“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War
The catastrophic failure of America’s generals and civilian leaders is on full display for all the world to see as Americans are left in Afghanistan to fend for themselves while Taliban jihadi fighters prepare for the slaughter they will almost certainly unleash on those left behind when the last U.S. plane is gone.
The message to the entire world: America is fleeing, America is weak, America will not stand and fight when it really matters.
China is certainly paying attention, and the people of Hong Kong and Taiwan likely are too.
For 20 years and 4 administrations, American leaders made an affirmative decision not to know the enemy in the “Global War on Terror.” This intentional ignorance has cost America greatly in lives and treasure, and ensured the U.S. could never defeat the Global Islamic Movement.
You cannot defeat an enemy you are unwilling to identify.
100% of the enemies we face in this war launched against the West by the Armies of Mohammad tell us exactly who they are and why they are fighting.
All of them tell us they are commanded by their god, allah, to fight the entire non-muslim world until “allah’s divine law”/sharia is imposed on every human on earth.
Our enemies tell us sharia is the blueprint for how they fight, and it is the very thing they must impose on the world.
Al Qaeda, the Islamic State (formerly ISIS), the Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas, Hizbollah, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, Abu Sayef, Tablighi Jamaat, Iran’s constitution, Egypt’s constitution, and the entire Islamic world under the banner of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) tell us sharia is the lens through which they view the entire world and how they must behave in it.
The entire Islamic world is on record – via the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights – that “Human Rights” is defined by sharia.
Yet, nowhere in the entire U.S. government system has the enemy’s doctrine, sharia, been taught to our war-planners, military at any rank, nor inside our diplomat corps.
Sharia is noticeably absent from the U.S. Army War College, Marine Corps University, U.S. Naval War College, Joint Forces Staff College, National Defense University, Command & Staff College, all the military service academies, the FBI, the CIA, the DHS, and everywhere else it should be taught.
The result of U.S. leaders being grossly ignorant about the enemy’s doctrine and objectives? The U.S. government wrote the constitution for Afghanistan which created and Islamic State under sharia, thus giving Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the Global Islamic Movement a victory there.
America lost the war in Afghanistan in 2004 but U.S. leaders were too stupid to realize it.
In fact, our leaders not only do not know the enemy, they have an understanding of the enemy that is exactly opposite of who they are.
Just read from the most widely used textbook in U.S. Islamic schools about Islam – What Islam is All About – and you will see that what 10 year old Muslim children are taught about Islam is the same as what Al Qaeda teaches.
“Islam is not a religion, but a complete way of life.”
“The three duties (in Islam) are Da’wah, Jihad, and Encouraging good while forbidding the evil (“good” and “evil” as defined by sharia).”
“When you follow the Islamic way of living life, you are following the Shari’ah…the Shari’ah includes all the do’s and don’ts of Islam…The Shari’ah is the ideal path for us to follow.”
“The law of the land is the Shari’ah of Allah. The leader, or Khalifa of the Islamic nation, implements the Shari’ah in society.”
“The basis of the legal and political system is the Shari’ah of Allah. Its main sources are the Qur’an and Sunnah.”
“Muslims dream of establishing the power of Islam in the world.”
“The word Jihad is most often associated with the act of physically confronting evil and wrong-doing (“evil” and “wrong-doing” as defined by sharia)…If a real Jihad was declared, then we, as Muslims, must obey and follow the rules of Islam in our conduct.”
“If anyone dies in a Jihad they automatically will go to Paradise.”
“The duty of Muslim citizens is to be loyal to the Islamic State.”
This means that what Islamic leaders have told U.S. leaders about Islam for decades is exactly opposite of what muslims teach their children about Islam.
So, here we sit in 2021 watching the results of a complete U.S. government system that decided to go to war and stay at war on multiple continents for nearly 20 years with an enemy no one thought was important enough to know.
The incompetence and staggering unprofessionalism of our military and civilian leaders is difficult to quantify.
When an individual’s unprofessional behavior leads to someone’s death, that is legally classified as “Criminal negligence” and doctors and lawyers are put in jail for such behavior.
There are thousands of Americans who lost their lives and hundreds of thousands wounded in this war, both overseas and here at home.
It is high time America holds its generals and civilian leaders to the same standard.
TruthWFree says
GREAT POST ABOUT ISLAM! This is what every American who is not Muslim needs to know. Muslims are allowed to LIE to us UNBELIEVERS to further Islam. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, 600 plus years before Muhammad said in John’s Gospel, 8:44, “Satan is the father of all lies”. Islam’s allah god who supposedly revealed the Quran to Muhammad, denies Jesus Christ’s divinity and death on the cross. The allah god of Islam is not our Christian God, so who is he? He is Satan, the father of all lies.
bill says
Us intelligence were in Afghanistan for 20 years. If they did not get to know their enemy in 20 years that is an abysmal failure of the so called intelligence officers
gravenimage says
There is honest ignorance, then there is *willful* ignorance.
