Is Obama's deep bow (with slightly bent knee) to the Saudi king as bad as it seems? The White House, apparently forgetful that we live in the Internet age, where everything is swiftly documented and disseminated— or else thinking it leads a blind nation — insists the president did not bow. He supposedly always bends in half when shaking hands with shorter people, though he … [Read more...]
Search Results for: war college
Taqiyya Revisited: A Response to the Critics
Having written at length on various aspects of Islam, it is always my writings concerning doctrinal deceit that elicit (sometimes irate) responses. As such, the purpose of this article is to revisit the issue of deceit and taqiyya in Islam, and address the many ostensibly plausible rebuttals made by both Muslims and non-Muslims. The earliest rebuttal I received appeared last … [Read more...]
Know Your Enemy
American Thinker Barack Obama's National Security Advisor Richard Danzig recently made a fool of himself by claiming thatWinnie the Pooh is a "fundamental text on national security." His flippancy only emphasizes the fact that doctrinal writings influence the conduct of war. To anticipate the enemy's thinking, you have to know the foundational texts in which his mind has been … [Read more...]
Steven Simon, The Washington Post
The Al Qaeda Reader by Raymond Ibrahim New York: Doubleday, 2007. 352 pp. $15.95, paper. Reviewed by Steven Simon The Washington Post For the strong silent type, Osama bin Laden has actually talked a lot. One expects this from his tediously didactic counselor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, but somehow not from the abstemious Emir himself. Yet in dozens of statements disseminated … [Read more...]
Bruce Thornton, Private Papers
The Al Qaeda Reader by Raymond Ibrahim New York: Doubleday, 2007. 352 pp. $15.95, paper. Reviewed by Bruce Thornton Private Papers Given that war, as both Sun Tzu and Mohammed preached, is deception, it behooves us to understand accurately the enemy's motivations and not be fooled by his deceiving propaganda. Yet in the current war against Islamic jihad, the West has … [Read more...]