and military assistance to the Middle East during the period after the 1973 War. He retired from the Army as a colonel after 27 years.
Entering the business world, he joined Teledyne serving in various positions for over 10 years including Vice President - International where he worked with the Departments of State, Commerce, and Defense and the embassies on international policy questions and export licenses. During those years, he continued to work with the Middle East, travelling in the area, particularly Egypt, every few months and extensively through Africa.
He established his own consulting firm, Service International Ltd., for international business development which he moved to Reno in 1991. There he ran an export-import company for a while, built a slot machine, and taught courses in international politics and international conflict for undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Nevada, Reno. In addition to the large amount of teaching in the military, he had served as Assistant Professor of International Relations on the faculty of the Department of Social Sciences at West Point.
He wrote several more books including YOU AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER How You Can Influence the Alarming and Growing International and Domestic Problems and WORLD WAR IV AND BEYOND Islamofascism, the Third Jihad, and other threats to the USA. He wrote a number of articles for Pharaohs magazine in Cairo. He hosted a call-in radio program, World In Conflict, for three years in Reno and recorded additional programs in 2011. Several presentations were made to the National Security Forum in Reno.
With an ongoing interest in national and international affairs, he wrote this book as a follow on to World War IV and Beyond to highlight the Islamic, economic, and other threats to our republic in an effort to emphasize that citizens need to be fully informed and they need to play a role in the momentous decisions of our times. His desire is to encourage people to take part in the political process and make their voices heard so that the active few cannot impose their views due to the apathy of the many.
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Chapter 1
World War IV
Slay the idolaters wherever you find them.
-- - Verse of the Sword, Qur'an IX:5
War is a divine blessing, a gift bestowed upon us by God. The cannon's thunder rejuvenates the soul.
-- - Ayatollah Khomeini, September 1980
The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia followed by the tsunami of turmoil that swept across the Middle East in early 2011 clearly showed that the Islamic World is convulsed in internal struggles in addition to the efforts to expand Islamic ideology around the world. There is a civil war within Islam, not just between Sunnis and Shia but also the clash between tolerant and intolerant forms of Islam. Rising costs for food and fuel exacerbate the widespread poverty, millions of young people who cannot find jobs, and a yearning for freedom all fire the protests. These young populations, many with college degrees, as in Tunisia, are linked worldwide by the new technology of the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter. Over 60% of the population of Yemen is under 24 years old. Jobless rates are 35% in Yemen and 30% in Libya while 45% in Yemen subsist below the poverty line and 30% in Libya.
Young people make revolutions but old people some times steal them. Kerensky tried to establish a new free government in Russia in 1917 but by October, Lenin had taken over and imposed a communist dictatorship which endured for over 70 years. There are fears that the organizational skill of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is active in over 80 countries, may provide them the opportunity to seize these revolutions, impose sharia (Islamic law), and squelch the thirst for liberty and democracy.
World War III, the Cold War, ended with the fall of the Soviet Union and left the US as the only super power in a New World Order.
World War III, more popularly known as the Cold War, was one of the longest wars in recent history and it ended over two decades ago with the dismantling of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We endured bloody wars in both Korea and Viet-Nam, but we were spared nuclear war, yet the passage of time and some revisionism resulted in a downplaying of the seriousness of World War III. The US was on a war footing for decades with strategic bombers in the air all the time with nuclear weapons on board and missiles in silos at the ready, all with pre-selected targets. Some crazy person, in the Dr. Strangelove mode, or a mistake could have sparked a nuclear holocaust. It was a very expensive, extremely tense, and dangerous period of history.
The Soviet collapse left the US as the only super power in a unipolar world while the other powers struggled to find their niches in the evolving New World Order. Expressions such as “clash of civilizations” (Professor Samuel Huntington's term), holy war, crusades, etc. have derived from the misleading religious tenor of this new world conflict. Money flowed from Arab countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, and even from groups in the US, providing support to terrorist groups and for religious materials, print, radio, TV, and the explosive growth of the internet (There are hundreds of Islamist web sites dealing with bomb making to sermons.). One large spawning ground is the madrassas, or religious schools, mainly in Pakistan, where mostly poor youngsters study nothing but the Qur'an and are taught hatred of the kafirs (kafir is also spelled kaffir and kuffar) or infidels. If the Qur'an is all that a young person knows, he surely will not be ready for the modern world! A recent shocker is that there are over 250,000 Pakistani female high school and university graduates attending some 2,000 madrassas and they too are being radicalized.
