Our Feckless World

 

The escalation of the Islamic world’s war is against those who are insufficiently pure in their Islam practices and are not as obedient as desired or worse, not a worshipper of Allah and Muhammad and the true chain of the roots of Allah’s path from Abraham through Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant which she gave Abraham so he could produce an heir, a son. This son was Ishmael, who eventually fathered the progeny from Abraham and Hagar, presumably producing Muhammad, thus spawning Islam many centuries later. This new religion of Islam was supposed to be a furtherance of the Judeo-Christian lines and bring peace and one final message for humankind by which to live in peace and harmony, or at least that was how it presumably started. After being rebuffed, scorned and thrown out of Mecca, Muhammad went to Medina where the prophesy continued and changed its flavor and methods as Muhammad gained power rising to rule in Medina as a great warlord with a crushing force at his disposal. This force assisted his vengeance on Mecca for its treatment of Muhammad and the rest is history. The Quran took on a different tone which some have cast as “conquer the world for Allah.” A somewhat deeper explanation can be read starting with Which Quran, Mecca or Medina? and followed up after that brief summary from a wealth of information added by numerous readers in the comments with links to other sites which range from commentaries on the Quran to different orderings of the Quran from traditional to chronological and more. Many of the worldly difficulties with the followers of the Medina Quranic verses which presumably, when differing from the Mecca verses, the later ones take precedence, has led to the Islamic State and groups like Hamas, Boko Haram and other terror enclaves in Afghanistan, the Philippines and beyond. What is often forgotten when discussing Islam is there are also a number of groups who live perfectly good Quranic lives giving what these other groups claim are abrogated sections of the Quran by the more aggressive, but these places remain open societies proving that there are peaceful ways and means which can be followed from the Quran and that it is all in how you implement the Quran and what you seek to gain from your experiences in Islam.

 

The Orlando nightclub slaughter, which is being portrayed in some circles as purely a hate-crime against the LGBT community, is being cast ignoring the Islamic roots of the shooter or actually intimating that he was a member of the Christian right and a fanatic and gun nut even more for gun rights than the NRA and Donald Trump type of supporter. This approach eventually ties in the violence which has broken out at any number of Trump’s campaign rallies. The small fact that this violence was almost always instigated by leftist protesters, many of whom had leftist backings, has been left out from the picture so as to tarnish Trump as the one causing the violence. That is simply political expediency and the horrors of the nightclub shooting is not about the United States race for the White House and rather about the race to club America into obedience of the Quran and adopting Islam as America’s sole religion. The same can be said for June 13; the Philippines government confirmed that Robert Hall, a Canadian citizen, was beheaded by the ISIS-affiliated Abu Sayyaf terrorist group who held him hostage since September 2015. Canada’s prime minister’s Justin Trudeau’s reaction was posted on his Facebook page. “Canada holds the terrorist group who took him hostage fully responsible for this cold-blooded and senseless murder,” he said. Trudeau avoided mentioning the radical Islamic ideology espoused by Abu- Sayyaf, its affiliation with the Islamic State (a.k.a. IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh, Caliphate) and previously with al Qaeda. The same problem has continued half a world away with the brutality of Boko Haram which also strikes at those not of Islam across a wide area in central northern Africa centered on Nigeria. These groups have increased their ability to recruit others locally as well as from a distance after their swearing allegiance to the Islamic State and their leader, the self-proclaimed Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

 

Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
The World as the Islamic States Believes
It to Be with These Islamic Provinces Loyal
to Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and The World

 

The world view of Baghdadi appeals to these frustrated youths who are frustrated with their lives and see the world as imperfect and in need of cleansing. These so-called ‘Lone Wolves’ like the Orlando terrorist and the San Bernardino killer couple and the others throughout the Western World as well as within the Islamic World all believe they are following a true vision. The same vision goes for many of the terror groups which have spawned as a result or have joined with the Islamic State. All of these otherwise disparate groups desire to reach a standing in what they believe is the future of the world as the Western World is unworthy of continuing as the main power in the world. If it was not the Islamic State it would be whatever group is strongest and claims leadership over all Islam and the tip of the spear which will pierce the world for Allah. Meanwhile the Western World remains asleep and leaderless in this fight. President Obama has been approached through the United Nations to call for a concerted effort from the Security Council thus coordinating the fight against the Islamic State. Defeating the Islamic State will require a unified world effort as smashing it into a million pieces will simply produce a million emissaries to spread the hatreds of the Islamic State making it even more dangerous. What needs to be done is to destroy the Islamic State in one well-coordinated assault on its main bodies in Syria and Iraq not allowing for their forces to escape out into the world spreading this incarnation of evil even further.

