Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Why not just say Muslim Extremism? Seem to me that is the ONLY “Global Extremism ” that has a problem with the rest of the world….

Besides Liberal Extremism that is, HA!

Thu Jul 31, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seven years after the September 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named “the long war” against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue.

The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to “soft power” initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills acquired in Iraq and Afghanistan within a defense community heavily skewed in favor of expensive conventional and strategic modernization programs.

“If I could describe the new national defense strategy in one word, it would be ‘balance,’” Gates told reporters, saying there was a danger that U.S. ability to wage war against militant groups could be neglected in the future without a shift in emphasis.

The pragmatic tone of the 23-page document, crafted to reflect Gates’ priorities, contrasted sharply at different points with the last national strategy, issued in March 2005, under Gates’ more brash predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld.

Like Rumsfeld, Gates sees parallels between violent Islamist theology and the 20th-century ideologies of fascism and communism.

Where Rumsfeld called for pre-emptive action against threats and envisioned U.S. partnerships with “like-minded states,” the new strategy calls for the patient accumulation of quiet success against militant adversaries and the importance of improved relations with “old allies and new partners.”

“For the foreseeable future, winning the long war against violent extremist movements will be the central objective of the U.S.,” the 2008 strategy said.

“Success in Iraq and Afghanistan is crucial to winning this conflict, but it alone will not bring victory,” it added. “We cannot lose sight of the implications of fighting a long-term, episodic, multi-front and multidimensional conflict more complex and diverse than the Cold War.”

IRREGULAR WARFARE

President George W. Bush launched his administration’s war on terrorism as a major U.S. initiative soon after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, which killed about 3,000 people in 2001, including 189 who died at the Pentagon.

But the Gates strategy more sharply underscored the central importance of U.S. counterinsurgency efforts, both military and nonmilitary.

“We must display a mastery of irregular warfare comparable to that which we possess in conventional combat,” it said.

“The use of force plays a role, yet military efforts to capture or kill terrorists are likely to be subordinate to measures to promote local participation in government and economic programs to spur development, as well as efforts to understand and address the grievances that often lie at the heart of insurgencies.”

Gates’ long-standing emphasis on unconventional threats at the Pentagon has led to tensions with staunch backers of multibillion-dollar weapons systems such as the F-22 fighter, which the secretary has said is designed to meet conventional threats the United States no longer faces.

The new strategy pledged a “continuous strategic dialogue with China” to reduce the risk of miscalculating the potential threat of Beijing’s military buildup.

While it expressed concern over Russia’s “retreat from democracy” and intimidation of neighbors, the document said it would use areas of collaboration and mutual interest to encourage Moscow to act as a constructive partner.

“We wish to use the opportunity of an absence of fundamental conflict between great powers to shape the future, and to prevent the reemergence of great power rivalry,” it said.