Civility ‘By George’

Review by Bill Doughty

In his first Easter address today Pope Leo XIV said this, in part: “Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!”

In one of President Trump's messages issued on Easter Sunday, after threatening to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age,” Trump said: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”*

George Washington would not have approved of Trump’s message.

First Commander in Chief George Washington lived by a code of manners, habits, and values. His 110 rules may seem quaint by today’s standards, but many of his words of wisdom –– which originally came from a French Jesuit book of etiquette –– resonate powerfully hundreds of years later, especially when we compare his code of conduct with that of the current CINC.

Washington’s rules are examined in “By George!: Mr. Washington’s Guide to Civility Today” by Steven Michael Selzer (Andrews McMeer Publishing 2000).

Selzer wrote this small book more than 20 years before Trump dared to compare himself as a better president than Abraham Lincoln or George Washington.

Selzer observed cracks in society at the turn of the millennium with plenty of symptoms of incivility, hate speech, and meanness. He writes:

“Rudeness. Crudeness. Thoughtlessness. Uncivilized behavior is everywhere. From the boss who publicly chews out her assistant, to the driver who barrels dangerously down the highway, to the sports fan who yells obscenities at the ball game, there is little doubt that we live in an increasingly barbaric world. And it's just as clear that many of us would like to see things change.

Polls indicate that a great many Americans long for greater civility because the way we treat one another has a powerful impact on our daily life. Civility in this context goes beyond good manners. It means behaving honorably and ethically in all aspects of our lives.

The problem is we just don't know how to behave anymore. On the one hand we're taught to be forthright and assertive in our interactions, while on the other hand there is an expectation that we will be extremely polite — even passive –– when faced with a problem or conflict. The mixed messages are confusing and misleading. What Americans need is a model of civility, one we can look to for insight and inspiration.”

Washington copied the 110 rules down at age fourteen and kept them as his model for good and honorable behavior.

Many of the rules apply to a different time in history –– an 18th century era of castes, chauvinism, and codes for dress, table manners, and body language. For example, Rule 2 says, basically, “watch where you scratch;” Rule 9 admonishes, loosely, “don’t spit in the fire;” Rule 13 advises, literally, “Kill no vermin, as fleas, lice, ticks, etc., in the sight of others;” and Rule 100 tells diners, “Cleanse not your teeth with the tablecloth, napkin, fork, or knife.”

Washington's wording sometimes comes across as old-fashioned and stilted, but Selzer helps translate and contextualize the insights along the way.

Many of the 110 rules stand out as golden rule common sense advice, which is especially relevant 250 years after the birth of the United States. There is some redundancy and a scolding tone, but there are also some gems that reach across the years:

Rule 1: “Every action done in company ought to be done with some sign of respect to those that are present.” Show some respect, including to the legislature, judiciary, and media!

Rule 6: “Sleep not when others speak, sit not when others stand, speak not when you should hold your peace.” Wake up even if you’re not “woke.”

Rule 21: “Reproach none for the infirmities of nature, not delight them that have have them in mind.” Don’t make fun of disabilities.

Rule 22: “Shew not yourself glad at the misfortune of another, though he were your enemy.” Speak only good things about those who pass away –– or say nothing at all.

Rule 25: “Superfluous compliments and all affectation of ceremony are to be avoided.” Be careful about commenting on the appearance of others or in wrapping yourself in the flag.

Rule 26: “Remove your hat to persons of distinction … make a reverence…” Especially during dignified transfers of the remains of service members who die in wars you start. It’s common sense.

In a speech to the citizens of Baltimore on April 17, 1789, Washington said, “It appears to me that little more than common sense and common honesty, in the transaction of the community at large, would be necessary to make us a great and happy nation.”

Rule 35: “Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive.” Selzer expounds: “Be short and comprehensive in speech. It is inconsiderate to waste the time of others.” Ramble not.

Rule 36: (Translates to) Remain humble and treat everyone equally. “…Treat them with affability and courtesy, without arrogancy.”

Rule 47: “Mock not nor jest at anything of importance, break no jests that are sharp and biting..” Imagine George’s and the other founders’ horror at some of the AI generated memes and vitriolic social media texts by the current White House.