 

The problem with getting such a unified effort blessed by the United Nations has long been President Obama’s insistence on the only way the United States could fully join the fight. President Obama has demanded that the United States work through the Security Council as well as the General Assembly before committing ground troops. This precondition has been repeatedly stated and the lack of a United Nations Security Council resolution requiring force be used and taken against the Islamic State is the one request which would allow for a coalition to be formed to fight the Islamic State directly. The strangest piece to this puzzle has been President Obama himself as the United States has blocked any cooperation in drawing such a resolution. This obstruction apparently centers around the fact that the resolution was drafted by Russia and does not give President Obama the lead position in the coalition. Actually it appears that President Obama is blocking any action being coordinated from the Security Council as the combined forces of the world would then be turned loose to obliterate the Islamic State in place not allowing it to disperse. A crushing defeat would take off the gleam currently perceived to be emanating from the Islamic State and Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi personally making him a figure that the other groups can utilize.

 

No one other than President Obama can claim to know what is going on in his head that he blocks the exact measures he claims he requires in order to fight the Islamic State and eradicate it in quick order. Perhaps it is because he would not be perceived as the sole leader who freed the world from this monster and the acts of depravity committed in his name. Perhaps he sees the Islamic State as a system through which the majority of the Islamic world can be rallied and actually start the next Islamic war on the rest of the world. Perhaps President Obama wants to leave all options on the table so if he is not instated as the next head of the United Nations he can aspire then to lead the Islamic State and become Caliph of the World. It is just odd that President Obama become the obstruction preventing the Security Council from passing the necessary resolutions to bring a singular united World to bear and that he claimed were necessary for the United States to step forth into the breach, so to speak.

 

Meanwhile the main forces actually striking at the Islamic State are halfhearted bombing by the United States and slightly more vigorous bombings by the Russians. Neither side appears to have their heart in fighting the Islamic State. Probably the one thing preventing President Obama from allowing the Security Council to step forward and take charge in demanding actions be taken against the Islamic State is he knows it would take far more effort and a huge American commitment in manpower and treasure to wage such a war. President Obama probably does not wish to entangle the rest of his administrative efforts into defeating the Islamic State as it would be messy and soldiers would unfortunately be killed and fighting the Islamic State which can hide in plain sight as they do not exactly wear uniforms and would be far more able to hide within a compliant civilian surroundings without raising suspicions. Entangling the United States into such a war would result it as being his legacy and President Obama is not going to go down as the President which got us into a deadly and seemingly futile Middle East War. President Obama would rather place the emphasis on forcing or destroying Israel and replacing it with a failed Arab Palestinian State. It would not surprise us if President Obama doesn’t place some degree of faith in the claim that the Islamic State is an Israeli Mossad action done so as to empower Israel into controlling the actions of a large sector of the Islamic world. Nobody other than the President knows for sure what he believes and what is driving his current reticence towards empowering the United Nations to act.

 

Meanwhile, the rest of the world is not exactly beating a bombing run or even a surveillance pass against the Islamic State. With the recent assault on Paris, the lone wolf attacks traceable to the Islamic State, one would expect to see a concerted effort by the Europeans to have used the European Union to formulate their response, but nothing. A warning should be sounding throughout Europe as an ominous date approaches, the celebrations of the ancient Battle of Badhr which is remembered and commemorated in Islam on the 17th of Ramadan. This year it falls on Thursday, June 23rd, beginning Wednesday evening at sundown of this week. The one thing that Islam does even better than commit horrific acts is remembering anniversaries of its greatest victories or its worst humiliations which it tries to erase with glorious victories. The 1973 Arab-Israeli War (the Yom Kippur War) began on the 17th day of Ramadan. The Egyptians code-named their surprise attack on Israel as “Operation Badhr” occurring on the holiest day in Judaism, Yom Kippur. That war had an optimistic beginning and would have been an even greater challenge and likely disaster had the battle lines been the same as they were before the Six Day War and many an Arab commander from that war blamed the fact that the world had not already forced Israel back into its box. That is part of the drive to force Israel back to the 1949 Armistice lines, the pre-67 Lines, as then they feel Israel can be defeated more readily.

 

But other than it is fighting the Infidel and making War for Allah, there is a complete disconnect between Israel and their troubles with its existence and the Islamic struggle to conquer the world, which currently means ultimately the United States. Where you will see Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezballah all make attacks on the rest of the world; they mostly channel their efforts against Israel. Granted that Hezballah is currently being embroiled in protecting Bashir al-Assad, as he has no real troops to call his own, almost every Nasrallah speech is about the coming demise of Israel and his quarter of a million rockets all aimed at Israel from top to bottom in Eilat. He regularly insists on mentioning their ability to hit Eilat despite it not being a likely target but simply to make the claim he can now hit anywhere in Israel. On the other hand there have been no real efforts by al-Qaeda or Islamic State though both claim to have operatives embedded in Gaza or with the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria (West Bank). The only activity ever taken up by Islamic forces outside those directly fighting Israel is the occasional attempt to break the Gaza sea blockade with some heavily advertised flotilla which despite getting huge buildups online results in nothing in reality.