Malcolm (South Afric) says
This head of security that the US State Dept. were handing info about US interpreters and US citizans needing safe passage has a 5 million dollar reward on his head
The Taliban’s new self-declared chief of security in Kabul, Khalil Ur-Rahman Haqqani is wanted as a terrorist by the U.S. government 10 years ago and is subject to a $5 million reward.
jihad Joe you have top of the marks for complete dumb.
https://kalingatv.com/world/new-taliban-head-of-security-for-kabul-subject-to-5-million-dollar-reward-by-us/
Raja says
Malcolm,
Very succinctly put… Great
Shirley Ann says
A wonderful Thank You to Mr.John Guandolo. You have named the Reason that The USA & Other Western Countries have not won the war Against the “ENEMY, ISLAM”, because even today, No Military Or Civilian Government Agent will ever SAY ISLAM IS THE ENEMY.
After 9/11, GW BUSH mouthed the Horrendous phrase, ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE & then proceeded to threaten Americans against suspecting their Muslim Neighbors. We were told “SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING,” but were ridiculed by GOV, if we did report any incident.
When we thought that our US Military was going to kill the ENEMY, ISLAM, they were actually ordered to “WIN THE HEARTS & MINDS OF THE MUSLIMS, OUR ENEMY.
We Americans are now watching our Government, Bringing the ENEMY TO
OUR VERY DOORS.
Ray Jarman says
This is by far one of the best articles which I have read. Nowhere has the media addressed the issue of Sharia. They seem to be completely unaware or complicit with the enemy, Sharia. Before anyone who was to be posted by the Department of State to Iraq in 2006 (not sure when the program began), that person had to attend a class concerning the people and culture of Iraq and the Middle East. Like Mr. Guandolo expressed, the word Sharia was not even mentioned and one would have thought that part of the program would have been about the religion but it was completely glossed over as if Islam was like Christianity. When I would ask questions concerning Jihad and Islam, I was basically told to shut up and just listen.
This was the time that I started to read “Jihad Watch” and a few other websites in order to obtain a better idea of why the hell I was being attacked when most of us only wished to assist and better the lives of the Iraqi people. No one is going to convince me that the males with their straggly beards with a Qur’an in their hands are not an enemy that only wishes to kill everyone of us. With the thousands of our enemy being brought into our living rooms, Congress will be full of the likes (or most likely worse) Ilhan Omar who hates the country that provided her with every opportunity to live a productive and happy life and who hates America. I truly feel sorry for the young people in the West because their hopes and dreams are being stolen by those elected to defend our way of life.
RonaldB says
With all due respect, I don’t see the difference that a course in Sharia would have made with Biden as President. Biden is too obviously senile to handle details, and he surrounded himself with narcissist mediocrities. That means, they don’t know anything, they think they know everything, and they aren’t interested in learning anything.
Biden scrapped a pull-out plan with conditional checkpoints, and substituted a plan with an absolute pull-out date. There can be no better illustration of a combination of an inability to conceptualize details, and a staff of ambitious, talentless yes-men who go out of their way to not appear distinguished.
The key to understanding Afghanistan is not that it’s Islamic, but that it’s fiercely tribal, with loyalty to the clan, an the tribe far outstripping any residual loyalty to the concept of a nation. The original victory in Afghanistan in 2003 was won by special forces who supported the Northern Alliance militias (Tajik tribe) against the predominant Taliban (Pashtun tribe). The US occupation started running into trouble immediately when they tried to operate in terms of a nation, rather than a warring collection of rival tribes.
FBI, CIA and other national security professionals can get all the information they need about Islam and Sharia from Stephen Coughlin’s “Catastrophic Failure”. Coughlin taught classes in Islamic law and practice until banned from teaching in any national-security capacity by (unsurprisingly) the Bush White House.
RonaldB says
Correction: Coughlin was banned from the White House and from teaching any national security classes in 2011, which was under the Obama, not the Bush, administration.
savvyone says
What about Phil Haney, “If You See Something, Say Something”. Look what he accomplished only to have it erased by Barack Obama. But that wasn’t enough, they shut him up forever on a lonely California highway.
John Guandolo, like Robert Spencer and other brave souls are willing to put themselves in harms way to educate us on the dangers of Islam. I have some of Robert’s books and I have also purchased John’s book “Raising a Jihadi Generation”. It is an excellent book, inexpensive and a quick read. I have also bought some and sent them to our Civic leaders, because I suspect they need to be educated.
