Knowing Your Enemies v. Being Your Own Worst Enemy

[saavedra77]

Excellent New Yorker article on Salafi Jihadism, courtesy of repeate:

Although American and European intelligence communities are aware of the jihadi texts, the work of these ideologues often reads like a playbook that U.S. policymakers have been slavishly, if inadvertently, following.

Comments

hubris

[jmargethe.livejournal.com]

“One of the problems with the kill-or-capture metric is that it has often been to the exclusion of having a deeper, richer understanding of the movement, its origins, and our adversaries’ mindset. The nuances are absolutely critical. Our adversaries are wedded to the ideology that informs and fuels their struggle, and, by not paying attention, we risk not knowing our enemy.”

aww, can't we just go on pretending that They are irrational and simplistic primitives driven by passions rather than ideas? it's so much easier that way....

interesting article. but mostly i just wanted to say hi - it's jennie, as you may have guessed.

Re: hubris

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Hey, Jennie - Nice to read you, here!