 

The Islamic world has far more pressing problems than Israel at the moment and does not appear capable of repairing the breaches in its states. Lebanon and Iraq are functional basket cases with Syria so completely devastated that it is no longer a nation and more of a roiling pot of troubles masquerading as a civil war which is simply filling up an otherwise empty space with no semblance of functioning governance. Libya is no different and is largely Syria but toned down because even less care is extended in that direction and Islamic State in Libya has yet to take on the evil dimensions as its spawning parent in Syria and Iraq. Talking about Iraq, the main functioning governance there is Iran. For all intents and purposes the world may as well recognize a nation of Kurdistan and draw its borders extending across northern Iraq and including northeastern Syria. By declaring the Kurds as having their own nation it would be a good first step towards repairing the damages perpetrated on the Arab world at the end of World War I. Sykes Picot Agreement divided up the Middle East to represent European oil interests and nothing more.

 

Yes a couple of promises were kept but far more were ignored or intentionally broken, and a Kurdish State must top that list as it can be easily rectified and would allow for more places for a base against the Islamic State. A declared Kurdistan would also be such a slap in the face to al-Baghdadi that much of the Islamic State efforts would be shifted to solely taking out this Kurdish State and making the Kurds into a nation would give them an even greater ideal around which to dedicate their Thusfar heroic efforts. Granted Turkey would initially disagree and be completely against such as Erdogan sees himself as the next ruler of Syria incorporating it into a greater Turkey and the initial step to reestablishing the Ottoman Empire. Should the borders of Kurdistan be drawn liberally along its southern regions to include Mosul and additional lands in Syria it would not be a bad idea as this would provide room for the Kurds residing in Turkey, who would rather live under Kurdish rule, to emigrate. That would also signal to the Arab and Muslim world that the Western World realized the injustice it imposed on them at the conclusion of world War I with the cutting of tribes into two or more pieces and shoved warring factions together in a single nation with the direct desire to cause the kind of chaos now occurring though at a lower level but preventing any string forces to develop in the oil rich regions and surrounding nations. The time to repair that would be now after the terror wars are brought to a close and then the West needs to work with the interests of the region and not against them. First though is the destruction of the Islamic State as that is an abomination to any possibility of a peaceable Middle East, even a peace amongst the Arabs with one another.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Final Weeds in the MENA Garden, Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Iran

 

In a nutshell Syria has a fair measure of the powers in play in the Middle East and into North Africa. In addition we will also need to mention areas centered on Nigeria where Boko Haram is centrally located making war on Nigeria and all her neighboring states. Then there is Yemen and two straits, Bab el-Mandeb and finally the Strait of Hormuz which are all parts of the Iranian designs which start with the Shiite Crescent from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and control of the two most important waterway choke points in the Middle East affecting everything from the eastern tip of Asia to the Western tip of Europe including the British Isles. But it all starts with Syria and the last block to the Shiite Crescent.

 

Iran sits conveniently at the eastern edge just beyond the Arab Muslim Empire and as such is mostly a different peoples east of the Zagros Mountains which have served as a defensive barrier thousands of years. This was the secret of the Persians and why despite falling to Islam they remained separate and distinct. Still, if Iran was ever to claim the right as the head of a Caliphate they were going to need to establish two things, a connection unobstructed to the Mediterranean Sea and thus full access to North Africa and South Europe and a mass alteration of Islam making Shia Islam dominant over Sunni Islam. The first is a major step towards the second. The hope was once Iran had access to the Mediterranean cutting across the Middle East gaining direct or implied control over much of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon they would appear, as Islam claims to be the superior, the strong horse and thus could influence many that Sunni Islam was weak and Shia Islam was dominant and thus start the conversion of Sunni Muslims to Shia Islam and thus become the dominant force reestablishing both the historic Persian Empire and taking over the new Caliphate and the lead position over nearly two-billion Muslims.

 

Iran had taken control of Lebanon when they took sponsorship of Hezballah which initially was a universally recognized terror group which was fighting the Christian militias and had also fought against the IDF using terrorist strikes in an attempt to wear Israel down and force their capitulation and return to south of the recognized international border known as the Blue Line. Eventually a left leaning government bent to the protests and declared an end to what they called a tragic period in Israeli history completely forgetting the reasons, the valid reason that brought Israel into southern Lebanon. Israel replied to the hue and cry of the Christians of southern Lebanon as Syrian troops invaded Lebanon aiding Hezballah who were facing being slaughtered and Israel responded to an intense threat of a human disaster in the making as had already been committed to the initial Christian communities near the Syrian border. Israel, Ariel Sharon in particular, was blamed for a revenge strike on Sabra and Shatila massacring the Muslims which were carried out by the Christian militias and not the IDF. Still the world could not blame the Christian militias as they were irregular fighters and as such were not sufficiently organized with a command structure and as such their silence made finding those responsible became impossible so the work picked the next best thing, Israel. Europe had what seems like a default setting that if it happens in the Middle East, then when in doubt, blame Israel.

