“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”
–Sun Tzu
I wrestled with this post for a bit, especially considering the current turmoil around refugees and immigration. I find myself divided on the issue of how we address refugees, from both a Christian and National standpoint. I clearly see the responsibility of Christians to be the hands and feet of Christ as we take the Gospel to the nations. On the other hand our national leaders have a constitutional responsibility to protect and defend the nation. Neither are easy, and both are fraught with challenges and danger.
In the end, I decided to go forward… So here goes.
Sun Tzu was a truly accomplished military leader; his knowledge and skill is studied to this day in both military and business settings. Knowing your adversary is a critical feature to understand how they can be defeated or at least thwarted. I was working on the preparation of a security briefing paper focused on developing actionable security intelligence. It became increasingly evident that there is much more to terrorist threats than we typically see in the media.
Several of the sources I use for the briefings are outputs of ISIS and other Jihadi groups. We, in the West tend to see these groups as backwater illiterates, or third world barbarians. But based on the material they produce this is so far from reality. These outputs rival any western news magazine in content, and media. Hi-def imagery and well written articles designed to encourage others to embrace the cause. These are the dangerous elements designed to grab the attention and affections of outcast and disenfranchised readers. The articles offer content that includes discourse on Islam to the critique of terrorist events. Often they include directives to avoid repeating the same mistakes in failed or compromised attacks. At the end of this post I have included the links to a sampling of the documents I collate for briefings. These are not for the faint of heart, not those un-accustomed to understanding the realities of global Islamic Jihad. These are not something you should let your children read.
But if you dare, take a moment to just review the documents yourself. Don’t take my word for it. But I expect you will, as I have, come away thinking we must know our enemy for they mean to destroy us.
Note: These files are big.