Originally posted by Maverick
You want to see militant islamics beaten. Ok, how?
There's no simple answer but here is a very quick and dirty summary of how I would maybe go about it.
1. Encourage political and economic liberalisation in as many Arab states as possible. By this, I don't mean *forcing* democracy on them. That has to develop as a natural consequence of the liberalisation process or else it risks implosion. One of the elements most fundamental for a secular liberal democracy is a large and prosperous middle-class, which is a natural consequence of economic development. This is why there are so many problems in Iraq today, because the Ba'ath Party had largely co-opted the secular, professional classes, who then lost all their social status when the regime collapsed. This was the biggest single failure of the Iraqi operation; what we should have done was allied ourselves with the Ba'athists; not the Saddams but the mid level professionals, soldiers, civil servants, all the people who make a modern state function. Iraq is an unknown quantity now; the best we can hope for is that it remains stable long enough for civil society to take root again. Nevertheless, this should be the attitude to take with regard to places like Syria and Egypt. Economic development is what the west and the USA in particular does best; prosperous people don't turn easily to extremism, so focus on incentives that help raise the lives of ordinary people.
2. Kill as many of the extremist leaders as possible but do it quietly and without fuss. Don't go announcing our intentions on CNN or Fox, and don't claim credit when we kill one. The west holds all the aces when it comes to special forces, so use them. Otherwise train secularly-inclined muslims to kill them for us. I would also look at killing-off all of the Wahabist clerics in Saudi Arabia and I'd serve notice on the Saudi Royal family that the good times are over and unless they liberalise the Kingdom, we arm the Syrians, the Iraqis and the Egyptians and let them loose on the Sauds. The Saudi Sheiks are probably one of the most despised groups in the region; the other Arab states wouldn't need much encouragement, and most importantly of all, the rest of the Muslim world would see it as an internal arab matter and not the west imposing it's will on the muslims. This is important.
3. Get used to expensive oil. It isn't going to get any cheaper with a liberalised middle-east milking extraction for tax revenue. It's going to run out sooner or later anyway, so get used to using less or even better using alternatives. Stop propping up corrupt local elites for the purpose of guaranteeing cheap oil. That is one of the main causes of today's problems.
4. Cut the link between the hardcore of extremists and the masses from which they recruit. This means removing the percieved injustices with which they rally support. If they can't recruit they will whither and die. Solve the Israel-Palestinian problem once and for all. Use some of the $billions currently being spent on a Iraq to compensate all the jews displaced from arab countries and the arabs displaced from Israel. Stop worrying about who started the conflict and instead focus on what is needed to end it. This would undermine people like Hamas who depend on arabs being rat-poor and desperate for their popular support. As well as undermining the Islamists massively, it would also hurt the few the Israeli ideologues who like to keep a low-level conflict going in order to maintain their colonisation of the West Bank under the pretext of security. Both these groups want the conflict to on for as long as possible, so deal with it ASAP.
5. Recognise that when dealing with the Arabs, perception is everything. The main message of the jihadis is that Islam is under attack by the west. Unfortunateley, we have a habit of acting in ways that confirm this message. At every step of the way, it must appear that change is being driven internally, and that if blood needs to be shed, it must be presented as a muslim vs muslim affair.
6. Offer the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran in return for the ending of their nuclear program. The resulting economic stimulus would spell the end of the mullah's stranglehold over the urban poor and the impoverished middle-classes and you'd see genuine internal regime change there within a decade.
7. Have faith in western culture and its power to spread into the lives of these people, but don't force it down their throats. They must feel that they are adopting our ways of their own volition.
Like I said, quick and dirty, but It's Friday night and there's beer in the refrigerator.
