PrintNovember 28, 2008
Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical Islam
Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical IslamBy Robert ChandlerRegnery Publishing, Inc., 2008622 pp., $29.95
The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 is viewed by the West as the end of the Cold War and the death knell for Communism. In reality, Communists continued to push for the same ultimate goal -- creating a socialist world order -- but their violent Marxist-Leninist revolutionary tactics were supplanted by an insidious cultural Marxism. Today, that push has evolved into a Moscow-led, global strategic quadrangle consisting of Russia, China, Iran and a collection of Latin American dictatorships.
The West is also threatened by a fifth column of global, radical Leftists with ideological connections to Russia and the theo-political-legal ideology of radical Islam. All of these antagonists, including the Russians, cultural Marxists and Salafists/Wahhabists, employ terrorist tactics but largely conceal their agendas. They use clandestine strategies of propaganda, disinformation, subversion and denial through their agents of influence and networks of organizations.
The West is also threatened by a fifth column of global, radical Leftists with ideological connections to Russia and the theo-political-legal ideology of radical Islam. All of these antagonists, including the Russians, cultural Marxists and Salafists/Wahhabists, employ terrorist tactics but largely conceal their agendas. They use clandestine strategies of propaganda, disinformation, subversion and denial through their agents of influence and networks of organizations.
In Shadow World: Resurgent Russia, The Global New Left, and Radical Islam, Dr. Robert Chandler argues that the West is in the midst of a three-way global competition pitting the future of democratic republics against Marxist totalitarianism and Islamic fundamentalism. Despite their vast ideological differences, Communist Russia, the Far Left and Islamists embrace a common goal: destroying Western civilization. While the Communists endeavor to replace Western society with secular totalitarianism under a Marxist regime, the Islamic fundamentalists seek to implement a Muslim-controlled theo-political-legal ideology that relegates women to second class citizenship and non-Muslims to slavery enforced under the doctrine of Koranic shariah law.
Chandler, who holds a doctorate in political science and is a former political strategist with the Air Force, Defense Department and the CIA, believes the United States is at a critical crossroads. Parallel Marxist and Islamist movements are currently underway with established fifth columns at all levels of American society. If either of these totalitarian ideologies infiltrates the power structure, the liberties enshrined in the Constitution and Bill of Rights would be jettisoned and capitalism and freedom eliminated in the service of the collective "greater good" or in the name of the Prophet Mohammed. Shadow World, is Chandler's explanation of the dangers facing the United States. How we respond will determine if the country will sustain a free market, capitalistic democracy or veer precipitously toward autocracy or theocracy.
Chandler's main points are summarized in detail below. Basically, he outlines how Russia used a duplicitous policy of seeming acceptance of increased freedoms, which enabled it to create existing alliances with other countries allied against the West. The undermining of democracy continues at home thanks to Marxists who have adopted the beliefs of World War II-era, Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci.
Chandler examines these attempts in the media, education, government and national security. Further, he outlines how the global,anti-war movement is also aligned with the conspiracy against the West to undermine Western values and institutions and pursue a one-world government overseen by the United Nations. The United States is further under siege by Islamists, who also seek the destruction of the United States.
Post-Communist Russian Duplicity and the Andropov Plan
Beginning in the 1980's, the Central Committee of the Communist Party under Mikhail Gorbachev's tutelage mounted an extensive disinformation plan to rehabilitate its image in the West. As part of the Andropov Plan, after the former KGB chief and Communist Party leader Yuri Andropov, Russia presented itself as a liberalized quasi-democracy complete with market reforms and "controlled political opposition." Essentially, the Andropov Plan was an artifice of legerdemain designed to destroy capitalism while utilizing it to fund socialism. Russia duplicitously embraced "perestroika" and "glasnost" under the pretext of nurturing an emerging democracy and as an indication of its reconciliation with the West. In reality, these were strategies designed to attain Western acceptance in order to forestall Soviet decline and acquire much-needed American investments and modern technology.
The new "openness" and greater freedoms afforded Russian citizens were temporary measures to seduce the populace for the advent of political and economic restructuring. Perestroika enabled the KGB entrée into the West's financial sphere where their new capital could be invested for the Communist Party and where newly-minted Russian entrepreneurs could study the intricacies of the capitalist system beyond suspicion and freely transfer skills, technologies and investments to the Russian economy.
