The Political Conundrum!

This is a scene from a new film called "Gunner Palace". The soldier rapping is SGT Nick Moncrief aka Solo, the voice of Charlie Battery. He's 24 years old--has two kids and a wife. He just served a year in Iraq, was packed and ready to go home, then his unit was extended up to 120 days....

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I have an article in the latest issue of The Sentinel, the West Point Combating Terrorism Center’s journal. The piece is entitled A Preliminary Assessment of Counter-Radicalization in the Netherlands and describes various programs implemented by Dutch authorities, focusing particularly on those of the city of Amsterdam. The second part of the article analyzes the relationship between authorities and political Salafists/non-violent Islamists, a topic that has been addressed several times by CT blog contributors and, most recently, in an excellent post by Matt Levitt. This is what I wrote in The Sentinel:

…..Dutch authorities are faced with the same dilemma haunting most of their Western counterparts: can non-violent Islamists be engaged and used as partners against violent radicalization? Can Western offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood or political Salafists like those active in the Netherlands become partners against the appeal of jihadists? The Dutch seem to address these questions by drawing a clear line between engaging and empowering. All sorts of voices, as long as they do not advocate violence, should be engaged, since pushing non-violent Islamists at the margins could have negative repercussions. Nevertheless, authorities feel they cannot consider them as permanent partners, as there is a clear understanding that these forces espouse a message that clashes with the Dutch government’s ideas of democracy, integration and cohesive society.

This assessment leads to a case-by-case approach in which authorities engage non-violent Islamists when they need to and when common ground can be found. This policy was implemented, for example, during the months preceding the release of the controversial movie Fitna by Dutch MP Geert Wilders. Security services held several meetings with some of the most radical Salafist imams in the country, explaining that the Dutch government did not support Wilders and obtaining from the imams a promise, later kept, that they would have urged their followers not to react violently to the movie. Nevertheless, the security services do not consider political Salafists as reliable partners and advise local authorities from doing so. The security services’ advice is particularly important since political Salafists have been regularly approaching municipalities and provinces with offers of partnership in counter-radicalization and integration programs….

As Matt correctly stated, the reality on the ground is what dictates the policies and attitudes of authorities. Given the situation in most European countries, some form of cooperation with political Salafists/non-violent Islamists is necessary (even though that does not necessarily mean that that is the right policy in other places). What is important is to understand the real aims of our interlocutors and to keep clear in mind the difference between engaging and empowering. The Dutch seem to get both concepts.

From the press releases of the coalition forces, we can see that there's never a dull moment in Iraq:

1. Coalition forces in Diyala killed three terrorists, two of whom were wearing suicide vests, and detained an alleged al-Qaeda in Iraq leader. The AQI suspect is allegedly responsible for bombing attacks and assassinations.

2. Soldiers found 100 blasting caps, 20 rocket-propelled grenades, two 120 mm mortar rounds, a 60 mm mortar round, two anti-tank rounds and 35 parachute grenades in a Baghdad neighborhood.

3. In the best news of the day, we captured an important Iranian-linked terrorist leader responsible for killing Americans as well as Iraqis: "Coalition forces captured a suspected senior Special Groups leader Wednesday morning during an operation at Baghdad International Airport. Intelligence sources report that the captured man is part of the most senior social and operational circles of Special Groups. Most notably, he is believed to be responsible for the planning of the June 24, 2008 bombing of the Sadr City District Advisory Council meeting, where six Iraqis, two U.S. State Department employees and two U.S. service members were killed. Ten other Iraqis were wounded in the blast. The man has been known to travel in and out of Iraq to neighboring nations including Iran and Lebanon, where it is believed he meets and helps run the Iranian-backed Special Groups in Iraq."

Anybody have an idea on this guy's identity? Note his travels to Iran and Lebanon - sounds like someone with a Hezbollah passport.

A U.S. military ship loaded with aid docked at a southern Georgian port Wednesday, and Russia sent three missile boats to another Georgian port as the standoff escalated over a nation devastated by war with Russia.

A university president and a top local official in a restive province north of Baghdad are suspected of giving weapons and government cars to al-Qaida in Iraq insurgents, according to arrest reports obtained Wednesday.

A former Bonner County sheriff's deputy who feigned being a paraplegic collected an estimated $1.5 million in Veterans Administration benefits before being indicted last week in Spokane, U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt said Tuesday.

A former Bonner County sheriff's deputy who feigned being a paraplegic collected an estimated $1.5 million in Veterans Administration benefits before being indicted last week in Spokane, U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt said Tuesday.

The Army, eager to fill its ranks amid wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, formally opened its first prep school today. "With only three of every 10 people of military age capable of joining the Army, we are going to have to do something different," said Fort Jackson chief of staff Col. Jeffrey Sanderson.

The U.S. Marine commandant said Wednesday that his forces in Iraq's once-volatile western Anbar province can be reduced, as the military moves to hand over control of the region to the Iraqis next week.

The Los Angeles Timestoday carries an interesting story on the growing ties of Hezbollah in Venezuela.

As the article points out, such ties are not new, but what is more worrisome is the vast amount of cocaine being moved through Venezuela that passes through areas where the Hezbollah presence is most pronounced.

The issue is, of course, Iran's growing presence in the region, something the administration has paid surprising little attention to as the Iranian diplomatic and intelligence presence has mushroomed, not only in Venezuela, but in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.

Even Colombia, one of the few countries that is a strong U.S. ally in the region, has felt the need to allow the Iranians to open an embassy in Bogotá, in large part to have some idea of what that country is up to in the region.

It is passing strange that a socialist revolutionary (Hugo Chavez) and a radical Shite leader (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) have become such fast strategic allies.

It is more strange that Iran is investing billions of dollars and expanding its diplomatic presence throughout Latin America, a region where it has almost no economic ties, no national interest and no historic presence.

This growth, not just in Iranian presence but in the availability of the diplomatic infrastructure to give immunity to activities of Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guard, will be a destabilizing factor in the region for years to come. My full blog is here.