Whack-a-Mo, Swat a Mo-squito (pullulating out of Mega-Mosques and smaller Mosque-itos)...

Revisiting the Angel Sabasa's laughable (but, alas, all too seriously considered by our Beltway think-tanks) book on the problem of Muslim “extremists” and its solution (the West should help to promote worldwide networks of the putative vast majority of Muslim “moderates” who can't seem to do anything about their tiny minority of extremists) reminded me that one crucial thing that should be looked for among these various jihadist communications venues is the extent to which they realize how useful the symbolism of the “Muslim moderate” can be to their ongoing cause—to wit, as part of the current PC MC paradigm in the West by which the West continues to think in terms of a division between a harmless mainstream Islam and a relatively tiny minority of “extremists” who are trying to “hijack” harmless Islam. By perpetuating this paradigm, the West actually tends to continue to give cover to the “extremists” insofar as the extremists are drawing their inspiration and support from a much broader swath of mainstream Muslims than the paradigm’s narrow vision allows for recognizing.

Needless to say, if any jihadists are smart enough to realize this, they may then also be smart enough to realize that they should be very careful about communicating this realization too openly, for it might serve to help undermine the very Western paradigm that is currently proving useful to their efforts. Currently, the worst they have to worry about from Western intelligence are industrious networks of mosquito-swatters who forever try to swat the jihadists that keep pullulating out of the swamp of the Umma—but never think to do something about the swamp itself or worse yet, actively obstruct any analyses and policies that might be directed to doing something about the swamp, because the swamp, being Islam itself and the mainstream community of Muslims around the world, cannot possibly be connected to the jihadists who are endangering us, you see.

As long as Western intelligence is only playing whack-a-mo and swatting at the mo-squitos, not only through ObamaDrone, but through our COIN strategy itself in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its broader more diffuse (and more disastrous) spawn in the way we deal with the revival of Islam throughout the Muslim world (particularly the "Arab Spring" regions), and as long as our industrious analysts only follow the activities of these myriad moles and mosquitos in their dizzyingly complex taxonomies, the jihadists need only worry about dodging our artless clubs, swatters and sprays of insecticide—but never have to worry about the West getting wise to the real source of their nourishment, breeding, inspiration and support: Islam, the whole Islam, and nothing but Islam, so help me Allah.