This capitalist window dressing was financed by money-laundered deposits from South American drug dealers, sales of Soviet military machinery, a series of currency conversion schemes and the privatization of Soviet state property. The true goals of the Andropov Plan were to replace capitalism with socialism, build a wedge between the United States and Europe, reconcile with China and establish alliances with Iran and Communist satellites in Latin America.
Although this new strategy was largely successful, a super wealthy class developed among the nomenklatura, bureaucrats in senior positions, who challenged the Soviet system and temporarily derailed the Andropov Plan. When Vladimir Putin became president in 1999, he came down heavily on this element, reinstituted tighter controls and suppressed dissent to get the plan back on track. To further solidify Russian power, he used European dependence on oil and gas to lure the continent into a convergence with Russia. As alleged U.S. ally, Putin nonetheless supplied weapons and military advice to Saddam Hussein, helped him to destroy his weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and spread disinformation about American war plans in the region.
The Global Strategic Quadrangle
A Moscow-led global strategic quadrangle consisting of Russia, China, Iran and the Latin American dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela and Brazil now make up a system of proxies challenging the United States' world power and influence. Using this global strategic quadrangle, the Marxists have reinvented themselves as anti-corruption champions of the poor, bearing gifts of education, health care and social programs that have enabled them to establish a foothold in chaotic, economically deprived regions of the world.
During the lead up to the Iraq war, Russia helped Iraq with WMD removal, supplied Saddam Hussein with training and advanced military weapons, helped stonewall United Nation's arms inspection teams and engaged in an extensive disinformation campaign in Middle East countries. Putin signed multi-billion dollar weapons contracts with China, Iran and Venezuela as part of a containment strategy against the United States, engaged in nuclear proliferation and used energy geopolitics to keep the gas- and oil-dependent European Union in line.
China, meanwhile, has significantly expanded its military and embarked on a strategy to control well-positioned ports throughout the world and increase it worldwide energy resources through military cooperation with Iran and Venezuela. As the world's largest country and fastest growing economy, China's influence is growing throughout Africa and South America. With Russia as its ally of convenience, China has assisted Iran in its nuclear quest and gained access to oil, wielding political and economic clout in the bargain. Through their alliances with Venezuela and Cuba, Russia and China have extended their influence in the Western hemisphere.
Progressive-Socialist-Marxists within America
Marxist elements within American society endeavor to bring about revolutionary change with an ideology and methodology built on Critical Theory and Gramscian cultural Marxism. Critical Theory goes beyond traditional social analysis and seeks social transformation or revolution to foster conditions favorable to Marxism that will bring about the downfall of capitalism. Critical Theory is an anti-capitalist theory advocating destruction of free market democratic values, social and political structures and policies to further human emancipation. It is an outright rejection of western civilization and an endorsement of a Marxist, utopian society.
Gramscian cultural Marxism, based on the work of Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci, stems from the recognition that the structure of capitalist society was defined by the culture, faith and values of Christianity. Recognizing the central role of Christianity as the moral and cultural foundation of Western society, Gramsci endeavored to transform society by replacing the worship of God with the worship of man, "secular humanism." Gramsci was intent on destroying the "hegemony" of Christianity and its vast societal influences, including in government, education, media and the family. He sought creation of re-education and indoctrination programs to bring about a new moral and intellectual order based on Marxism.
The components of this progressive-socialist-Marxist attempt to take over the West include: 1) destruction of a free press, 2) educational revisionism, 3) infiltration of government and political systems, 4) destruction of the military and intelligence services, 5) development of an anti-globalist, anti-war philosophy, and 6) creation of a one world government.
Within the United States, the tentacles of the Kremlin-sponsored, Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) in Washington and its vast network of affiliates aids in the promulgation of this anti-capitalist pro-Socialist agenda.
IPS in the United States and the Transnational Institute (TNI) based in Europe are the main Communist fronts promoting an anti-capitalist, pro-Socialist agenda for cultural transformation. The IPS purposely understated the Cold War threat to the West in order to shift America's priorities away from the military-industrial complex toward social programs. The organization has attempted to penetrate government, academia and the media to work toward disarmament, non-intervention against Soviet aggression and the termination of military alliances. They have targeted NATO, the Defense Department, defense contractors, arms manufacturers and intelligence agencies with disinformation and propaganda.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, TNI advocated environmental issues to slow economic growth and hasten the disarming of the West. IPS and TNI work with a cadre of intellectuals, journalists, professors, politicians and government officials who support and promulgate cultural Marxism by manipulating public opinion and structuring policies and legislation to undermine the government, subvert the U.S. Constitution and aid in the transformation and radicalization of U.S. institutions. The IPS has successfully advanced a laundry list of taxpayer-financed entitlement programs under the cover of "equality and fairness," endeavored to limit corporate power and damaged U.S. military supremacy by working to cut military and intelligence spending.
