How do you occupy the internet?

by Philip Weiss

The neocons are flailing. JINSA, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, has sent out another email saying that the Obama plan to "train and equip" local proxies in the war on terror is failing because these local forces are part and parcel of the problem. Of course JINSA cites the Palestinian Authority as an example:

The PA is building an army that will first kill Hamas on the West Bank (with Israeli assistance) but it has no illusion of taking the fight to Hamas in Gaza. Is its goal the destruction of Israel?

JINSA's only answer is: western occupation. It worries that the west is too hung up on the killing of civilians and offers this recipe for permanent war:

American and allied troops are told that NOT killing civilians is a primary goal-even at the cost of higher American casualties-in order not to "create more terrorists." But if terrorists are created by American military activity, wouldn't it make sense to go home? In the meantime, Reuters reports that U.S. and allied troops killed 76 percent more civilians in Pakistan in the first quarter of 2010 than the first quarter of 2009.

In 2001, President Bush said the West was at war with terrorists and the states that harbor and support them. Now we appear to have let the states off the hook-aligning ourselves with governments that may still harbor and support terrorists, but which we hope will turn and kill them given enough American money, arms, training and troop support.

We believe terrorists are in fact created NOT by American military operations, but through the longstanding and very deep network of Islamic schools, mosques and personal intervention funded by oil states including Iran and Saudi Arabia and aided by the internet and other media.

http://mondoweiss.net/2010/05/how-do-you-occupy-the-internet.html