Rule 49: “Use no reproachful language against anyone, neither curse nor revile.” [*For example, Trump’s Easter post to Iran.]

Selzer notes, “Profanity demeans us, not those against whom we use it. And it usually backfires.”

Rule 50: “Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any.” Ignore gossip and rumors –– and conspiracies such as Big Lies and distorted statistics.

Rule 56: “Associate yourself with men of good quality …” Consider Trump’s second administration, which included Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi and still includes (for now) Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, and Pete Hegseth. His first choice for Attorney General was Matt Gaetz.

Rule 58: “Let your conversation be without malice or envy as a sign of a commendable nature.”

Rule 59: “Never express anything unbecoming nor act against the moral rules…”

Rule 61: “Utter not base and frivolous things among grave and learned men…”

Rule 63: “A man ought not to value himself of his achievements or rare qualities of wit, much less of his riches, virtue, or kindred.” How many presidents railed publicly about not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize or bragged about their wealth and self-proclaimed virtues?

Rule 76: “While you are talking, point not with your finger at him of whom you discourse, nor approach too near to him to whom you talk, especially to his face.” Including members of the press.

Rule 82: “Undertake not what you cannot perform but be careful to keep your promise.” If you promise to lower prices, release all the Epstein files, and not start a war it’s important to keep your promises.

Selzer adds, “A promise is to keep. Trust is based on performing on your promises. You should always be there when it counts. People rely on you, and you should be willing to make a personal sacrifice to meet your commitments.”

Public office should not be a means for self-enrichment and profiteering. Selzer notes that during the eight years General Washington fought the Revolutionary War, he spent only three days of respite at his Mount Vernon home. “To keep a promise, George Washington believed in sacrifice –– he lost half his net worth during the Revolutionary War.”

Rule 88: “Be not tedious in discourse, make not many digressions, nor repeat often the same manner of discourse.” Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Rule 89: “Speak not evil of the absent, for it is unjust.” Selzer adds, “Fairness is basic to our entire social system.” And, “If ever there was a golden opportunity to exercise the golden rule, this is it.”

Rule 110: “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.” If you have a conscience.

Washington’s final rule focuses on conscience as the ultimate guide toward civility. He frowned on hubris, self-importance, and dishonest behavior. Instead, he sought to follow his conscience toward humility, kindness, respect, tolerance, restraint and empathy. Civility

George Washington lived core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment.

One of his namesakes, USS George Washington (CVN 73), is part of the Forward-Deployed Naval Forces and calls Yokosuka, Japan, its current home.

Selma March II; 'Our Military at its Best'

by Bill Doughty

John Lewis in 1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson, a World War II Navy veteran and Navy reservist, called for Navy divers to help search for missing victims of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Fifty years ago, after activists were gassed and beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on "Bloody Sunday," LBJ called in military resources to protect demonstrators.

The bridge was named for a Confederate general, Alabama Senator and KKK leader. It became a battlefield defended by Alabama state police against people who wanted equality and the right to vote. 
LBJ directed the military to protect the demonstrators who refused to give up their march for democratic ideals.

The second attempt to march across the bridge was a success and, according to Congressman John Lewis, a turning point in what he calls a revolution of values and ideas.

Two weeks earlier, Lewis was among those who were clubbed, gassed and trampled by horses. Recently, he told Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation that he thought he would die. But Lewis expressed his gratitude for the military's protection of the march from Selma to Montgomery. He also told Schieffer how extraordinary it was to hear FBI Director Comey voice his support for transparency and accountability of law enforcement.

LBJ's military was there "all along the way. People inspecting the bridges along the way. Guarding the camps at night. It was our military. It was our military at its best," Lewis said.

Demonstrators, white and black, marched peacefully for equality and against discrimination in the voting process, where African Americans were singled out for tests on literacy, knowledge or character in order to restrict their ability to register to vote.  They were forced to try to answer ridiculous questions like, "How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?" When they attempted to vote regardless, they were blocked or beaten.
In LBJ's speech before Congress on Voting Rights delivered March 15, 1965 he made several references to the military:

"At times, history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man's unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. 
"... As we meet here in this peaceful historic chamber tonight, men from the South, some of whom were at Iwo Jima, men from the North who have carried Old Glory to the far corners of the world and who brought it back without a stain on it, men from the east and from the west are all fighting together without regard to religion or color or region in Vietnam."

