Lone Survivor: Everything that’s wrong with our policy toward Islam…

I experienced the movie “Lone Survivor” this afternoon.

It is both a propaganda film and a lesson in everything that’s wrong with our policy  toward Islam.  It is also a film worth avoiding because it distorts the truth of the conflict and dwells on gore.

First, the propaganda:  Near the end of the movie, the Pashtuns, an Islamic Afghan/Iranian sect, were made out to be the heroes by sacrificing themselves to hide and save Marcus Lattrel, the lone survivor of the Seal team.  The endnotes to the movie portray the ancient Pashtun “ethic”, called Pashtunwali, in a very Christian light:  Sacrificing to save others.  It leaves the ignorant viewer of the movie to believe that Afghanistan is filled with these peace-loving, pro-American Pashtun with the ethics of angels.  NOTHING could be further from the truth.

Here is reality: 

“In the late 1990s, Pashtuns became known for being the primary ethnic group that comprised the Taliban, which was a religious government based on Islamic sharia law…”

The reality is that while 42% of the Afghan population is Pashtun, a significant number have sided with the Taliban.  The reality is that there may be only a small minority of the Pashtun who continue any semblance of a peace-loving persona of the Pashtunwali tradition as exclusively portrayed by this propaganda film.

Once again, the problem is Islam, not Afghanistan.

There are a number of other problems portrayed in the movie.

• Our rules of engagement (ROE):  They put our soldiers at a distinct disadvantage.  Our ROE fail to recognize the environment our men are required to engage – an environment where the enemy dress and act like civilians.  There should be no distinction when confronted.  The ROE prevent our soldiers from carrying out their mission.  If international laws of warfare are broken by the enemy, e.g. enemy combatants not wearing a uniform and hiding in the midsst of civilians, the other side (the US) should not be restricted in their behaviors. 
• Our political correctness:  I have no doubt that cultural sensitivity training these SEALS had to endure caused them to make absolutely the wrong decision that resulted in their failed mission and their ultimate death.  Fear of CNN trumped their fear of the enemy and resulted in a wrong and deadly decision.
• Technological failures:  Overreliance on technology and “an awful lot of moving parts” to a mission begged for failure. 
• Resource shortage:  Any public official who advocates running a war on the cheap as we are doing in Afghanistan ought to be convicted of treason.  The shortage of Apache helicopters and an effective extraction force is just one example.

And finally, and most significant, is our failure to recognize the real enemy:  The Islamic ideology.  The Taliban, al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and every one of the dozens of other Islamic terror organizations and front groups are the military and political arms of the Islamic ideology.  We, as a nation, fail to recognize this.  We need to consider every human being who knowingly insists on affiliation with Islam to be an enemy and threat to our nation.

Yes, there are cultural Muslim who are ignorant of the Islamic ideology.  They need to be educated about the evils of Islam so they become knowledgeable, aware, and convinced to the point where they can freely and intelligently renounce their ignorant Islamic association.  But this will never happen because most of our leaders and media of this nation are also ignorant of the Islamic ideology – they wrongly insist it is a religion of peace.

As long as we continue in this ignorance, we are doomed to failure.  We will see Lone Survivor repeated time and time again ad nauseum – someday in our own nation.