 

Once Israel retreated from southern Lebanon the Lebanese military was supposed to move in with United Nations oversight. Neither occurred and in many instances the United Nations aided Hezballah in their efforts to set up a series of tunnels as well as arms caches and command and control bunkers. This eventually led to another Israeli incursion into Lebanon after Hezballah kidnapped, and subsequently murdered three Israeli soldiers and killed five other soldiers at the point of the ambush inside Israel when they caught a patrol vehicle off guard and unsuspecting any incursion across the border from Lebanon. Iran uses Hezballah as their threat against Israel and has armed them to a point which is truly frightening as Iran has stocked Hezballah with at least one-hundred plus long range missiles and uncountable limited range rockets which have as much as a fifty kilometer range. Amongst the longer range missiles are stores of Zilzal-2 and Fateh-110 provided by Iran bringing them into Damascus and shipping them over land often on their own mobile vehicles. This is the threat Iran would threaten to unleash on Israel had Israel actually struck at Iranian nuclear sites and likely will be the first strike against Israel whenever Iran decides that they will attack the Jewish homeland. The total is well over two-hundred-thousand rockets and missiles from ten to twenty kilometer Grads, Fajr series, Shahab series and Ghadr missiles. Then there are the mid-range Scud series of ballistic rockets and then the more advanced guided missiles which the most advanced has two stages and Iran can strike Israel from Iran with these longer range Missiles so Lebanon can not only strike Israel but also northern Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well as all of Turkey and anywhere within Syria or Jordan and much of Iraq. With these longest range missiles stationed in Iran and Lebanon the range brings them to command coverage over the entire Middle East and beyond, a definite threat to the heart of Sunni Islam, exactly what Iran envisioned as their way to claim command over all of Israel. Their problem, Syria collapsed and nobody can claim complete control over Syria as well as over Iraq, the two breaking Iran’s Shiite Crescent in two.

 

Iran is not the only outside power with an interest in Syria. The most straight forward national interest belongs to the Russians who have one main port at Latakia and potential other locations along the Mediterranean shoreline which provides them a warm water port with easy access to the Atlantic Ocean. The Russian plan is likely to reposition a fair share of their Black Sea naval forces to the Syrian ports thus placing them beyond the Bosphorus which could easily be closed any time that Turkey might decide they are upset with the Russians. The teetering of the relationship between Turkey and Russia became very evident a few months ago when Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet claiming it had flown into Turkish air space, something very likely as Russia has been bombing locations in support of Bashir al-Assad who has lost control over much of the nation he once ruled unchallenged. Now there are a number of militias and terror groups each commanding their own parts with Assad, the Kurds and Islamic State have the largest locations under their control. Other areas are controlled by the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda offshoot, Free Syrian Army, Jaish al-Izzah, Levant Front, Alotfecat Brigades, and offshoots divided into Syrian Opposition-al-Qaeda network, Federation of Northern Syria, Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State. Each of these groups have so many offshoots that it becomes cumbersome to even begin to list them but for those who desire a detailed list one can be found here With al-Assad opposing these groups are the remains of the Syrian Army, Russian Naval and air support, Hezballah and some Druze militias are fighting in support of Bashir al-Assad whose control is limited to the westernmost areas of Syria including Damascus and the port cities which the Russians are defending with occasional air attacks flown against the terror forces but usually avoiding the Kurds and Islamic State and striking the weaker forces which al-Assad might be better poised to defeat.

 

Military Situation in the Syrian Civil War Areas of Control
by Major Force Divisions as of June 3, 2016.

 

The Kurdish Militias are holding the northernmost areas largely against the Islamic State. Turkey has provided bombing targets used for the United States air strikes as President Obama micromanaging their actions by putting their orders for strikes to Turkish intelligence. This has resulted in many of these strikes instead of targeting the Islamic State side of the conflict line are instead striking the Kurdish side making the situation more favorable for the Islamic State. The saving grace was that the Russians protested the NATO air strikes as interfering with Russian air strikes and set where the United States and Turkish fighter jets are restricted to a corridor which has actually favored the Kurdish forces. This became serious after Turkey shot down the Russian Fighter Jet. What is not discussed publically is the agreement between Russia and another air force in the area allowing for Israel to conduct tactical strikes in response to any attacks against Israeli forces on the Golan Heights. This was negotiated between President Putin and Prime Minister Netanyahu in Moscow early in the Russian intervention. This has proven necessary a number of times as the different forces have intentionally fired on IDF troops damaging vehicles and causing some injuries which required at times a more serious response than a couple of artillery or tank shells as a position required removal. These strikes barely make comment even within Israel but there have been some reports in a few of the smaller nationalist and Zionist sources online and in print.

