ORLANDO

NEED I SAY MORE?

 

WE ARE AT WAR

We are at war whether we like it or not.  You can voice trite platitudes about Islam being the religion of peace, but there remains a significant Islamist movement that belies that statement that will strike anyone, anywhere, anyplace, at any time to further their agenda.  They don't limit their attacks to the West, just days before the Paris massacre they killed 43 people outside a Shia mosque in Beirut prompting Hezbollah to claim:

"They targeted civilians, worshipers, unarmed people, women and elderly, they only targeted innocent people...[it was a] satanic, terrorist attack."

 ISIS responded with:

"Let the Shiite apostates know that we will not rest until we take revenge in the name of the prophet."  "After the apostates gathered in the area, one of the knights of martyrdom detonated his explosive belt in the midst of them."

No one is safe, Muslim or not.

Despite what some of our liberal followers may claim no one is advocating war with Islam.  We are not so naive to think that every Muslim is an enemy but we do recognize our inability to tell the good from the bad.  If Opus Dei suicide bombers were massacring people in Italian markets and gunning down worshipers in Protestant churches my response would be the same; they must be destroyed root and branch.

In World War II there were plenty of good and peaceful Germans caught up in the Nazi atrocities of the age who had no choice other than death if they refused to support the state or join the Wehrmacht. The people in areas controlled by ISIS are in the same position, we could not limit our response then, we cannot limit our response now.  One cannot sit on the sidelines of this war between civilization and absolute barbarity.

We cannot cede territory to ISIS and what they do control must be destroyed without regard to collateral damage.  Any town, village, or hut flying the ISIS flag is a legitimate military target. 

President Obama claims that 99.9% of Muslims don't support fundamentalist radicalism, but it doesn't matter.  If the number of radicals is .1 or 1 or 10, or even 50, whatever the remainder they cannot sit on the sidelines and claim it is not their problem.  We all have a problem with radical Islam, we are all targets or will be, we must all fight our common enemy.


It's not just Je Suis Charlie anymore or even
Je Suis Une Cible


Nous sommes tous des cibles

We are all targets

Going Dutch

Remember when that had a different meaning?

A bill currently pending in The Netherlands would allow the government to terminate the "social security" benefits of anyone leaving to join ISIS.  

Makes sense...

Except the same bill provides reinstatement of benefits for those who leave ISIS and return to The Netherlands, specifically student grant payments.

Brilliant!


Sometimes getting it half right is worse than doing nothing at all.

Do we have a Strategy Now?

Photo: USMC

Last year President Obama said:

President Obama said Thursday that "we don't have a strategy yet" when it comes to removing the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the Middle East. CBS

My question is do we have a strategy now?  What is it? and What is it accomplishing?  Apparently given the fall of Ramadi  Sunday, very little.

Now I'm not picking on our President... It's an honest question.  What is our strategy in regards to ISIS?  Now I've heard said that it is to "systematically degrade ISIS/ISIL", not to nitpick but that's a goal, not a strategy.  "Degrade and Defeat"? Again not a strategy but a goal.

Please feel free to enlighten me if you think me wrong, but I haven't seen anything coming out of the government that even hints at a coherent strategy for defeating ISIS.  I'm apparently not the only one, back in February CNN asked Where's Obama's ISIS strategy?

US News says that the Public Doubts Obama's ISIS Strategy.  I'll go one further and say I doubt he has one.

The first question to ask is do we care?  Do we care if Syria and/or Iraq or a majority of their territories fall to ISIS?

The next question if the answer to the question above is yes, is well what are we going to do about it?

What Isis Really Wants...

Intent

VS

Reality

The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam...

...But pretending that it isn’t actually a religious, millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to counter it.

From an excellent article by Graeme Wood in The Atlantic

Them

Last week in response to an Obama speech that called for us to "remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ" I posted a list of invasions and battles committed by Islam in the four centuries preceding the 'First' crusade; the historical context in which that crusade occurred.  In the ensuing discussion it wasn't long before someone resorted to the Pee Wee Herman defense (I know you are but what am I?) citing an article referencing all the occasion of incitement to genocide in the Bible. I responded with "forget the books, judge them by their actions".  Jez wisely asked me "But who is "them," exactly?"

Since that post ISIS has beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians on the beach of the Mediterranean and threatened to invade Rome and "Break the crosses of the infidels".  

My reference to 'them' at the time was primarily to ISIS, one need not judge them by their religion but solely by their actions which are damning enough, their motives are irrelevant.  In retrospect 'them' can also be in regards to the entirety of Islam, to the Ummah.  In honesty one can not judge all of Islam by the actions of ISIS, but one can certainly judge the Ummah by their responses and reactions to ISIS.  In 1933 there were only 850,000 members of the Nazi Party, at its peak it only claimed a membership of eight million a mere 10% of the population of Germany.  In the end, all of Germany and the German people paid the price for the actions of a relatively small minority of radicals.

Is the Ummah waking up to the threat posed by ISIS, not just internally but in the context of the global geopolitical situation?  So far Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E, Jordan, and Iran have committed themselves militarily in opposition to ISIS.  Following the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians Egypt has also committed itself militarily, launching airstrikes against the ISIS stronghold of Derna in Libya.  While Christians, Yezidi, and western hostages get the news coverage, by and large the greatest victims of ISIS have been their fellow Muslims.  In the end it is the Ummah that must police itself lest in the long run they pay the price for the actions of a relatively small minority of radicals.

What are your thoughts?  Is the Ummah doing enough? If not, what should it be doing?  

A Real King?