Congressman Lewis, who led the original march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge 50 years ago, and who is marching with Commander in Chief President Barack Obama this week, recounts his experience for young people in a graphic novel series called "March."
Book 1 starts with Lewis as a boy growing up in rural Alabama and takes us through his meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the death of Emmett Till, the activism of Rosa Parks, and interracial lunch counter demonstrations to achieve equality and integration.  Book 2 of "March" was recently published, and Book 3 is on its way.
In 2012, Lewis published "Across that Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change."

Douglas Brinkley, who wrote "Across that Bridge's" introduction, calls Lewis an "apostle of quiet strength." He says, "Every young person should read this homily of civility, a welcome antidote to the noisy chatter of self indulgence exemplified by the surge of me-me-me social media in our lives."

Lewis, himself, lives in the light of Dr. King. He writes with poetic flair:

"Lean toward the whisper of your own heart, discover the universal truth, and follow its dictates. Know the truth always leads to love and the perpetuation of peace. Its products are never bitterness and strife."

Navy veteran President Johnson shakes hands with Dr. King after signing Voting Rights Act.

Johnson seemed to listen to what Lincoln described as "the better angels of our nature" in LBJ's speech 50 years ago. He echoed the nonviolence themes of "we shall overcome," and he called for all Americans to live up to the ideals of the Constitution as he obviously considered his own place in history:

"We must preserve the right to free assembly ... We do have a right to protest. And a right to march under conditions that do not infringe the Constitutional rights of our neighbors. And I intend to protect all those rights as long as I am permitted to serve in this office.
"We will guard against violence, knowing it strikes from our hands the very weapons which we seek – progress, obedience to law, and belief in American values. In Selma, as elsewhere, we seek and pray for peace. We seek order, we seek unity, but we will not accept the peace of stifled rights or the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest – for peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty.
"I want to be the president who educated young children to the wonders of their world. I want to be the President who helped to feed the hungry and to prepare them to be taxpayers instead of tax eaters. I want to be the President who helped the poor to find their own way and who protected the right of every citizen to vote in every election. I want to be the President who helped to end hatred among his fellow men and who promoted love among the people of all races, all regions and all parties. I want to be the President who helped to end war among the brothers of this earth."

United States Congressman John Lewis was 23 years old, about the average age of a shipboard Sailor today, when he helped lead the march in Selma. 

The graphic novel "March" fittingly portrays him speaking to young people and explaining how he came to appreciate life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

His perspective on where we were, how far we've come and the role of the military in the defense of freedom is invaluable.

John McCain: The Bell Tolls

Review by Bill Doughty

The bell tolls for John McCain.

He says so in "The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations" (Simon & Schuster, 2018), a book mentioned last May in "The Found Haiku of John McCain."

Senator McCain, a Navy veteran and former POW, calls for civility, humility and compassion in this heartfelt memoir. He opens the book with "accumulated memories" while attending the Pearl Harbor Remembrance ceremony on December 7, 1991 on the 50th anniversary of the attack; he attended with fellow senators Bob Dole and Dan Inouye. President George H. W. Bush delivered remarks.

Among Bush's remarks were these words: "World War II also taught us that isolationism is a bankrupt notion. The world does not stop at our water's edge. And perhaps above all, that real peace, real peace, the peace that lasts, means the triumph of freedom, not merely the absence of war."

Vice Adm. John S. McCain Sr., the senator's grandfather.

"That day, we watched two thousand Pearl Harbor survivors march to honor their fallen," McCain writes. In recent years only a relative handful of survivors are able to attend the ceremony in Pearl Harbor.

Among his accumulated memories: the service and sacrifices of his grandfather, father, mother (matriarch of a military family) and other family members and friends. Many of his closest friends were fellow prisoners of war and other Vietnam veterans.

"I feel the weight of memories even more now, of course," he writes in "The Restless Wave."

John Donne

Written with long-time collaborator Mark Salter, McCain cites several times both Hemingway's war novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and the lines of prose by John Donne that inspired Hemingway's title:

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were... Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."

Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in 1954 for "For Whom the Bell Tolls."

