Pentagon makes fighting extremism its top priority

Pentagon makes fighting extremism its top priority

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seven years after the September 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue.

The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills acquired in Iraq and Afghanistan within a defense community heavily skewed in favor of expensive conventional and strategic modernization programs.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is an interesting breaking news item.

From the article:

"Success in Iraq and Afghanistan is crucial to winning this conflict, but it alone will not bring victory," it added. "We cannot lose sight of the implications of fighting a long-term, episodic, multi-front and multidimensional conflict more complex and diverse than the Cold War."

Success in Iraq and Afghanistan is not enough eh?

Maybe because "success" for us in these places means we have only further enraged millions more Muslims?

How much more war can we expect to see in this fight against "extremism"?

Be careful ATS, you don't want to be thought of as extremists!

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 31-7-2008 by The_Alarmist2012]

My interpretation is a little different, but it's just that.
It sounds to me that the statement is saying it has two fronts of approaching current instability. Despite the misleading title which the media uses to catch the eyes of readers, It looks like the decision is to use diplomacy rather than shelling out billions to "conventional and strategic modernization programs", meaning the war machine. The government must have decided to swing its axe in a new direction. Maybe it has gathered enough resources to sustain its military expenditure for years to come and now seeks peace in its global game of 'good guy, bad guy, good guy'. It also looks like the Pentagoon, as the voice of America, is conceding its rank and acknowledging the other Superpowers.


[edit on 31/7/08 by bDaedal4ever]

Anyone else get the feeling that 'extremist' is going to be encompassing a few groups in the coming years? ATS? People who question government policies? pretty much anyone that don't agree with them?

To me this could be the start of something bad, "multidimensional fronts"? ignoring the literal, I believe this could mean 'homegrown terrorism' or the people here at ATS and people with similar views, never good.

EMM

Extremism as it applies to Islam only... Extremist Mormons, evangelical Christians, etc. are not yet considered enemies.

I am sure ATS is on their watch list tho.