Pakistan produces holy warriors the way other nations produce microchips or MBAs.
- London newspaper
We suffered bombings in Beirut, the embassies in Africa, the USS Cole, and the first World Trade Towers attack. We meekly responded by firing a few cruise missiles into Afghanistan and the Sudan with meager impact. It did not really dawn on America that we were in World War IV until the two World Trade Towers were reduced to rubble and the Pentagon was hit on 11 September 2001.
However, a terrible mistake was made when this new war was mislabeled the War on Terror and later the Pentagon changed that to the Global War on Terror and even later took to calling it the Long War, which is at least more appropriate. Some called this evil Islamic radicalism; others militant jihadism. Even President George W. Bush took to calling it Islamic Fascism. However, the administration of President Barrack Hussein Obama, some thought he was promoting Islam, watered down the title to “overseas contingency operations” while mention of Islam became taboo. A letter found after Osama bin Laden was killed only reinforced the White House's politically correct “effort to eliminate religiously charged words from the government's language of terrorism,” such as jihad. I believe the label “Islamofascism” is more accurate.After the collapse of the Soviet Communist Empire, three key events for America's future unfolded.
1979 - Muslim Reawakening
Unfortunately, many believe that World War IV began with the attacks of 11 September 2001. This jihad or “holy war” did not start then and it will not end in Iraq or Afghanistan, which will almost certainly be only footnotes in the larger history of this long war. This critical turning point in history occurred even before World War III ended when the Shah of Iran was ousted and the radical mullahs led by the fanatical Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power followed by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and later the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The Shah tried to “westernize” Iran but he was fiercely opposed by the Communist Party, wealthy landowners, the former National Front, and religious leaders. He instituted land reforms and reforms for the rights of women but the religious leaders exploited them to stir opposition to the Shah. His close ties with the US and Israel made him a target for radical religious elements led by Khomeini who had been in exile in Iraq and then Paris. Iranians unfortunately cheered his return but they soon regretted his fanatical regime marked by murder and rape.
The mullahs seized the world's attention when their minions invaded the American Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, 22 years before 9/11. The American prisoners were held hostage for some 444 days and life quickly became difficult for any Americans in the Middle East as they were being kidnapped and killed, airliners hijacked, our installations bombed, and there was little our government could do to protect them. In the 20 years between 1981 and 2001, there were reportedly 7,581 terrorist attacks worldwide including hijackings, murders, and kidnappings, and numerous other major attacks, yet America still failed to wake up. According to one source, there have been 17,041 deadly Islamic terrorist attacks since 9/11. America has been at war for over 30 years and still most refuse to admit it!
The Soviets became mired in Afghanistan and a new player appeared on the world military stage: the mujahedin, guerrillas who, with American help and equipment, particularly the STINGERs, finally forced the Soviets to withdraw from Afghanistan. We rationalized our role on the basis of weakening the Soviet Union, but in another example of unintended consequences, we created a new boogey man, the mujahedin, and the formation of a despicable government under the Taliban.
It is critical to note that the mujahedin were not all native Afghans. An appeal spread throughout the Islamic world calling for Muslims to go to Afghanistan to join the jihad against the Soviets. Volunteers came from almost every Muslim country with particularly large contingents from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, and Pakistan. With the Soviets expelled, these fighters returned home emboldened by their newly discovered power and pushed for changes, mostly unsuccessful, in the regimes in their countries. From the Afghan experience came forth an obscure rich boy from Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden and others like him.
In our religion, there is a special place in the hereafter for those who participate in jihad. One day in Afghanistan was like 1,000 days of praying in an ordinary mosque.
- Osama bin Laden
Most of the mujahedin were extremely conservative, or fundamentalist, in their view of Islam, if they even held any views, but they were susceptible to those who held such views. The fundamentalists wanted a return to the fundamentals of the Qur'an and the teachings of Muhammad or those who had directly known him, referred to as the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad. These Muslims, known as Salafis, believe that the pure message of Islam has been corrupted by materialists or hypocrites over the centuries. They are extremely dogmatic and they make little effort to cooperate with other Islamist sects or groups.