 

Likely the most notable forces have been those of the Islamic State due to their early success largely in Iraq. They took control of the Sunni northern and central areas bordering southern Syria as the mostly Shiite Iraqi army forces simply fled or attempted to melt into the public. Their difficulty was that many of the Sunni civilians who these troops had tormented got their revenge turning over those Shiite soldiers who were guilty of such inter faction fighting. The Islamic State after their fast conquest of largely open areas and a few key cities in Iraq have now settled into defensive posture as they were close to overextension which had allowed for some key cities and towns being reclaimed. The Islamic State holds large open areas in Syria which are mostly desert and open scrublands which were sparsely populated. Their supposed massive victories were somewhat overblown in the hyperventilating Western media as they were hungry for a big story so every gain of the Islamic State, even those which were made in areas where they were unopposed were claimed to be grand expansion of their military control. The main story they should have never strayed from was the Islamic State’s brutality. This alone is the reason that the Islamic State deserves being liquidated by whatever means are necessary and this fight should be carried out largely by indigenous troops. Any support by Western forces should be limited to providing air support and precision strikes on such targets as command and control facilities and fixed positions as well as taking out the Western armor and other Western equipment. Other than such air support and potential cruise missile or drone strikes the Western ground forces should not be placed in harm’s way as such assistance is more often not appreciated and often used as reasons for protests and resentment. They should not risk being dragged into what may prove to be a prolonged number of operations in order to clear out pockets of resistance. As far as Syria, that too should not require any Western ground forces and be left to indigenous forces with support from Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Iran and potential financing from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.

 

Yemen Battle Map

 

The other front that needs addressing also has an Iranian contingent in Yemen. Iran is also attempting to gain the ability to completely disrupt all maritime trade by holding military threat over two of the most sensitive straights in all of the Middle East, Bab el-Mandeb and finally the Strait of Hormuz. The Bab el-Mandeb cuts off Israeli maritime access from the Red Sea on the way to the Indian Ocean and on to the rest of Asia and the Pacific as well as blocking any use of the Suez Canal by cutting off its southern access. The Strait of Hormuz has a large portion of the world’s crude oil shipping. Iran already holds threat over the Strait of Hormuz as one side of the entire Persian Gulf borders Iran (a huge ‘no duh’). This threat Iran has had and used since the Islamic takeover in 1979 requiring the United States to intervene as well as to bring in minesweepers to clear mines which Iran had strewn as part of their cutting off of the Strait of Hormuz. The Bab el-Mandeb sits off the southwestern most border of Yemen which borders the southernmost Red Sea. This is the other choke point other than the Suez Canal itself. The Suez Canal is safely within the borders of Egypt between the Sinai Peninsula and main body of Egypt which has only faced a force other than Egyptian when Israel held the Sinai briefly in 1956 and for a number of years after the Six Day War in 1967 until Egypt and Israel made peace in 1979. Israel never threatened to close the Suez Canal though it may have been risky using the Suez Canal during the 1973 Yom Kippur War as initially Egyptian troops were pouring across into the Sinai and within a few days after Israel mobilized and struck back were crossing the Suez Canal and for a while held both shores but withdrew back across the Canal into the Sinai after the world demanded Israel cease winning the war and immediately stop advancing on Alexandria and Cairo. Funny, there was no call for Egypt to stop their advance across the Sinai intending to strike into Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I guess Egypt advancing and defeating Israeli defenders is completely different than Israel advancing and defeating Egyptian forces. Should Iranian Houthi rebels take control over sufficient areas of Yemen and a peace leave the areas in the southeastern end of Yemen then Iran would have access to blocking the Bab el-Mandeb and blocking the Suez Canal which would end all oil and maritime trade with Europe forcing those hardy enough to try having to circle the south end of the African Continent. That used to be a difficult and dangerous route before the canal and the main reason the Suez Canal was built. Iran desires to hold a stranglehold over maritime trade and oil trade thus being able to threaten the world and especially threaten Europe. That is why Egypt is assisting in Yemen and the West had best have an interest in what happens in Yemen, even if not as much in Syria.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Will This Be the Last Surge of Islam?

