Sunday, September 21, 2008

Study of Terrorism is being hijacked

Mervyn F. Bendle. Hijacking Terrorism Studies, Quadrant 52:9, 10 p., September 2008.

In the realm of ideology, the war on terrorism is over—terrorism won. Is this assessment too bleak? Perhaps, but seven years after 9/11 the signs are not good. Various commentators have described how “the war of ideas” against terrorism and its associated ideologies is being lost in the UK, Europe and the US (for example, Melanie Phillips, Londonistan: How Britain is Creating a Terror State Within; Bat Ye’or, Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis; Walid Phares, The War of Ideas: Jihad Against Democracy), while in Australia the one book that attempted to describe local jihadism (Martin Chulov, Australian Jihad) was withdrawn under legal pressure.

Read the Quadrant article.

I found this information here and here.

Update:
A victory of sorts.

Culture wars bomb hits the military

SOME of Australia's top thinkers on national security have opened a new front in the culture wars - over whether a postmodernist interpretation of terrorism is brainwashing our next generation of military leaders.

At the centre of the intensely personal battle is the appointment as an associate professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy of Anthony Burke - who after claiming he was being misrepresented as "pro-terrorist", has demanded his chief critic be investigated for academic misconduct. Dr Burke, 42, complained to James Cook University over an article in Quadrant magazine by Merv Bendle, a senior lecturer in history and communications, which claimed university terrorism studies had been hijacked by a "neo-Marxist, postmodernist orthodoxy"
among academics.
More here.

6 comments:

Skeeter said...

Bless you, Kae.
You are doing very important work here.
I hold great fears for our future. Without you and and other bloggers like you, we are doomed.

Richard Sharpe said...

I wouldn't fret. All the damage the likes of Burke can do to a young mind in three years at the Academy can be undone in six months in a battalion. Even better, eight months in the sand pit.

kae said...

Hiya Richard
Six months in a battalion, but eight in the sandpit? Surely that's the other way ;round?
Do you know anyone who's been through the tripe?
I have a goddaughter who's a looie in the navy (she's now some bigwig's ADC), her mum was telling me that she'd though about getting out, but there's not much call in civvy street for someone from a warship who puts bombs and stuff on target.

Richard Sharpe said...

The new rotation model is eight months for deployments. Six months in a unit is enough to become jaded and pragmatic, just like the rest of us ;).

kae said...

Hmm. I see Richard.
Have you seen that HUGE storm south of Brisbane?

I can see the edge of it here. It's a ripper!
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/wrap_fwo.pl?IDQ20038.html
Oh crap, there's another one coming from south west - it's going to hit the Lockyer Valley.. that's me!

kae said...

Blair's covered this today.
He has some interesting commenters.

Shame they didn't come here and comment (Oh, ok, thanks to those of you who did!) Link to Tim Blair's post about this:
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/we_the_free_might_be_the_enemies_of_freedom/