In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon ostensibly to push the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) back from their frontier but Defense Minister Arik Sharon misled Prime Minister Menachem Begin and pushed all the way to Beirut and drove the PLO out of Lebanon. One of the bitter moments was the massacre of hundreds of civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by the Christian militia while the Israel Defense Force (IDF) stood by and did not intervene. The result of this invasion was another new actor on the scene, HezbAllah (Party of Allah), created and supported by Iran. These three events combined to create a resurgence of pride in Muslims after their centuries of decline culminating with the end of the caliphate after World War I. They perceived that they could now influence world affairs and seek a return to their supposed greatness of centuries past.
A fatal mistake in war is to underestimate the strength, feeling and resources of an enemy.
- General W. T. Sherman, 1861
Islamofascism
Be clear, World War IV is not a War on Terror; terror is a method, a tactic, a means, not an enemy. The Crimean War is remembered for its charge of the Light Brigade made famous by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, but it is not called the Cavalry War; World War II is not called the Blitzkrieg War, the enemy is not aircraft or how they are employed; we fight against people. One of the key Principles of War is to know your enemy. We have fought various guerrilla wars and Communist-inspired insurgencies, but generally, wars in recent centuries have been between nation states. We face no Hitler or Stalin with a powerful army. Osama bin Laden, who had been in hiding for years, was a visionary leader and what guidance he was able to pronounce went to an amorphous group of fanatical jihadists who desire to drive the infidels out of Arab lands, then out of Muslim lands, and finally to take over the world. They rarely mention what government should look like (and probably don't think about it much either), but one has to presume it would be mullah theocracies with religious intolerance under sharia.
So the enemy is not Arabs, or Muslims (we also have Christian and Jewish fundamentalists but we do not have many of them going around killing in the name of religion), but those cult-like followers of Muhammad who rigorously follow the ideology of Muhammadism: the Qur'an, the Sira, and the Ahadith (plural of hadith, the traditions of Muhammad), the trilogy, under the religious façade of Islam. They believe that the precepts of Islam should be the only acceptable ones in the world and that sharia should be the only law. Even Sheikh Abdul Ala Maududi, the most prominent Muslim scholar of the 20th century, recognized the fascist nature: the Islamic state “seeks to mould every aspect of life and activity. In such a state no one can regard any field of his affairs as personal and private. Considered from this aspect the Islamic State bears a kind of resemblance to the Fascist and Communist states.” They appropriately should be called Islamofascists.
Islamofascists believe that the precepts of Islam should be the only acceptable ones in the world and that sharia should be the only law.
We are clearly in a world war because this conflict has no boundaries and it does not originate from any particular nation state. But calling it a War on Terror does not help. We need to focus on these fanatics and their motives and objectives. It is too simplistic to claim that they hate us just because we are Americans, that we are too open and licentious, or that they hate freedom. We need to listen to them. The Jasmine Revolution and the turmoil in the Middle East remind us that most of the Arab and Muslim governments are corrupt and oppressive to some extent and need reform. One positive from this war is that many of those governments, particularly Saudi Arabia, have taken this seriously and made efforts to implement reforms. The overthrow of the governments in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya; the unrest in Bahrain; and the serious confrontations and fighting in Syria and Yemen show that the people are fed up with their governments. An excellent blueprint for urgent reform was the Alexandria Plan developed in Egypt under the direction of leading Egyptian businessmen. Evidently, President Hosni Mubarak did not take it seriously.
Also, there is the constant complaint about US foreign policy, not just supporting the “corrupt” Arab governments, but the US Government s total support for Israel, its illegal occupation of Palestine, the apartheid wall, and refusing to support the ruling of the International Court of Justice that the wall is illegal. These policies make us look hypocritical to the rest of the world when we preach democracy and the right of self-determination and then ignore the plight of the Palestinians.
America is hated in the Arab world, some developing countries, and major states for various reasons including the perception of arrogance of its power. Some examples are the unilateral attack on Iraq and rejection of international agreements such as the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto Protocol. The main grudge, however, was the US Middle East policy and absolute, uncritical support for Israel to attack Palestinians and steal their land.
