(ThyBlackMan.com) There are some things in life which are just obvious – as a matter of fact, I refer to these things as Bravo-Foxtrot-Oscar (Blinding Flash of the Obvious). For example, states run by conservative governors do better than those run by progressive socialists — just compare Texas with California. And oh by the way, now that I’m here in Texas, to Californians moving here, please leave your whacked-out policies and ideologies back out west – they’re the reason why you and businesses are departing that state. Another B-F-O is that if an organization calls itself the “Islamic” State, chances are it is Islamic.
So here’s another example of a study resulting in a report that is simply Bravo-Foxtrot-Oscar.
As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, “Israel’s military restraint during the conflict in Gaza last summer “unintentionally empowered Hamas” by allowing the terror group to distort international law and secure a public relations victory by exploiting the media, according a task force of retired U.S. generals.”
“The task force also warned that Hamas’ disinformation strategy could be replicated against the U.S. military and advised the U.S. government to institute a plan to combat similar media campaigns in the future. “Hamas supported false claims against the [Israel Defense Forces] by distorting stories and images to serve the organization’s narrative, and by manipulating stories in the international media,” said the Gaza Conflict Task Force in a report commissioned by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and released on Monday.”
So joke Sherlock! We’ve had many a discussion here about winning the information war and defeating the Islamist enemy’s propaganda and ideology — which Islamapologists dismiss and excuse away.
You have to wonder if someone like Nancy Pelosi is a willing tool for Hamas when she declared it was a “humanitarian” organization? And remember the U.N. representative who condemned Israel for not sharing the Iron Dome technology with Hamas? Apparently Hamas’ disinformation strategy has already affected the West.
Actually, we are already guilty of self-imposed restraint by way of the insidious ROE (rules of engagement) under which our troops in combat are constrained in fighting the enemy. How else do you explain the imprisonment of Army 1LT Clint Lorance?
The Beacon says, “the task force, which traveled to Israel while conducting the assessment, included General Charles Wald, Lieutenant General William B. Caldwell IV, Lieutenant General Richard Natonski, Major General Rick Devereaux, and Major 
General Mike Jones.”
Here’s another blatantly obvious revelation: “The report, titled “The 2014 Gaza War: Observations and Implications for U.S. Military Operations,” concluded that Hamas was not aiming for a military victory but instead put Gaza’s civilians at risk in order to increase casualties and damage the global standing of the Israel Defense Forces. The main goal, according to the report, was to build international pressure on Israel. “Hamas proved very effective at exploiting images of civilian deaths (created by their tactics of using human shields, which we reported here), particularly children, to gain international sympathy to their cause and a high degree of international opposition to the Israeli cause,” said the report. “Further, Hamas was effective at not allowing access to their more brutal and illegal actions, beyond what they published themselves as part of their internal intimidation efforts.”
The goal of Hamas is to inflict terror, but more so to delegitimize Israel and its sovereign right to exist. And in that case, Hamas –as well as others — are winning. Look at the rise in the level of anti-Semitism globally — we wrote about the BDS (Boycott-Divest-Sanction) movement yesterday. This anti-Semitism isn’t just prevalent in Europe, but alive and well on our American college and university campuses. Heck, just recall the despicable behavior of some Democrat legislators — and President Obama — during the recent visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. Hamas has been strategically effective.
“According to the task force, the techniques used by Hamas “represent an evolution in unconventional warfare, and will probably be imitated and improved upon by America’s enemies.” The report recommended that the United States should institute a “whole-of government approach” to countering such efforts. “The U.S. government and military must come to grips with the increased importance and use of the information domain in war,” said the task force. “They must develop effective countermeasures to this enemy advantage, as it threatens to exploit a strategic vulnerability for the United States and its allies.”
Sadly generals, the enemy is already exploiting a strategic vulnerability — the recalcitrance to define the enemy for who they are. This means the enemy is free to use its ideology as a weapon and a recruiting tool. We are also aiding the enemy by condemning ourselves and developing false messaging narratives such as “GITMO is a recruiting tool for the enemy.”
No, the enemy and its actions, fueled by ideology, is its recruiting tool. We are not leveraging the information domain, as a matter of fact, we are affording the enemy every advantage on the information domain — ISIS and Islamic jihadists are masters at using social media to promulgate their barbarism.
We certainly do not have a “whole-of-government approach” when the commander-in-chief stands at a National Prayer Breakfast and invokes moral equivalency and religious relativism in the face of savagery by Islamists. The only “crusade” is the one that has lasted nearly 1,400 years by Islamic jihadists and totalitarians devoted to global conquest and the establishment of a worldwide caliphate.
The report concludes “We do not believe the Israeli level of restraint should be considered the standard for U.S. armed forces in future conflicts.”
Sorry generals, we are already at and beyond that level of restraint — even worse, we are fully emboldening the enemy and abandoning our allies. We are on the verge of an executive agreement with the state sponsor of Hamas, Iran. We released five senior members of the Taliban to Qatar, home to the leader of Hamas — whose Emir was just recently in the White House Oval Office meeting with President Obama. And we are shunning the one country, Egypt, which stood against the other major sponsor of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hate to say this, but the JINSA report was a complete waste of time. I hope these generals had a nice trip to Israel because we’re already losing the information campaign.
Written By Allen West
Official website; http://AllenBWest.com