The Media
As part of its silent cultural revolution in America, the radical Left has successfully allied with the print and broadcast media and Hollywood to aid in the assault on traditional values and help spread propaganda and disinformation. The American media has become an unbalanced bastion of political correctness that advances a biased, Leftist agenda which obtains much of its disinformation from the IPS. The news media and Hollywood have helped shape public opinion to support the Marxist intent to destroy Western values, beliefs and institutions.
Education
Schools and universities have become politically correct tools of the Left, teaching "social justice" rather than encouraging the development of critical thinking skills though the analysis of diverse points of view. Students are schooled in the "correct thoughts" and historical revisionism reigns supreme. Those who voice dissenting opinions are subjected to taunts of racism and homophobia. While America is demonized as imperialist and oppressive, Communism is glorified and Communist atrocities are whitewashed. The outright attempt is to radicalize students and recruit them in the pursuit of destroying American culture.
Government
Progressive-socialist-Marxists also use America's democracy to lead the country toward acceptance of socialism. They exert tremendous influence on the liberal-dominated Democratic Party. Under the cover of "equality and fairness" the Left has attempted to use its influence to support politicians and policies that limit corporate power and undermine U.S. military and intelligence. The IPS has injected itself into the political process and changed the political culture of the Democratic Party. Through the Congressional Progressive Caucus, an IPS affiliate, it has amassed a base of 72 out of 232 members of the House (almost one-third) that promote its policies on immigration, fair trade, military spending and other issues dear to the progressive-Socialist-Marxist agenda.
In recent years, the "Shadow Party" -- a nationwide network of unions, non-profits groups and think tanks that subscribe to leftist ideology and receive funding from billionaire George Soros -- has infiltrated the Democratic Party. Their goal is to take control of U.S. politics using a strategy that includes think tanks, training centers and media centers. Using the radical, community-organizing methods of Saul Alinksy, they have engaged in questionable fundraising tactics, aggressive voter drives, oppositional research and media manipulation as they push a hard-left line of racial and sexual equality, abortion on demand, class inequity, drug legalization, anti-war positions, assaults on sovereignty and global taxation and government.
National Security
Using retired veteran officers to legitimize their propaganda, Marxist media tools have gone so far as to slander the military, release sensitive documents to the press, publish the locations of U.S. nuclear weapons around the world and reveal nuclear secrets and classified national security codes. During the 2004 election campaign, the IPS was behind the false accusations of military atrocities in Vietnam that were discredited by the testimony of the Swift Boat Veterans. IPS and its affiliates have written studies critical of government intelligence services and collected information on corporate and private security services. Its assaults against the FBI and CIA, responsible for constructing the pre-9/11 wall between law enforcement and intelligence, have endangered Americans.
Under the guise of fighting against civil liberties violations and with the aid of affiliates such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the IPS has hamstrung the efforts of the FBI and CIA, interfered with incarceration and proceedings against enemy combatants and undermined public support for the armed forces and armament programs. The IPS and its legal fronts have abused the Freedom of Information Act to mine government documents for secrets and to extrapolate important security and military information that they have passed on to Russian intelligence.
Anti-Globalist, Anti-War Movement
In the last decade, when economic globalization took hold under U.S. dominance, the Left embarked on an intensified anti-capitalist campaign to counter American economic and military influence. The anti-globalist/anti-war movements consist of a large network of non-profit organizations designed to weaken the U.S. position in the world and undermine the government using disinformation, propaganda and acts of civil disobedience.
The anti-globalists targeted multi-national corporations for trumped up allegations of environmental destructiveness. Mother Earth became their new cause célèbre to slow economic growth and armament programs as they fomented opposition to the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. They reframed the debate to focus on social and environmental problems created by global capitalism.
The anti-globalists charge that transnational corporations were wresting economic control from countries and interfering in nations' sovereign rights and the rights of its citizens. They demanded economic justice and debt forgiveness for developing countries, clamored about environmental destruction and natural resource exploitation of the world's poorest countries and lobbied for a form of fixed pricing called fair trade pricing, all in the name of economic justice.