Senator Fritz Hollings stated it clearly on the Senate floor on 20 May 2004: the reason we invaded Iraq was because of a domino school of thought, led by Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Charles Krauthammer, that to guarantee Israel's security we needed to spread democracy in the area. Referring directly to the other 99 senators, he said everybody knows we are in Iraq because we want to secure our friend, Israel.
Unfortunately, the attack on Iraq destroyed our excellent Two Pillar policy, which had served us well for decades, whereby Iraq and Iran balanced each other so that neither could dominate the Persian Gulf region. The imprudent attack turned into a tar baby that entangled America for years and cost about a trillion dollars. It also led to an increase in terrorism; left the US weaker to deal with the other two members of Bush's Axis of Evil, Iran and North Korea, which are much greater threats than was Iraq; and accelerated our devastating financial collapse. Many leaders, such as the king of Jordan, the prime minister of Kuwait, the president of France, have advised the US to settle the Israel-Palestine situation. The then President of Pakistan, Musharraf, told Senator Hollings and his colleagues, if you can settle the Israel-Palestine question, terrorism will disappear around the world. He may have overstated it, but it is certainly an element and provides great propaganda material for the Islamofascists.
The Third Jihad
It is impossible to understand World War IV without knowing history, what the Islamofascists or Jihadists or Islamic fanatics call the Third Great Jihad. They dream of the successes of the First Jihad from the time of Muhammad in the seventh century and the rapid expansion of Islam after his death in 632 AD. But context is critical: Europe was in the Dark Ages, the Roman Empire was faltering, and the Eastern Empire in Constantinople was struggling. Christianity had resulted in rising state taxes in addition to the forced tithes from the church.
So when Muslim warriors arrived and offered to stop your taxes and your tithe or you were dead, the choice was not too difficult. Besides, initially Islam was not too hard to take since both Christians and Jews were recognized as “people of the book” - the Qur'an tried to establish a linkage with the Old and New Testaments. With this “convert or die” approach and firm conviction in their faith that Islam must rule the world, Islam raced out in all directions from the desert of Arabia, into Persia and Byzantium and swept across North Africa, up the Iberian Peninsula, and even into France until finally stopped at Tours by Charles Martel in 732. (We owe a great debt to Charles Martel, otherwise we might be speaking Arabic.) Meanwhile, they marched across Asia Minor, into South Asia, and finally into Southeast Asia to Indonesia.
Allah promises that anyone killed while fighting for His cause will be admitted without question into Paradise. If such a holy warrior survives the battles, he can return home with the captured property and possessions of the defeated.
Those jihadis were simple fighting men who had come from a culture of living by pillage and exploiting settled populations. Loot and jizya (the tax imposed on those unbelievers permitted to live - the dhimmi) were the only means they knew for making a living. Muhammad assured the jihadi warriors that Allah guaranteed them paradise if martyred (dying in battle) or the reward or booty (the spoils of war) they had earned. Thus to be a Muslim was profitable in this life and rewarding in the hereafter. This was a win-win situation for the desert warriors. Unbelievers were killed or sold as slaves by the thousands.
The invasions were extremely harsh. The invasion of India, then one of the world's great civilizations, was particularly appalling because the Hindus and Buddhists were considered pagans and not even worth the “protection” of dhimmi status. Dhimmitude, or the second-class non-Muslim citizens who were permitted to live, will be addressed in Chapter 3. Enormous numbers were slain: 50,000 Hindus were killed at Sonmath. Then there was the mass slaughter of Buddhists in 1193. By the end of the 12th Century, most of the Buddhists had been driven out of India - mostly to Nepal and Tibet. After the destruction of the temples in a host of cities, Will Durant, in his The Story of Civilization,
“lamented the results of what he termed 'probably the bloodiest story in history.œ He called it 'a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious good, whose delicate complex order and freedom can at any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without and multiplying from within.' The bitter lesson, Durant concluded, was that 'eternal vigilance is the price of civilization. A nation must love peace, but keep its powder dry.'”
“The massacres perpetrated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history, bigger in sheer numbers than the Holocaust, or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks.” A rough estimate of the kafirs killed by jihad is 270 million (120 million Africans [Islam ran the slave trade], 80 million Hindus, 60 million Christians, and 10 million Buddhists). Massacres were not unknown to Muhammad who had created the dhimmi status and who had beheaded the Jews in Medina.
