When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton said that's where the money is. Washington targets the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia because it's where most proved oil and gas reserves are.

Waging war require enemies. Pretexts create them. Muslims are demonized as threats. They're portrayed as culturally inferior, dirty, lecherous, untrustworthy, religiously fanatical, and violent. Slanderous media commentaries suggest gun-totting terrorists threatening US interests.

Fear is heightened. Strategically timed false flag terror plots make headlines. So do arrests of entrapped Muslims despite no evidence of crime or intent to commit one.

Americans are manipulated to believe domestic and foreign jihadists threaten national security. Resource wars follow.

Enemies are dehumanized. Military training creates Groupthink. Recruits are manipulated to hate. Indoctrination involves sensitizing them to become effective combat killing machines.

On May 10, wired.com contributors Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman headlined "US Military Taught Officers: Use 'Hiroshima' Tactics for 'Total War' on Islam," saying:

Total war is taught to protect America from Islamic terrorists. Options include destroying an entire "civilian population wherever necessary."

The Norfolk, VA-based Joint Forces Staff College taught "Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism." High-ranking officers were instructed to believe "Islam had already declared war on the West."

A wired.com Danger Room investigation revealed it. Damage control followed. Lt. General George Flynn in charge of training and education said:

"It was inflammatory....(T)hat's really not what we're talking about. That is not how we view this situation or the challenges we have in the world today."

The White House ordered counterterrorism training content reviewed. The "Perspectives" course was taught since 2004. It "not only evaded review, but had defenders in the Joint Forces Staff College (who) taught it."

Lecturer Stephen Coughlin taught that "Islamic law is a danger to US national security." College spokesman Steven Williams said around 90% of students considered course content "mostly positive."

After revisions were made last year, some officers objected to offensive material. According to Flynn:

"We looked at it and we found the material to be objectionable and we started digging into it to see, how did the course get this way?"

"Possibly, we did not follow the procedures we should have followed in academically approving the course, but that’ll be formally determined when we complete the inquiry into this."

Course content allegedly had to follow "White House-approved guidelines issued by the Department of Homeland Security to prevent anti-Islam material from being taught by the US government."

Flynn said "whatever action is warranted" will be done to assure compliance.

On May 10, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey said instructor Lt. Colonel Matthew A. Dooley remains on Norfolk's staff but is "no longer in a teaching status."

He taught content about waging total war on Muslim civilians "wherever necessary." He likened it to firebombing Dresden and Hiroshima/Nagasaki destruction. Other course lecturers encouraged students "to think of themselves as a 'resistance movement' to Islam."

Demsey and Flynn "pulled the plug on the course last month." An investigation began. Major General Frederick Rudesheim heads it. "Final judgment" awaits his findings.

"The military is hardly alone in dealing with anti-Islam instructional material passing itself off as responsible counterterrorism."

"Over the years, hundreds of documents claiming 'mainstream' Muslims are 'violent' have made their way into FBI curricula, alongside internal claims that agents working on counterterrorism cases could 'bend or suspend the law.' "

The Bureau teaches agents that "mainstream" Muslims are "violent," that Islam "ma(kes) its followers want to commit 'genocide,' " and an "FBI intelligence analyst compared Islam to the Death Star from Star Wars."

An internal investigation followed. Conclusions weren't revealed. Allegedly this type content was removed from course content. It compared the "Arab World" to the "Western Mind."

It said Westerners were even-tempered. Emotional outbursts were "exceptional." Arab "Outburst(s) and Loss of Control (are) Expected."

Post-9/11, Muslims have been systematically targeted. In 2011, a New York University School of Law Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHR&GJ) report titled "Targeted and Entrapped: Manufacturing the 'Homegrown Threat' in the United States" explained Muslim persecution in detail.

Ruthless targeting entraps them. Paid informants infest mosques and communities. Many dozens are pursued on bogus charges. Invented plots are foiled in the nick of time. Media scoundrels headline them to heighten fear.

Muslims are portrayed as "potential threats" or "homegrown terrorists." Federal, state and local law enforcement officials consider them more likely to become terrorists, easily radicalized, and compelled to commit violence in the name of Islam.

Counterterrorism policies mandate identifying and stopping them before they act.

Research, of course, contradicts these notions. Claiming Muslims "hate us" is spurious. Nonetheless, their cultural and religious practices are cited as indicators of potential terrorism. As a result, they're maliciously persecuted for political advantage.

Obama's Department of Homeland Security (DHS), FBI, and Justice Department (DOJ) embrace racist radicalization notions. They're used as justification to entrap innocent victims with "preventive" policing despite no evidence of wrongdoing.

Instead of pursuing real criminals, they target people for their faith, religious practices, ethnicity, national origin, political views, or appearance. Lawless tactics entrap them. They include paid informants, surveillance, and inducing, influencing, or provoking potential or actual crimes that otherwise wouldn't have been committed.

FBI Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines (DIOGs) are bent without supervisory approval or constraints to permit virtually anything.

The 2003 Department of Justice (DOJ) Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies bans racial and ethnic profiling. Nonetheless, it implicitly permits doing so for faith and national origin purposes. It also allows targeting anyone for national and border security related issues.

Post-9/11, entrapment and other abuses became policy. They remain so. No link whatever connects religion, ethnicity, national origin, or political views to a propensity to commit violence.

However, most convictions result from bogusly conflating them as proof of intent or predisposition. As a result, innocent victims rot in America's gulag. Justice is systematically denied. In an environment of hate and fear, no one is safe. Most of all, Muslims are public enemy number one.

Pentagon damage control casts a veil over policy. Joint Forces Staff College course content changes (whether or not implemented) obscure the greater problem.

Vilifying enemies is longstanding. Military training features dehumanization. Anti-Japanese WW II epithets and images were grotesque.

North Koreans were called "gooks" and "zipperheads."

Vietnamese were also "gooks," as well as "dinks" and "slopes." Arabs are called "ragheads" and "sand niggers." Native Americans were called plundering, murdering savages. Common epithets today marginalize Blacks and Latinos.

Dehumanization facilitates warmaking. It also desensitizes law enforcement agents to target Muslims and other designated state enemies. Doing the wrong thing works best when Groupthink becomes policy.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

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