John McCain will turn 82 this August 29. Now, as he reflects on a life well-lived in "The Restless Wave," he calls for greater concern for the civil rights of those he considers less fortunate than himself.

"I believe the United States has a special responsibility to champion human rights in all places, for all peoples, and at all times. I've believed that all my life. I was raised to believe it, to see it in the examples of gallantry put before me, in the histories and novels and poems I was encouraged to read, in the conduct of the heroes I admired, those to whom I was related or knew personally, and those who were commended to me. I am a democratic internationalist, a proud one, and have been all my public life. I could have been nothing else given my role models and influences. I took from Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' that defending the dignity of others is never a lost cause whether you succeed or not. And I thrill to the exhortation in the poem that inspired the novel, to be 'part of the main,' to be 'involved in mankind.'"

McCain reflects on his experience in the Senate – as the Navy's liaison while still on active duty – to his fights "with and against" Ted Kennedy. He recounts his stand against torture,  experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, position on Putin and pivotal vote to save the Affordable Care Act.

Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy.

Defending dignity is at the core of Americans' national identity, McCain writes. "The right to life and liberty, to be governed by consent and ruled by laws, to have equal justice and protection of property ... and it is fidelity to them – not ethnicity or religion, culture or class – that makes one an American." Our creed "gave us a purpose in the world greater than self-interest."

Consider that perspective this weekend on the first anniversary of the murder of a civil rights activist by a white supremacist in Charlottesville, Virginia.

"Humility," McCain writes, "is the self-knowledge that you possess as much inherent dignity as anyone else, and not one bit more." He approaches the issue of immigration with humility, offering practical and compassionate solutions as he acknowledges the problems of illegal immigration and the challenges of border control but balanced with an understanding of the causes and a humane response.

Common themes throughout "Wave" are reasoned humility and a principled tough stand for human rights.

"Human rights are not our invention. They don't represent standards from which particular cultures or religions can be exempted. They are universal. They exist above the state and beyond history. They cannot be rescinded by one government any more than they can be granted by another ... Human rights advocacy isn't naive idealism. It's the truest kind of realism. Statesmen who think that all that really matters in international relations is how governments treat each other are wrong. The character of states can't be separated from their conduct in the world. Governments that protect the rights of their citizens are more likely to play a peaceful, constructive role in world affairs. Governments that are unjust, that cheat, lie, steal, and use violence against their own people are more likely to do the same to other nations."

McCain talks tough about the dangers posed by authoritarian leaders, including Russia's Putin, who he met and spoke with several times over the years. McCain warns specifically of "Russia's nostalgia for empire" after the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union.

"Resentment and humiliation spread in Russia in the chaos, dislocation, and corruption of the erratic Yeltsin years, and eased the way for that striving, resentful KGB colonel, who seems to feel those emotions sharply and, to borrow an observation from 'Game of Thrones,' used chaos as a ladder," he writes.

McCain describes a fascinating interaction with Putin at the Munich Security Conference in 2007. While still on active duty, McCain first attended the conference in 1970 when he was Navy liaison to the Senate. In 2007, in the face of a fiery rhetorical attack on the United States, McCain responded with quiet resolve: "The United States did not singlehandedly win the Cold War in some unilateral victory," he told Putin and the European conference attendees. "The transatlantic alliance won the Cold War."

In "Wave" McCain recounts his interaction with Bill Browder, whose Russian lawyer, Sergei Manitsky, 37-year-old father of two, was arrested under Putin's orders and beaten to death by eight prison guards and orderlies. McCain, along with Representative Jim McGovern, Senator Ben Cardin and "a long list of co-sponsors," introduced what would become the Global Magnitsky Act calling for sanctions against Russian oligarchs, among others.

Profiles in Courage: Sen. John McCain meets with Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

Putin's reaction to the Magnitsky Act likely contributed directly to Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

McCain reflects on human rights in his discussion of Ukrainian independence and threats to Balkan states by Putin's Russia.