The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iran presented an opportunity for the progressive-socialist-Marxists, led by the IPS and its affiliates in the media, Hollywood, unions and universities to advance their anti-capitalist agenda and attack the political and economic systems of the United States. In the name of "peace" and "love," the anti-war crowd equated the war with racism and injustice and crimes against humanity. They blamed U.S. militarism for 9/11, grossly overstated war casualties, alleged fabricated American military atrocities and spread propaganda, savaged American leaders and opposed the Patriot Act and other national security and anti-terrorism surveillance measures while excusing or whitewashing Communist invasions and tyranny. Further, in an effort to discourage the war effort, the anti-war movement advanced the position that anti-terrorist activities were the province of law enforcement, not the military.
One World Government
In their adherence to the Gramsican formula for anti-capitalist social transformation, the progressive-socialist-Marxists have co-opted with the United Nations to advocate world governance in the interest of "world peace, human rights and environmental preservation." This is the desired end result of their efforts to undermine American heritage, destroy Christianity and conspire against free-market democracy to achieve global taxation, the end of sovereignty, a world military and an international criminal court.
Gramscian Marxists aspire to a borderless global society under the aegis of the United Nations that will bring about a socialist utopian universe that protects the global environment, fosters universal human rights and world peace and offers global citizenship and international institutions for a better world. The sacrifice of individual liberty and the horrific failures of U.N. interventions to prevent worldwide genocide in Cambodia, Uganda, Rwanda and Darfur are not addressed.
Falsely stating that sovereign states cause war and unrest, globalists advocate world citizenship, global governance and legislation, universal gun control, an end to national sovereignty, economic redistribution and an international criminal court system. They malign the U.S. sovereignty and liberties enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence as obstacles to global peace.
The soldiers of this world-government ideology and the agents of the United Nations are the non-governmental organizations (NGO's), accountable to no one but whose aim is to supplant national sovereignty with U.N. programs. Over 3,000 NGO's take over where governments fall short. They have increasingly monopolized international meetings, rejected democracies and free market systems while pushing environmentalism, multiculturalism, wealth redistribution and nuclear disarmament. They have tried to shift the focus of world attention to humanitarian needs over national security concerns. But their real agenda of opposing the West is revealed by their attacks on Western militaries and their silence on de facto terrorist groups that provide terrorist training to children and indoctrinate them to hate.
The Threat of Radical Islam
Lastly, Chandler details how resurgent Islam is a theo-political-legal competitor for world dominance. Global jihad and the annihilation or subjugation of non-Muslims is based on Islamic doctrine dating from the 7th century that obliges Muslims worldwide to conquer the world for Islam. Americans are dangerously uninformed about the teachings of Islam and the destructive force that is taking hold in their midst. U.S. belief in freedom of religion and the fact that not all Muslims are part of the international jihad against the West, further confuse the issue. These hinder critical evaluation and the development of a strategy to fight the threat. The U.S. government's protestations that "Islam is a religion of peace" and the use of politically correct language further muddy the waters of clear thinking about jihadist intentions.
Yet, a worldwide network of Islamist organizations and terrorist groups bent on establishing a worldwide caliphate, or, government under a medieval legal system - Shariah law - exist across the United States. These groups are dedicated to the destruction of Western civilization and have embarked on an extensive cultural or stealth jihad to undermine American society and freedoms in addition to blatant acts of terrorism.
To further confound the situation, the Saudis, who present themselves as U.S. allies, fund the terrorist activities and infiltration efforts of this network in the United States. They staff U.S. mosques with radical imams and use petrodollars to fund terrorism through non-profits and businesses. In reality, Saudi Arabia is a terrorist state financing the indoctrination, training and terrorist actions of the jihadists. The Saudi-funded radical Islamists have used immigration, high birth rates, demands in the name of multiculturalism and the West's religious freedom, backed by the threat of terrorism to make significant inroads into Western society. Through the use of American democracy and multi-culturalism, they have sought special treatment and accommodations for Muslims and developed a powerful political lobby in Washington, the Wahabbi Lobby, as they have endeavored to transform our society through infiltration and deception. The Saudis have successfully injected pro-Islamic propaganda into our educational system and our universities. While pretending to be U.S. allies in the war against terrorism, they continue to fund jihadist activities and to indoctrinate and radicalize American Muslims.
Conclusion
The United States is at a critical juncture in its history faced with threats from international Marxists, an internal socialist movement and global jihadists. Once any of these elements achieves significant positions of power within the United States, they will proceed with their plans to destroy Western civilization. Our freedom, sovereignty and way of life could be extinguished by any of these forces that are acting against our democratic republic. Robert Chandler's warnings in Shadow World must be heeded if we are to survive.
