There has been remarkably little commentary regarding the recently terminated course  being taught to senior military officers at Norfolk’s Joint Forces Staff College that claimed that the disregard for battlefield norms by Muslim terrorists means that the Geneva conventions are “no longer relevant” and that “total war” to include a “Hiroshima expedient” should be employed against Islamic countries. Appreciating that all Muslims are the real enemy would justify nuking entire cities – most particularly the holy cities of Mecca and Medina – and starving into submission the remainder of the Saudi population. The course was canceled when it came to the attention of the Pentagon through an al-Jazeera report. It had been taught by a Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley, who is reported to be still on the school staff.

Meanwhile over at the FBI, a seminar revealed that the more religious a Muslim is the more likely he is to be violent. The conclusion is based on a chart that was part of the course material that “demonstrates” that Judaism and Christianity became less violent after they were founded whereas Islam took a wrong term and remained a violent religion. The historical basis for the judgment is not completely clear as one can find many examples of violent behavior by Christians and Jews, collectively speaking, since the seventh century.

It is commonly asserted that the neoconservatives have been seeking to use American military might to clean out the cesspool, which is more-or-less how they see the Muslim world. That may be true or perhaps not, or a shade of gray in between, but what is appalling is the profound ignorance that prevails in government circles relating to Islam.  What should be remarkable is how little American Muslims have been radicalized in spite of their co-religionists worldwide being blamed for nearly everything, including high gas prices (sanctions on Iranian oil diminishing supply are Iran’s fault). I suppose that a nation that appears to be bent on a course of national suicide based on confronting the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims in perpetuity needs to work out some way to explain why the enemy is evil manifest, but it would seem to me that creating a false narrative about Islam only reveals the shabbiness of the entire enterprise. That such a narrative is being promoted by people who should know better at the Pentagon and FBI is shameful. The slides for the FBI course were reportedly approved by two retired lieutenant generals and former CIA Director James Woolsey.