He invokes Martin Luther King's "'the fierce urgency of now,' the transformational moment when aspirations for freedom must be realized, when the voice of a movement can't be stilled, when the heart's demands will not stand further delay."  Human rights is at the forefront in his interactions with leaders and dissidents in dozens of countries:

"I have done what little I can to stand in solidarity with forces of change in countries aligned with us and opposed to us, in Russia, in Ukraine, in Georgia and Moldova, in China, in Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, in Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, in Cuba, Nicaragua, in Zimbabwe and South Africa, [in Burma (Myanmar)], and wherever else people fighting for their human rights wanted our help. I've protested killings, torture, and imprisonments. I worked to sanction oppressive regimes. I've encouraged international pressure on the worst offenders. I've helped secure support for people building the framework of an open society. I've monitored elections, consoled the families of political prisoners, worried about the risk-takers and mourned their deaths. I've gotten more from them than they've gotten from me. I've gotten their hope, their faith, and their friendship."

He devotes one of his ten chapters to the Arab Spring and laments the situation in Syria:

"As of today, as the Syrian war continues, more than 400,000 people have been killed, many of them civilians. More than five million have fled the country and more than six million have been displaced internally. A hundred years from now, Syria will likely be remembered as one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of the twenty-first century, and an example of human savagery at its most extreme. But it will be remembered, too, for the invincibility of human decency and the longing for freedom and justice evident in the courage and selflessness of the White Helmets and the soldiers fighting for their country's freedom from tyranny and terrorists. In that noblest of human conditions is the eternal promise of the Arab Spring, which was engulfed in flames and drowned in blood, but will, like all springs come again."

One of the best parts of this memoir is the final chapter, where McCain reflects with humble poetic insight about family, home, friendship, service and true patriotism as the bell tolls:

"'The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it,' spoke my hero, Robert Jordan, in 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' And I do, too. I hate to leave it. But I don't have a complaint. Not one. It's been a great ride," McCain writes.

Confronting 'Thrill-Kill Cult' of ISIS

Review by Bill Doughty

An examination of the roots, branches and seeds of ISIS/ISIL/Da'esh can be found in two new approaches to the study of Islamist-jihadist theology: Fawaz A. Gerges's "ISIS: A History" (2016, Princeton University Press) and Malcolm Nance's "Defeating Isis: Who They Are, How They Fight, What They Believe" (2016, Skyhorse Publishing) including a foreword by Richard Engel, NBC's Chief Foreign Correspondent.

Both books reveal how Salafi-Jihadists arose from Sunni and Shia strife, and each author offers advice on how ISIS can be defeated, a "complex task that requires political and social strategies that deny the group the oxygen that sustains it," according to Gerges.

Gerges shows "the world according to ISIS" and how jihadism evolved from Zarqawi to Baghdadi. The evolution accelerated as wars in Iraq and Syria created a crisis in Sunni identity; that led to a breakdown in respect for countries' borders.

"Following a rapid rise and concomitant territorial conquests, the so-called Islamic State, also known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), ISIL, (Islamic State of Iraq and wa-Sham or Levant), or by its Arabic abbreviation, Da'esh, has for now, by default, taken operational command and leadership of the global jihadist movement, eclipsing Al-Qaeda Central (AQC), which attacked the U.S. homeland on September 11, 2001. At the time of writing, ISIS controls a wide swath of territory in Iraq and Syria, as large as the United Kingdom, with a population estimated at roughly between six million and nine million people. Additionally, ISIS controls a sectarian army numbering more than thirty thousand combatants, in part through an amalgamation of local armed insurgents in Iraq and Syria and foreign recruits."

Fawaz A. Georges

Gerges says we must confront the ideology "frozen in time and space" from centuries ago that binds the groups of radicalized Sunni Muslims.

"It is easy to dismiss the Salafi-Jihadists ... as monsters, savages, and killers. It is also tempting to belittle their religious fanaticism and messianism as un-Islamic. This type of moral and ethical condemnation overlooks a painful truth: that an important Sunni constituency believes in the group's utopian and romantic vision of building an Islamic state, even though many might not condone its gruesome violence. Other Sunnis have lent a helping hand to ISIS because they see it as an effective bulwark against the Shia- and Alawite-dominated governments in Baghdad and Damascus respectively, as well as their Iranian patrons. Through its rapid emergence in the aftermath of the civil strife that has gripped the Middle East since 2011, ISIS has managed to effectively tap into a crisis of Sunni Arab identity in Iraq, Syria and beyond."

