How to crush radical Islam?
U.S. President Donald Trump has long vowed to put an end to the global threats posed by Islamic terrorists but has not presented yet a detailed plan of action.
Earlier, Trump ordered his National Security Adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, to work with the U.S. Defense Department and other security agencies to draft a comprehensive plan to not only defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) on the battlefield but "delegitimize its radical Islamist ideology" as well, and submit the plan to him by the end of this month.
Flynn has not submitted the plan yet but has actually laid out the details of such a plan in his 2016 book, "The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies," the New York Post reported.
In the book, the 33-year Army veteran drew a plan to combat radical Islam on a broad front, including the use of informational warfare.
Flynn proposes discrediting the "evil (religious) doctrines" that motivate jihadists, including the belief of Islamic rewards for martyrdom or suicidal terrorism. In this regard, Flynn calls for the use of psy-ops and counter-propaganda to be carried out not just by federal government agencies but also through "our schools, media and social networks."
Flynn says the government may have to draft digital media giants such as Google, Facebook and Twitter to help "wage ideological warfare" against radical Islam.
The retired general also wants to use radio and TV to conduct psychological warfare against Islamist extremists.
But before this plan can be implemented, he says the government has to get rid of the political taboo of tying Islamic violence to the religion of Islam, including the Quran, which Flynn says is being used by terrorists and jihadists as a manual of warfare.
"If we can't tackle enemy doctrines that call for our domination or extinction," Flynn writes, "we aren't going to destroy their jihadis."
Meanwhile, Flynn warned Iran last week after it tested a medium-range ballistic missile on Jan. 29, hinting of a possible military action if such act is repeated, The Daily Beast reported.
"As of today (Feb. 1), we are officially putting Iran on notice," Flynn said, without elaborating what the U.S. would do if Iran fired another missile.
Relatedly, MSNBC has reported that Trump is trying to "quell an uprising within his own defense and foreign-policy team," with Flynn at the centre of the dispute, quoting The Wall Street Journal.
The news outlet noted that Flynn has long clashed with the intelligence-community establishment over the U.S. fight against global terrorism.
