The RAND Corporation, a think tank that was influential in anti-communist strategy, has issued a report  on the lessons to be applied to the struggles against radical Islam."The struggle in much of the Muslim world today is a war of ideas," said Angel Rabasa, a RAND senior policy analyst and the lead author of the report. "This is not a war of civilizations; it's not Islam versus the West. It's a struggle within Islam to define the character of Islam.""We cannot come in as outsiders, as a non-Muslim country, and discredit the radicals' ideology," Rabasa said. "Muslims have to do that themselves. What we can do is level the playing field by empowering the moderates."Rather than an afterthought, the building of moderate Muslim networks needs to become an explicit goal of U.S. government policy, with an international database of partners, a well-designed plan and "feedback loops" to keep it on track, according to the study. But there...(Read Full Post)