The Prophet said... jihad will be performed continuously since the day Allah sent me as a prophet until the day the last member of my community will fight with the Dajjal (Antichrist).
- Abu Dawud
The caliphs immediately after Muhammad ruled from Mecca, but within 30 years the Umayyad caliphate (661-749), which extended the empire with its great military conquests and developed the administrative structure of officials and taxation, moved the caliphate out of Arabia to Damascus. The Abbasids (named after Muhammad's uncle Abbas) then moved the capital to Baghdad and ruled for over 500 years (750-1258) where they came under Persian influence. After some good years in Baghdad and Spain, Islam began a history of decline. The violent creed from simple desert people simply ran out of gas. Except for the brief Turkish interlude, the narrow, fatalistic Islamic view of the world offered little. As with all totalitarian ideologies, Islam inevitably led to a closing of the mind.
The Crusades, starting in 1095, were an effort by the Christians of Europe to reclaim some of their lost lands, two thirds of the old Christian world had been captured, and to regain access to the Holy Land. Christianity had to defend itself as a culture and a faith to prevent being conquered and destroyed by Islam.
Baghdad was besieged by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan and later by his grandson Hulagu. Baghdad was completely destroyed in 1258 ending the primacy of Arabic civilization and it appeared it might be the end of Islam. The Mongolian assault was finally halted by Saladin and the Mamelukes in Egypt. Egypt was a brilliant center of Muslim culture under the Fatamid Dynasty (968-1171). After holding Spain for over seven hundred years, the Muslims (Moors) were expelled in 1492 and you still hear wistful mention of Andalusia (Al Andalus). The First Jihad was fading away.
The Second Jihad was the Ottoman Empire. The Islamic regime was continued by sturdy converted barbarians, the Ottomans, and their institution of slavery. Osman I [Osmanli (Ottoman) is derived from his name] announced the independence of his small area on the edge of the Byzantine Empire early in the 13th Century. Within a century, the Osman Dynasty extended from Mesopotamia to the Balkans. The Crusades, which had originally been an effort to regain lost Christian lands and reestablish contact with the Holy Land, were now a matter of survival as they tried to stop the advance of Islam into Europe. Mehmet II conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453 and after three days of murder, rape, and pillaging, the survivors were enslaved and the Ottoman Empire replaced the Byzantine Empire. It later replaced the Arab Caliphate after conquering Egypt in 1517.
The Arabs were good at slavery but the Turkish devshirme was new even to the Arabs. It consisted of an annual “blood levy” or periodic taking of one fifth of all Christian boys in conquered lands. (Grand Admiral of the Fleet Mehmed Pasha Sokollu was an example. He was taken as a boy of 9 from his village in Bosnia.) The “janissaries” were Christian boys captured and trained for the military. The “blood levy” was hated and left deep scars in Balkan Christians, particularly Serbs and Bulgarians who still hate all things Turkish (part of the brutal aspects of the Balkans wars of the 1990s).
The Ottoman Empire was a successful Islamic expansion even though the religion was splitting into rivalries. It reached its zenith in the 16th Century and slid downhill thereafter due to corruption and degeneracy of the sultans. After a number of defeats at Belgrade, Rome, Malta, and in the Ukraine, the Turkish incursion into Europe was finally stopped at Vienna by the heroic charge by thirty thousand Polish hussars led by King Jan Sobieski on 11 September 1683 (ironic date! Maybe that was why it was chosen for 9/11.). That was the high point of Muslim expansion into Europe. No Islamic army has threatened the West since.
The civilization of Europe, America, and Australia exists today at all only because of the victories of civilized man over the enemies of civilization... [including] those of Charles Martel in the 8th century [over Arab jihadists] and those of John Sobieski in the 17th century [over Ottoman Turkish jihadists]. During the thousand years that included the careers of the Frankish soldier [Martel] and the Polish king [Sobieski], the Christians of Asia and Africa proved unable to wage successful war with the Moslem conquerors; and in consequence Christianity practically vanished from the two continents; and today nobody can find in them any “social values” whatever, in the sense in which we use the words, so far as the sphere of Mohammedan influence [is]... concerned.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt in 1798 revealed that Islam could not overcome nationalism as a unifying power. On 14 November 1914, Sheikh ul-Ismail, the religious leader of the Ottoman Empire in Constantinople, declared an Islamic holy war calling for all Muslims to take up arms against Britain, France, Russia, Serbia, and Montenegro in World War I. He specifically mentioned jihad, martyrdom, and going to paradise. The Turks chose the wrong side and the Ottoman Empire disappeared after World War I. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) abolished the caliphate in 1924, thus ending the Second Jihad.