 

There will be reactions from all sides on the slaughter in Paris, France this weekend. There will be calls for arming the populace or at least those who desire to carry weapons and undertake the responsibility with respect to the law and the society. There will be those going exactly the other direction demanding all firearms, especially automatic rifles as well as the scary looking so-called assault weapons and who will denounce those calling for arming everybody. Those two groups can go to some out-of-the-way corner and argue vehemently and vociferously for as long as they desire as long as they leave the sane people from suffering their diametrically opposed views of the world as neither one is the complete answer. Both those extremes are also what makes democracies, specifically democratic Republics, so preferred a manner of governance as the fact that there must be debate, something the prior mentioned will assure their side gets their two-cents worth in, and this causes deliberations and eventually some compromise is reached which has had all the sharp edges and deep crevices smoothed over and something that all can agree is adequate usually ensued, or that is how it is supposed to function. There will be a lot of debate in the Western World about what to do with the Islamic refugees, many of which are true refugees but apparently all too many are not so innocent, nor are truly refugees, dispersed within the hundreds of thousands swarming into Europe and beginning to arrive in New Orleans in the United States with ten thousand are due shortly with the initial groups already ashore.

 

 

Generic File Image of Syria and Other Refugees Arriving for Processing

 

 

The one thing we can be assured of is we will hear from more experts expounding disparate and contradictory ideas on how to best handle the situation and most will be so far afield that they will at best offer entertainment or at least amusement. We can always count on experts to provide the comic relief until the lawmakers start agreeing and trying to implement their suggested remedies. The truth is the world at large needs to address what is coming and whether we like it or not, something evil this way comes. The alarmists are once again on the right track and viewing the world as it is and not how we wish or experts tell us the world might be. The Paris attacks are far from the first assault in this coming conflict. Paris wasn’t even the first of this type of attack by terrorists as that assault came in Mumbai, India on November 26, 2008, where hundreds were slaughtered and the assault lasted three days before order was restored. The lone terrorist taken alive was Abu Jundal who was charged and tried for his alleged role in the terror assault.

 

 

The Iconic Taj hotel on Fire
During the Mumbai, India
Terror Attacks on
November 26, 2008

 

 

These events are the recent escalation which was set in motion by the bombing of the World Trade Center Towers parking garage where a truck filled with explosives had been parked and detonated on February 26, 1993 leaving a sixty-foot cratered hole in the structure collapsing several floors directly adjacent to the bomb and six people were killed and more than a thousand people were injured. The structural supports for the World Trade Towers, though compromised, were not sufficiently damaged to cause either tower to collapse and contained the blast damage to the somewhat local area. The parking garage and immediate surroundings had taken more than five-hundred-million-dollars in damage. After the attack it became necessary to evacuate fifty-thousand people from the buildings where hundreds were suffering from smoke inhalation. This evacuation lasted the entire afternoon closing numerous offices on the larger effected areas including areas which were initially considered dangerous due to the structural damage and danger of further collapse.

 

 

World Trade Center Towers parking garage
where a truck filled with explosives had been
parked and detonated leaving a sixty-foot
cratered hole in the structure collapsing
several floors directly adjacent to the bomb

 

 

Needless to add, the World Trade Center Towers after this failed attempt to destroy this world renowned image of the strength of the United States and its economic wealth as well as the fact that several government departments located their Now York headquarters within the World trade Center Complex making it an even more enticing target became an obsession to al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama ben-Laden who eventually planned an attack using four civilian aircraft to attack the two main towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and one flight we will never know their intended target because that plane, flight 93, was brought down by the passengers after they had learned of the other attacks and they stormed the cockpit to take back control of the aircraft which crashed into the ground as the terrorists chose death before dishonor and are likely proud of that choice wherever their souls may be rotting. Of course, most of the world believes the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center as the seminal moment the terror war began, but historians will trace the modern Islamic aggressions to the seventh century and the breakout from the Arabian Peninsula of the forces of Islam which eventually were stopped in Tours, France and twice at Vienna, Italy and now rule in one form or another the entirety of North Africa and the Middle East (MENA) and large populations of followers of Islam reaching to the southern islands of the Philippines and into Indonesia. (see map below)

 

 

Display of the Muslim Nations of the World in the Middle East, Asia and Northern Africa in Green with Israel depicted in Red

 

 

