Tollund Man, Jutland, Denmark

Death Care Series

Preserved Bodies Around the World, Excerpt

Forget cryogenics, a bog is the best bet if you want to keep hold of your youthful looks. Tollund Man has a complexion that is still as smooth as the day he was garroted and tossed in a bog. Well, admittedly he may be a bit leathery and distorted these days, and he does look a bit grumpy from his long sleep (of around 2,000 years in a bog in Silkeborg, Denmark).

Tollund Man is the main (actually virtually the only) attraction at the Silkeborg Museum. He is believed to have been executed in 300 BC and his body, complete with the rope still around the neck, was discovered in a bog in 1950. The face of the Tollund Man is hypnotic in its detail, right down to the stubble on his chin.

Imperial Hubris Series

Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer, 2004, Excerpts

America has moved from being the much admired champion of liberty and self government to the hated and feared advocate of a new imperial order, one that has much the same characteristics as nineteenth-century European imperialism: military garrisons; economic penetration and control; support for leaders, no matter how brutal and undemocratic, as long as they obey the imperial power; and the exploitation and depletion of natural resources. Muslims have seen this before.

We cannot talk or negotiate our way out of this mess; the enemy has listened for thirty years and believes U.S. promises of fairness for Muslims have been lies. The military is now America’s only tool and will remain so while current policies are in place. No public diplomacy, presidential praise for Islam, or politically correct debate masking the reality that many of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims hate us for actions, not values, will get America out of this war.

While U.S. leaders will not say America is at War with Islam, some of Islam is waging war on the United States, and more is edging closer to that status. The war is being waged against us for specific, quantifiable reasons and not as our leaders claim because a few Muslim fanatics hate democracy and freedom. This claim belittles the Muslims opposing us and thereby weakens America’s ability to resist by underestimating the brains, patience, and religion-based fortitude of our foes.

U.S. Policies and Actions

Corrupt Regimes

Bin Laden Islamic Hero

Economic Objective

Description of Al Qaeda

Blinded Elites  [See also: Power Elite Series]

Failed Civilization Argument

General Sherman [Civil War, 1861-1875]:

“A fatal mistake in war is to underrate the strength, feeling and resources of an enemy.

See also: Opium Series

Failed Civilization Argument

Imperial Hubris Series

Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer, 2004, Excerpts

The argument’s gist is that bin Laden, his allies, and their goals have been spawned by a “failed civilization” – one hostile to democratization, capitalism, and modernity, save for the tools of war – and that they are driven by both the realization that Islamic society is dying and a maniacal desire to destroy other civilizations that are successful and causing the demise of Islam. These men, the argument goes, recognize this failure, blame it on the West, and are lashing out with indiscriminate violence to spark an Armageddon-like battle with Western civilization. This line of analysis takes a brilliant, calculating, and patient foe and reduces him to the status of a madman, bloodthirsty and irrational.

One of the greatest dangers for Americans lies in continuing to believe – at the urging of senior U.S. leaders – that Muslims hate and attack us for what we are and think, rather than for what we do. The Islamic world is not offended by our democratic system of politics, guarantees of personal rights and civil liberties, and separation of church and state. What the United States does in formulating and implementing policies affecting the Muslim world, however, is infinitely more inflammatory.

Only when U.S. leaders stop believing and preaching that they are attacking us for what we are and what we think, and instead clearly state that they are attacking us for what we do, can we put aside our ill-advised and hallucinatory crusade for democracy. At that point, Americans can begin to intelligently discuss how this national security threat is to be defeated or, more precisely, to decide if status quo U.S. foreign policies toward the Islamic world benefit American enough to offset increasing levels of human and economic loss that will be the cost of unchanged policies.

Description of Al Qaeda

Imperial Hubris Series

Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer, 2004, Excerpts

Al-Qaeda is an insurgent, vice terrorist, organization and has two primary, manpower-intensive missions: to provide quality insurgence training to Muslims from around the world, and to build an ample cadre of veteran fighters who can be sent foreign legion – like to serve as combat leaders, trainers, engineers, logisticians, financial advisors, or administrators wherever militant Islam needs them. America is facing a talented, sturdy, charismatic, and determined enemy, much of the Muslim world and not just the lunatic fringe.

Pre 911, Al-Qaeda’s camps were staffed by veteran fighters who trained insurgents who fought, and trained others to fight, not only against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, but also against Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Tajikistan, Egypt, Bosnia, western China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Macedonia, Kosovo, and the Philippines. Sunni Islamist groups have been running training camps in Yemen, Pakistan, Kashmir, Sudan, and the Philippines. More recently, since 1990, Somalia, Uzbekistan Montenegro, Eritrea, western China, Chechnya, Algeria, Tajikistan, Lebanon, Bosnia, northern Iraq, and Albania can be added to the list.

The main function of the camps was and is to provide quality and uniform religious or paramilitary – or insurgent - training to young Muslims. The trainees learned how to use: AK-47s, Stinger missiles, GPS systems, advanced land navigation RPGs, map reading, demolition techniques, celestial navigation, hand-to-hand combat techniques, trench digging, weapon deployments, escape and evasion techniques, fist aid, scientific calculations to plot artillery fire, first aid, secure communications, et cetera.

Al Qaeda has survived the U.S. military onslaught and is thriving militarily. In an ironic twist, moreover, actions by the United States and its allies have increased the effectiveness and impact of al Qaeda’s efforts, leaving Washington confronted by a lose-lose situation almost every time it needs to make a decision vis-à-vis what it inaccurately describes as “the global war on terrorism.”