The fall of the Shah in Iran provided a base for the Third Jihad along with oil wealth to support plans for the Great Caliphate. The goal is a world dominated by Islam and sharia. Initially they would like to replace all secular leadership in those countries with a Muslim majority.
The Third Jihad, in addition to its basic goal of world domination, seems to have three shorter term strategic goals. It wants the US out of the Middle East, control of Muslim oil (which might be 75% of world reserves), and access to weapons of mass destruction. That makes Pakistan a special target because it already has nuclear weapons. The followers of Osama bin Laden considered him as the new caliph.
Know Your Enemy
World War III (the Cold War) ended leaving the United States with no obvious enemy, but we had already been in the opening skirmishes of what would become the first great war of the 21st Century, World War IV. Sun Tzu taught over two thousand years ago: assess yourself and your enemy, determine the circumstances that precipitated this war, and understand the enemy. Is this really a war against terrorism?
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
- Sun Tzu
Terrorism is not an enemy; it is criminal activity with no political legitimacy. Insurgency is armed political activity that may receive legitimacy if it gains authority within society. The Mau Mau Üterrorists” became Kenya. The Jewish “terrorists” (including Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, and Ariel Sharon) became Israel, the FLN became Algeria. Knowledgeable people recognize that the Palestinian “terrorists” are fighting for their own state; even Presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama have called for it. Osama bin Laden's “terrorism” was an insurgency against what he considered the corrupt regimes of the Umma, the Muslim World. The terrorists have attacked the US but their immediate objective is political and religious domination of the Middle East.
The US has been involved with the Middle East since the birth of our country. After declaring our independence from England, our merchant ships lost the protection of the Royal Navy. The Turkish Ottoman Empire had lost control of North Africa and Barbary pirates seized our ships, enslaved the crews, and demanded tribute. Nearly a million white slaves had been taken over the years.
Our representatives in Europe at the time were John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. The Barbary Pirates became a serious concern and Adams and Jefferson met with the ambassador from the Bey of Algiers. Ambassador Abdul al-Rahman told them that Allah directed in the Qur'an that all unbelievers were sinners and, if they did not convert, they should be made slaves. Ever the scholar, Jefferson obtained a Qur'an to better understand the foe.
The Muslims never called their naval raiders “Barbary pirates.” They called them ghazis, sacred raiders... actually jihad by the army of Muhammad.
The navy we had established during the War for Independence had been disbanded so we had no force to take on the pirates. We were paying large sums in tribute, eventually exceeding 10 percent of the country's budget and increasing. At that time we were developing our constitution since the Articles of Confederation had proven inadequate. One of the arguments for a strong federal government was that we needed a federal navy. The US Navy was formed in 1794.
When Thomas Jefferson became president, one of his early acts was to send the navy to deal with the Barbary Pirates. Similar to modern day politics, he did not inform Congress until the fleet was too far away to be recalled. The USS Philadelphia ran aground and was captured in Tripoli. Stephen Decatur raided Tripoli, blew up the Philadelphia, and wreaked havoc in the port.
The American consul in Tunis, William Eaton, led a group of Marines and a motley crew of irregulars across the desert from Egypt and attacked Tripoli from the land. Thus, the Marine Hymn goes “From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.” This was also the time of the Battle of Trafalgar and Lord Nelson. A young man by the name of Francis Scott Key wrote a song commemorating the battle. It was a flop, but in 1812 he rewrote the words, and with the same music it became famous as the Star Spangled Banner.
We had further problems with the Barbary Pirates in 1815, dealt with the Ottoman Empire in mid-19th Century, and again in the 20th Century until its demise after World War I. Islamic enmity was dormant until the 1979-1980 hostage seizure in Iran, which we now see, in hindsight, was the start of World War IV. Clashes with Muslim groups have appeared regularly since.
