An End to Al-Qaeda: Destroying Bin Laden's Jihad and Restoring America's Honor [With Earbuds]

by Malcolm W. Nance, Arthur Morey (Performed by)

Overview

Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attack was just a small part of its long-term plan. Osama Bin Laden knew the assault would provoke the U.S. to invade Afghanistan and re-stoke his jihad. Bin Laden has built a large following by perverting the teachings of Islam to justify the mass murder of innocent people. By fighting him with bullets and bombs we have bolstered Bin Laden’s recruiting efforts abroad, undermined civil liberties and economic security at home and tarnished America’s reputation internationally.

Malcolm Nance has retooled the “War on Terror” to show how we can eliminate Al Qaeda in less than twenty-four months without a single violent military action, while recreating America’s reputation as a force for good around the world. Nance’s plan includes:

• Dominating the information battle space by exposing Al Qaeda to the rest of the international Moslem community as the global death cult that they are
• Waging a war against the fear Al Qaeda has stoked
• Drastically reducing the number of heavy military operations that use bombs to wipe out the enemy (and cause the death of civilians in the process)
• Relying more heavily on counterintelligence to root out the terrorist group

An End to Al Qaeda is both fierce critique of America’s political, military and intelligence communities and a revolutionary blueprint for destroying Al Qaeda.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441848765
Publisher:	Findaway World
Publication date:	02/28/2010
Series:	Playaway Adult Nonfiction Series
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Malcolm Nance is the executive director of the newly formed International Anti-Terrorism Center for Excellence. A 27-year intelligence and combat veteran, he has fought in the Balkans, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. He was the master terrorism training officer at the US Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) school. His two technical books on fighting terrorists are bought in bulk by several government agencies.

Editorial Reviews

Intelligence veteran Nance offers a problematic prescription for defeating al-Qaeda in this disappointing polemic. Arguing that bin Laden's objective is “the destruction of traditional Islam” and the “real ideological conflict... is about control of Islam itself,” the author contends that “if we break [al-Qaeda's] spiritual link to the Muslim community, they will be quickly defeated.” Moreover, victory can be achieved not only quickly but also “simply and inexpensively” by employing “simple counter-ideological tools of compassion and debate.” Such an approach requires that the U.S. “reframe ourselves” as “Well-Meaning Ones Who Want to Help” and reframe al-Qaeda “as an exceptionally dangerous armed militant cult.” Toward this end, the author recommends that the U.S. “employ the national bullhorn,” appoint “a new czar” of counterideological warfare, and organize conferences. Noting President Obama's “ability to make people believe his words,” Nance calls the president “[t]he best tool in our quiver.” If the author's conclusions are controversial, the underlying material is mostly derivative, the format approximates PowerPoint, and the style alternates among melodramatic (“raindrops of chaos”), preachy (“[t]he Muslim dream is the American dream”), and pedantic. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

This critique of the War on Terror calls on the United States to switch from primarily military to almost exclusively ideological operations against al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden not only wishes to restore the Caliphate abolished by Turkey's Kemal Ataturk in 1924, writes longtime intelligence and combat veteran Nance, but he also desires to revert to pre-12th-century Islam, before it came under assault by Crusaders, Mongols and a hierarchy that tolerated impurity. Under "bin Ladenism," Muslims must shun not just non-Muslims but also anyone not conforming to the most rigid customs of Islam. In this view, far from embodying the mainstream of Islam, "bin Ladenism" is one of the schisms that have splintered the religion since its founding. Unfortunately, the Bush administration, Nance contends, played into the hands of this cult leader by calling for a "crusade." Allowing him to escape to Pakistan while concentrating instead on Iraq was "akin to stopping WWII after D-Day and ordering an invasion of Mexico." Nance is at his best in analyzing a foe more decentralized since the fall of the Taliban-boosted, post-invasion, by successful recruitment; able to destabilize the Mideast, driving up oil prices to economically harmful levels; and masters of a viral "media campaign" involving audiotapes and the Internet. Nance's extensive military expertise should lend credibility to his debates on terror, but he undercuts his authority with overly partisan invective: George W. Bush is likened to "a rampaging rhino destroying all in its path" and Barack Obama to "[t]he best tool in our quiver, next to the great character of the American people themselves." Given the adaptable enemy the author summarizes, canhis massive campaign of counter-ideology and debate, "CIRCUIT BREAKER," really damage al-Qaeda "to the point of complete incapacitation in less than twenty-four months?"An often cogent argument weakened by unnecessary repetition and vitriol-reads like a hybrid of a counterinsurgency manual and a consultant's business plan.

Kirkus Reviews