Both authors agree on how ISIS got its start – in the "social rupture" and "repercussions" caused in Iraq in 2003. According to Gerges: "The U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, combined with the subsequent social turmoil and prolonged and costly armed resistance, led to the dismantling of state institutions and the establishment of a political system based on muhasasa, or the distribution of spoils of power along communal, ethnic, and tribal lines."

In "Defeating Isis," Nance writes:

"The invasion of Iraq was not just an exhausting failure, unsuccessful in stamping out insurgency and terrorism; it actually created he entire legion of terror and tyranny that we know as the Islamic State. Had the invasion not toppled the existing social, political, and tribal structure of Mesopotamia, there would be no ISIS to fight. Al-Qaeda might well have died slowly in the mountains of Pakistan. Today, however, the global jihadist movement under the aegis of a newly minted ISIS has reinforced their ranks and even provided the old-guard al-Qaeda with enough recruits to conduct terrorist acts across such a widely diverse number of regions that the world is adjusting to the circumstances in what is becoming the 'new normal.'"

The origins and subsequent atrocities of jihadism – including suicide bombings, such as the attack on USS Cole (DDG 51) in 2000 and attacks of 9/11/2001 and since, as well as gruesome beheadings and burnings of prisoners alive – are extremely uncomfortable to read and think about.

I was reminded of the excellent Frontline specials on ISIS, including "The Rise of ISIS" and the latest, "Contronting ISIS" with correspondent Martin Smith. "Warning: tonight's program contains graphic imagery of war and extreme violence."

Watch Frontline and you'll want to dive deeper into how and why the war is leading back to Mosul, for example.

An AV-8B Harrier with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) takes off from the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) Aug. 8, 2016 for a precision air strike against ISIL targets in Sirte, Libya. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Zhiwei Tan)

Gerges's insightful narrative is well-written and heartfelt. He examines the effects of not only a power vacuum but also a thought vacuum due to millenarian, end-of-the-world tribal thinking. "Formal separation of mosque and state is essential in order to end the instrumentalization of religion for political purposes by both religious and secular politicians."

Freedom-worshipping philosopher Voltaire

At just over 500 pages, Nance's book is encyclopedic in presenting the who, what, when, where and why of Da'esh. How to defeat the terrorists? Nance's recommendation is: Target the ideology as well as the entrenched warriors, and do so surgically with continued creative use of Special Warfare and airpower.

Da'esh's nasty lack of civility, love of authoritarian male domination, tyranny over dissent, and hate-based superstitious ideology succeed when people fail to apply critical thinking skills. Nance concludes:

"The French philosopher Voltaire once remarked, 'Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities.' ISIS is the epitome of this commentary. The absurdity of their cult ideology has caused the deaths of tens of thousands and subjugated millions under their rule. If the war to defeat ISIS could be fought with just the strength and moral fiber of Lt. Kasabeh [Jordanian pilot burned to death in a cage] and Ruqi Hassan [assassinated for writing the truth about life in 'the fantasy of the caliphate.'] then the outcome would be the swift and utter destruction of this cult. Yet for all of the social power ready to be harnessed, a grand war promises not even the slightest chance of success until the ISIS cult's murderous mayhem is reframed, redefined, and revealed as the apocalyptic thrill-kill death cult that it is. Redefining and fighting this ideology with a single, damning word, "cult," is more accurate, readily consumable, and believable than hoping that ISIS will somehow contain itself or self-destruct."

Gerges concludes that ISIS is only the latest brand of Islamist extremist philosophy, what Peter Bergen calls "binladenism." Gerges writes: "Ideas are the first line of defense against the Salafi-jihadist nihilistic ideology and the final nail in its coffin. Without this revolution in ideas, the narrative and brand of Salafi-jihadism, of which iSIS is the most recent iteration, will continue to prevail in the Arab-Islamic world."


MEDITERRANEAN SEA (Sept. 24, 2016) Boatswain's Mate Seaman Noah Cheeks, from Follansbee, W.Va., dons a cranial during flight operations aboard USS Ross (DDG 71) Sept. 24, 2016. Ross, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, forward-deployed to Rota, Spain, is providing multi-warfare defense support to Charles de Gaulle carrier-based operations in the Eastern Mediterranean against identified ISIL positions in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Theron J. Godbold/Released)