Rumors abound on whether or not King Abdullah II of Jordan is personally leading strikes against ISIS. A Major General in Jordan's Special Forces and a Cobra Attack Helicopter pilot before his coronation, several stories emerged that he was leading the attacks although a Jordanian governmental spokesman denied the rumor... which they would probably do anyway, even if he was flying sorties.

When I first heard the story I thought, they don't make many men like that anymore and I was somewhat disappointed to hear the Jordanian spokesman deny the rumor, my respect for King Abdullah would be magnified ten-fold were he actually leading the attacks. What do you think?

ISIS

With each passing act of complete and utter barbaric depravity, 

Express

each surpassing the last

Daily Beast

One needs to ask, what is the appropriate response?

Go on... be the armchair General you always wanted to be...

9-11, ISIS, Terrorism

 

 

Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.

War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.

This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.

If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.

My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

William Tecumseh Sherman

It's Simple Math

The Washington Times reports that there are 300 Americans fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

USA Today reports that a second American Islamist fighter has been killed.

By my count that means just 298 left to go.

As to today's illustration, I suggest checking to see if you can run toilet paper through your printer.

Cartographer's History of the Mid East

A quick (and simplified) history...

We start in 330 BC with the First Persian Empire

Who were about to meet a man named Philip

Map: Marsyas

And his son Alexander

Generic Mapping Tools

This was followed by the Parthian Empire

Map: Keeby101

Which would eventually meet the Romans

Map: Tataryn77

This would split into the Western Roman Empire (395 AD)

Map: Geuiwogbil. & Mackay 86

And the Eastern Roman Empire

Map: Tataryn77

 

Then in the 630's they'd meet a guy named Muhammad

Followed by the Rashidun Caliphate (632-661)

Map: Mohammad adil

The Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 AD)

Map:Gabagool

The Abbasid Caliphate (750 -1517 AD)

Map:Gabagool

Meanwhile in the Eastern Mediterranean 

Mapmaster

The Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire was about to be replaced by the Ottoman Empire

Which would eventually fall to the remnants of the Western Roman Empire at in WWI and be divvied up among the victors.

Map:Don-kun, TUBS, NordNordWest

Map:User:Doron

And following WWII

And then came ISIS...

Map: NordNordWest, Spesh531

FORE!

Photo: 10 Downing St.

An American journalist is beheaded by ISIS and the British PM cancels his vacation...

What more can I say?

So, David, may I call you David? What are you doing in 2016?

You can't negotiate with rabid dogs

ISIS released a video yesterday purporting to be the beheading of American journalist James Wright Foley along with the threat of a similar fate awaiting missing journalist Steven Joel Sotloff with the following comment:

‘The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.’

The law of armed conflict is an anachronism, based on mutually agreed upon principles by consenting civilized parties, when one one party completely disregards jus in bello it is absurd to expect other parties to be hamstrung by it.

First, the United States ought to recognize Kurdistan as it exists outside the borders of Turkey.

Second, the United States ought to recognize the Shia state of Iraq as it exists in the southern and southeastern territory controlled by the Iraqi government.

Third, all surrounding nations are to be notified of our intent of recognizing the Islamic State of Iraq as it exists as controlled territory at the end of ninety days.

Fourth, at the end of ninety days we recognize the Islamic State of Iraq and declare war on it, demanding their unconditional surrender.

After that, any violation of international law committed by the Islamic State of Iraq shall be met with military reprisal.  First any identifiable military equipment goes, then the airports, power plants, dams, bridges, railroads, highways... treat them as we treated the axis in WWII.

Of course as the odds have it, Obama's decision will be no decision at all, it will be inaction and meaningless words.  The Islamic State of Iraq is betting that we lack the will to do anything, and also as the odds have it, they're probably right.

You can't negotiate with rabid dogs, all you can do is put them down.

Update: US officials confirm
              ISIS exterminates entire Yazidi village 

#AmessagefromUStoISIS

Supporters of the ISIS terror group tweeted thousands of messages on Friday bearing the hashtag #AmessagefromISIStoUS featuring gruesome photos and threats to U.S. soldiers and citizens after American airstrikes took out terrorist targets in Iraq for the first time.  Daily Mail

#AmessagefromUStoISIS

There are no problems in Iraq that couldn't be solved by one American Peacekeeper

 

Apparently he's out of Cheeks.

Photo: Casa Rosada

Tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians fled an advance by the insurgents into the country's Christian heartland in the north. WSJ


Islamic State jihadists who took over large areas of northern Iraq overnight have forced thousands of Christians to flee and occupied churches, removing crosses and destroying manuscripts. Telegraph


"His Holiness addresses an urgent appeal to the international community to take action to end the humanitarian tragedy now underway, to act to protect those affected or threatened by violence and to provide aid, especially for the most urgent needs of the many who have been forced to flee and who depend on the solidarity of others," the Vatican said in a statement. Reuters

ROFLMAO

ISIS reveals its five-year plan.

And the award for 'a picture is worth a thousand laughs' goes to...

the organization declaring war on NATO, the Commonwealth of Independent States, India, China, et al.

Iraq Falling

Fallujah... Mosul... Tikrit...

ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant), a group kicked out of Al-Qaeda for being too extreme (so extreme Al-Qaeda was fighting alongside moderates in Syria against them) is marching across Iraq and is now just 95 miles outside of Baghdad. 

Having taken the Turkish Consulate in Mosul, they now hold some 80 Turks hostage.  Turkey has called for an emergency meeting of NATO. The Turkish Foreign Minister threatens military action if any Turks are harmed, and Iraq is "open to US airstrikes" (Open or requesting?... The NYT is reporting that the Iraqi Prime Minister secretly requested airstrikes from the Obama administration on militant staging areas.)

Should we care? Do we have any obligation to assist?

What are your thoughts?