John, if you are reading this, you might be interested to know that Muslims’ hate me and Nihad Awad even came to my street to harass me in late 2017. He knew who I was and I did not let on I knew who he was. He played a silly game (their specialty) and then went to the Imam’s house, who also harass me. They want my head, but in the meantime they enjoy the damage they inflict on me and my family. Their are a vast number of these people where I live.
Yogi says
This picture is very frightening..
Michael Copeland says
Judges also need to learn about Sharia.
“I do hope you spend time in prison thinking about whether the Koran gives you the right to kill innocent people,” said Judge Cedarbaum.
https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/times-square-bomber-faisal-shahzad-sentenced-life/story?id=11802740
Judge Cedarbaum has not read “Kill them wherever you find them”.
The UK judiciary are similarly handicapped:
https://gatesofvienna.net/2019/06/the-lamentable-shortcomings-of-some-english-judges-and-senior-lawyers/
Infidel says
The above headline spells our whole approach to muslims ever since 9/11
Infidel says
Glenn Greenwald had a good explanation why it’s very much in the Taliban’s interests to see that the US leaves smoothly, and that’s not likely to happen as long as such attacks occurred
https://rumble.com/vlqdhc-terror-attack-in-kabul-system-update-with-glenn-greenwald.html
gravenimage says
Not sure the bloody Taliban much cares about dead Infidels.
Infidel says
No, but they won’t wanna do things that would activate the same feelings in the west immediately post 9/11. That’s why I agree w/ Greenwald: just like it was not in the interests of Assad to use chemical weapons immediately after the US announced a withdrawal, similarly it’s not in the interests of the Taliban to allow US citizens to be killed, as that would flip the public mood in the US from withdrawal to full blown war
gravenimage says
Infidel, if you mean the Taliban probably won’t pull another 9/11 in the next two days, you are likely correct. But they have menaced and beaten westerners, prevented them from rescuing animals and instead had them die in crates, have taken children as sex slaves, set a woman on fire, beheaded other sect Muslims, and destroyed statuary. Not exactly “good behavior” as we see it.
Walter Sieruk says
It’s only a fool who would engage in warfare and not heed the grandmaster of war who is Sun Tzu in his book THE ART OF WAR . In which he ,wisely ,instructs “Know your enemy.”
Many miliary Western generals , including US generals have have forgotten or ignored the wisdom of that strategic manual of successful warfare when comes down to Islamic terrorism carried out by Muslim terrorists.
James Lincoln says
According to John Guandolo’s excellent feature article:
“America lost the war in Afghanistan in 2004 but U.S. leaders were too stupid to realize it.”
Exactly.
That was the year of the Afghanistan Constitution that stated Afghanistan is an islamic Republic.
Game over…
Raja says
That’s insightful…I didn’t know the event of 2004
gravenimage says
Yes–it was when Afghanistan formally enshrined Shari’ah in the constitution that I knew for sure it was over.
gravenimage says
The Cost of Not Knowing The Enemy
……………..
That so many who should know better have allowed themselves to learn nothing about Islam in the past 20 years is appalling and dispiriting.
Raja says
One of the best articles on islam and “knowing the enemy” ! I will surely forward it to lots of people (bombard the internet).
When will mankind ever realize that- islam wants us dead?
Hank says
Those people in the picture need to leave Islam not only in body but in spirit. Not only leave a place infected with the Islamic pathogen but reject all Islamic doctrine with its false visions, lying divinations, lying wonders, the indorsed practice of lying (Taqiya) and enjoying dishonest gain from it, extortion (Jizya), occultism, female genital mutilation, pedophilia, necromania, killing infidels to please their god, a heavenly Harem with 73 virgins awaiting, and other such demonic teachings. If not, the end result – severe Islamization. In short, read the Quran verses that teach these things for themselves and start comprehending the error – and run screaming out of it.
Malcolm (South Afric) says
Most of us have been saying that the bomber must of gone through Taliban check points. The Taliban must of known this.
What is wrong with the State Dept. the Pentagon. We know what is wrong with jihad Biden, he is a pathological liar, cheat, above all just plain dumb. However what is wrong with the Pentagon and the State Dept.
Just get it through your brain cells, the hate you and the rest of the Western World, they will use you then slay you. This will never change.
gravenimage says
Yes–the US leaving security to the bloody Taliban is insanity.
OLD GUY says
Looking at the pictures of the people coming out of Afghanistan I fail to see anything but islamic migrants.
gravenimage says
In almost all cases save for a handful of apostates this is true.