Stepping ahead to the present and the attacks in Paris, please allow us to repeat our emotions and wishes from yesterday’s article where we added to the beginning the following, “Our Prayers and emotions reach out to the victims of terror everywhere in the world and especially at this time to Paris and all of France. May the people and their leaders restore order and care for those injured both physically and emotionally. Our caring thoughts and prayers for a recovery from the horrendous acts being perpetrated in the name of submitting the innocent through brutality; may the peace and goodness win out these days.” These attacks had at the time of our writing had taken approaching one-hundred-fifty innocents with untold injured and many dozens of people reported as missing by families and friends with the one constant, confusion and conflicting reports. As with the Charlie Hebdo murderers, the social media is filled with sympathy and posts of “Je suis Paris” and “Je suis France” which, though understanding and appropriate, the sympathy is such a contrast to the reactions to the shooting of a mother and father in front of their four children sitting in the back seat of the vehicle on an early morning in early October and just yesterday another family was struck by terrorists in a drive-by-shooting in which the father and elder son were murdered, a second teenage son was injured with multiple gunshots from a drive-by shooting and the four remaining children were deeply shocked just this past week. Israel has been under a continuous series of terrorist attacks under the direct demands of their governing body with Mahmoud Abbas directly organizing the violence giving it his blessings with his now infamous declarations in which Abbas begins his tirade demanding, we won’t allow Jews with their “filthy feet” to “defile our al-Aqsa Mosque” and “We bless every drop of blood spilled for Allah. We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood.” Abbas continued further on stating, “Every Martyr will reach Paradise, and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah…” Abbas went on to claim during this tirade meant to inspire additional deadly violence against Israelis aimed primarily at the Jews demanding, “The al-Aqsa (meaning the entirety of the grounds and structures upon the Temple Mount) is ours, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is ours and they have no right (Jews in particular and Israelis in general) to defile them with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem.” Despite the numerous stabbings, vehicles used as ramrods into crowds of people waiting for busses or light rail, large rocks hurled at cars, slinging rocks shot at people and finally shootings have begun and who knows what the future holds as there is always the possibility for bombings, rockets from Hamas and Islamic Jihad and lastly there are the one-hundred to one-hundred-fifty thousand rockets and missiles stored throughout Lebanon with the worst having ranges reaching everywhere in Israel and the largest having many-hundreds of kilos sized warheads yet whenever such events strike in Israel, instead of seeing “אני ישראלי” (I am Israeli) we get warnings that we should exercise restraint and that reacting may escalate the situation. After every terror attack throughout the world outside Israel the call is for steps to be taken to protect from any future such assault. There is sympathy pouring from all corners of the globe. In Israel we are told to basically suck it up and take care not to further upset the murdering beasts across the street in all too many cases. This differentiation must change and the reasons are legendary because as we pointed out near the beginning of this article, something evil this way comes.

 

Islam in its history has already experienced two distinct periods of expansion. The initial expansion started in approximately 610 lasting through 750. The initial spread came under Mohammad spreading throughout the Arabian Peninsula followed by the break-out across Middle East and through Egypt, Tunisia and Libya under the Four Caliphs and finally Umayyads reaching across the rest of North Africa into Spain before being turned back at Tours, France by Charles the Hammer Martel. This defeat ended the western advances under Islam and from 750 through around 1300 Islam consolidated their unbelievable expansion and worked on educating their new territories converting the populations and the golden age of Islam experienced great knowledge and the important transcribing and keeping the Greek and Roman writings in math, philosophy, medicine and the carious sciences and literature. There was a transformation from the rule of the Umayyad to Abbasid dynasty. The Islamic Golden Age is traditionally said to have dated from the middle-7th century to the middle-13th century.

 

From the middle-14th came the second advance of what became the more familiar phase of Islamic advancement after the Abbasid dynasty had declined losing control of the furthest lands, something which historic logistical experts could have predicted as no empire can expand and continue to influence and control anything at a distance able to be reached by any mode available within a fairly brief period of days and not weeks. At this time there was the emergence of a small but well-organized and motivated tribe called the Ottoman Turks, or just the Ottomans, who were breaking out of northeastern areas of Turkey across the Islamic lands. The Ottomans not only took control of the existing Islamic lands but expanding them beyond the furthest points up the Nile and through southern Libya and further into Eastern Europe bordering southern Poland and Germany with some stubborn areas bypassed due to either treaty or simple heavy resistance making the conquest counterproductive. The Ottoman Empire, as the lands became known, lasted in a weakened state until they chose the wrong side of World War I standing with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany. This is what led to the beginning of European nations ruling over the areas which were previously Ottoman Empire lands which means that the Europeans occupied the lands of MENA for far less than a century, with most less than fifty years, while Islam ruled them for as much as ten to twenty times as long, most for over a thousand years. This is a truth not often noted as it does not serve the occupying colonial guilt that is supposed to be laid upon the Europeans and associated peoples despite the realities of history.

 

The leaders of the Islamic nations do have some critical reasons which are valid to be irate with the Europeans beyond the obvious Sykes–Picot Agreement which made the boundaries of many modern states of the Middle East as well as the borders of much of Eastern Europe, the European portion is oft ignored while the Middle Eastern nations are often stressed as the result and reason for hate over the prolonged and intolerable European occupation. The further anger was based in the fact in the Quran which claims that no land ever under the rule of Islam may ever be allowed to be ruled by any other as such is an insult to Allah which must be repaired at any cost as immediately as possible. This is why Israel has faced a perpetual and unremitting string of terror attacks and wars with no reason allowed as all of Israel must be returned to the rule of Allah, meaning returned to the Rule of Muslims and never be permitted to continue under Israeli-Jewish rule. But there is a rumbling going on deep inside the Islamic world.