This is not a new form of war because it is a terrorist war; terror has been used for centuries by the weak against the strong as well as by many brutal conquerors. It is less a clash between civilizations but more a major struggle within Islamic civilization and we have been forced to take sides: first because they attacked us, and second because everything they stand for is anathema to our values and our definition of civilization.
We must understand our enemy. The US wants to fight a war against terrorism but they are fighting a war of politics manifested as religion, which are inseparable in Islam. These extremist Muslims are at war with the unbelievers, the kafirs (the West), those who have fallen away, and the half-believers (the countless Muslims the fundamentalists believe they can win over). There is no coexistence, only opposing views of life and civilization. Al Qaeda represents total rejection of our modern values. Some 11,000 men received training and inspiration in its Afghan camps. It is now a network of independent terrorist cells united in a struggle against the modern aspects of Arab governments and Western values, and is the diabolical opposite of the capitalist global economy, a global murder factory. Their Bible is the 11 volume, 6,000 page Encyclopedia of Jihad(even on CD-ROM!), with its instructions on all types of subversion including chemical, biological, and nuclear or radiation attacks.
To understand the enemy we face in World War IV, we must first understand Muhammadism.
It is far easier to kill people than it is to kill ideologies.
NOTE: 33 footnotes omitted.
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What readers are saying about
DEATH by a THOUSAND CUTS
Your signature depth of research and documentation is the scourge of anyone attempting to refute not only your thesis but specifics as well.
I keep thinking of societies in the past that may have failed because they really did not understand the fundamental shifts that were happening to them in the lead-up to their collapse. But your books absolutely strip away any claims of ignorance on the part of Americans; moreso those in leadership roles.
Another authoritative book on your part, another demonstration of your research and writing skills. But most of all another demonstration of your moral courage in standing up in the face of an ignorant thus dangerous mob. God Bless!
-- Experienced former Special Operations Officer
Your book has many good qualities -- fact-based scholarship, breadth, and insight into the complexities of our situation, a perfect storm. Your writing style is clear and easy to read.
I would recommend the book for its facts, logic and coherence
-- Bill Warner, Center for the Study of Political Islam
Congratulations on your new book on a subject which is unfamiliar to most Americans. I am sure your military experience provides important insights to it.
-- Bat Ye'or
I am enjoying your book. You are a superb author. The depth of your knowledge is really amazing.
-- Colonel, US Army Retired
This book points out in explicit detail the dire need for all Americans to understand true Islam and its "need" and desire to destroy all other religions and governments in the world.
It is my belief that this book should be read by all persons in governments - - National, State and local - - and anyone who is empowered to make decisions that will affect the lives of us Americans. Allowing foreigners to demand (and get) their "right" to intrude their customs and beliefs on our Democratic way of life is not only reprehensible but is an unsuspected way of being "overtaken" and our Constitution and way of life "trashed."
This book is one of the best books I've ever had the pleasure of reading, and studying. It is frightening to realize how uneducated the average American is about ISLAM and how much progress has already been made in undercutting the values and foundations on which this country was built.
-- Former Senior Intelligence Official
The October issue of American Diplomacy has a review by Dr. James Abrahamson, former professor in the History Department at the US Military Academy at West Point and at the University of North Carolina. The review can be seen at http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/index.html - a photo of the book is at the left with the review.
“To this, his latest of several books, Hobbs brought a wealth of military and business experience and great insight into the state of our nation and the world.”
“If Death by a Thousand Cuts has a weakness it is surely the number of subjects Hobbs covers and the extent of the research that he packs into every chapter. Each of the book’s fifteen chapters could easily stand on its own as a complete essay. He nevertheless wants readers to acknowledge the dangers the U.S. faces. Combined into a book of more than four hundred large pages with very narrow margins, their total effect can be almost overwhelming…. this reviewer urges readers to set aside predetermined views, contemplate the challenges defined by the book, and aided by Hobbs’ research and reasoning determine for themselves how they believe the United States can best respond to each threat. Accept Hobbs’ facts and arguments—or not. If not, use them to design equally effective alternatives to the author’s recommendations.
“The United States exists in a troubled world even as it must deal with severe domestic problems of its own making. Only an educated public can support our president and Congress in turning aside “cuts” that will otherwise drain America’s vitals.”
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