 

After the decline of the Ottoman Empire which outlasted its innate ability to defend its conquests as the military was outstripped by the developments and discoveries the Christian world experienced after the Protestant Reformation, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, and the entry into the Information Age. Weaponry in Europe proved to be the deciding advantage against the Ottomans from east to west. The Ottoman Empire fell with as much violence and bloodshed with much of it coming from Muslims within their empire who had grown tired of Ottoman rule and desired a change thus allied with the British and the French in overthrowing the Ottoman rulers while the Jewish Brigades (also called the Palestine Brigades though nearly no Arabs served within the ranks which were almost exclusively Jews under British officers) were largely used in keeping order in Alexandria, Egypt but did see some fighting in northern Italian front lines towards the end of World War I. These units officially make up the 38th and 39th Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers of which the former was comprised largely by Zion Mule Corps and a large number of Russian Jews while the latter consisted of all Jews from the United States and Canada. The fact that some of the defeats of Ottoman forces could come at the hands of the Jews was not accepted well and pained the Muslims even more than losing to the European forces which were more modernly armed and whose support was excellent and often is what made the difference. This weakness which brought on such a rapid crushing of the Caliphate which had existed largely in lands won by the first breakout and struck at the heart of Islam.

 

This has led to rumblings and the formation of ever more radical (which means religious) Muslim organizations. The proof of this has been revealed over the few years as we had al-Qaeda, then the Taliban, Boko Haram in Nigeria and now the world is facing the Islamic State and soon a nuclear armed Iran. These Muslims are dedicating themselves to follow the teaching of the Medina Quran over the Mecca Quran thus they are neglecting the moderation of the early Quran in favor of the violence inherent in the latter Quranic verses. We covered the Quran a while ago and have received some positive feedback on our explanations of the two sides to the Quran and the reasoning and changes in Muhammad’s life. Ever since the Muslim Brotherhood blessed the terror groups starting with their joint effort with the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) followed by Hamas which became known as the radicalized terror organization. After a while the Muslim Brotherhood established another group modelled on the same basic principles as was Hamas as religious ties to Islam were found to run deeper and thus prove to be great motivation which far exceeded Arab tribalism. Then from al-Qaeda was spun the Taliban which is very much like Hamas and the finally we now have the Islamic State (ISIS) from which will theoretically be the force which can defeat any state necessary to place their influence over that nation starting with Syria and Iraq. It was theoretically an ISIS terror attack which exploded across the French capital of Paris. If this assault becomes something which occurs somewhere in the middle of any major city in the United States, as they have no stomach for any fight unless it hits home, or with an assault either in one nation or in a number of nations striking out in several cities, then perhaps the world will truly awaken. We are unaware as to what more damaging ISIS might prefer, the taking of people in one city of a single nation, the murder of a number of people cutting a swath across hitting numerous cities or finally striking numerous cities strewn across any number of Western Nations or even other sites such as Asia or MENA as even the monarchies are not safe from such assaults.

 

But all of this, the attack in Paris, the ongoing war against Israel for over sixty-seven years, the Mumbai attack, the Boston Marathon Attack, the World Trade Center Attack, the Bali Attack, the attacks in Kenya including one yesterday, the Fort Hood Terror Strike and the numerous others both grand and small having one common thread, the toppling the government or strangle the economy such that Islam in its most powerful means as people hear such sermons teaching hatred and violence often aimed at the great Satan, the United States, and likely otherwise Israel targets. Time will tell if the Islamic assaults are simply further terrorist killings or part of an organized escalation which will lead to a greater heat from the attacks as they spread their efforts ever further along with the initial seeds to try and impose a Caliphate over the Islamic nations and threaten the rest of the world.

 

Islam has been at war with the world since the fall of the Ottoman Empire which resulted from World War I and their desire to reassert unitary rule over their vast holdings; do not be fooled when something simple may soon follow. The first step towards global hegemony is the finishing of the taking of Iraq and Syria. Until that has been accomplished I would be able to reassess their ability to sell the Islamic war on the same promise made centuries before, to unite or conquer every Islamic nation in MENA and then break down Europe. There is a reason nobody has ever conquered the world, namely there is too much there to take. The final question is what was the first warfare and earliest we had with Muslims. The problem the world faces is whether it might be possible for Islam to conquer the world and impose their law, every part of Sharia, on an unsuspecting world of souls. Some claim the initial attack was the wars with the Barbary Pirates, but are they correct or is it something far more recent and seldom given a single thought; can you name the start of the modern war on the Western World? (Answer Below Scroll Down)

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answer: It was the assassination of Robert Kennedy by Sirhan Bashara Sirhan on June 5, 1968 as Sirhan Sirhan was a Palestinian Arab who was obsessed with Robert Kennedy and his support for Israel. He decided to kill him when he came to California.