Dear President Trump, Please Understand These Facts

 

President Trump, please read some history and agreements, which defined the entire creation of Israel. Once you understand the history, then you will understand that Israel has had so much already stolen that to take more would be literally criminal. The first place you should start is with the San Remo Conference. This was the first international conference to discuss further the concepts and promises made by the Balfour Declaration, something we assume; hopefully not wrongly, you already are familiar with forward and backward. Just in case you are not familiar with this document, you can use the link here. At San Remo, the world made their initial commitment. This was followed by the Treaty of Sèvres where further discussions were held and the Mandate System finalized. This was finalized in the League of Nations who gave the British the Mandate over what became Jordan and Israel. Read these and it will confirm the gist of our summary which follows.

 

The British were granted lands in which to establish the Jewish State. They took the liberty of deciding that they were not required to establish the Jewish homelands in all of the territory and instead decided they would make an Arab homeland as well. The British decided to divide the lands evenly by British standards. Their idea of evenly was to divide the lands down the Jordan River and straight south from the Dead Sea. They took the slightly larger part, 78% of the Mandate, and formed Transjordan, which later became simply Jordan, and gifted the lands to the Hashemites whom they owed favor from World War I. They further decided that the Jews were not prepared to have their own state, so the British continued to rule the lands west of the Jordan, the 22% they promised would never be divided further when they took most of the lands to form the Arab state of Jordan. The Arabs rioted often and as long as they targeted the Jews, the British watched on and when they started to approach the British they would fire a single shot and the Arabs would disperse. The British, the ones who promised the lands would never be further divided, did actually try to keep their word as well as prevent the forming of the State of Israel when they voted against United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (UNGA Res 181), which passed easily laying out dividing the 22% of land left into another Arab state and a Jewish state with the better lands given the Arabs and the Negev Desert making up over 50% of the Jewish State. The Arab League rejected this agreement thus, as one of the legal party, voiding the entirety of UNGA Res 181 and negating the proposed boundaries. This negation returned everything to the conditions before the proposal of UNGA Res 181, meaning the British promise that all the lands west of the Jordan River were designated for the Jewish state. That was the situation legally on the morning of May 15, 1948, or the evening before which was the start of the 5th of Iyyar, 5708. When Israel declared her independence on the evening of 5th of Iyyar, 5708, her borders were exactly what the British had promised in exchange for the theft of 78% of the Mandate to gift the Arabs another nation. That morning began what is euphemistically called the Israeli War of Independence. A more accurate title would have been the Israeli War for Survival. Six Arab armies from the nations of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia along with the Arab League Militias led by the Mufti of Jerusalem and World War II Nazi ally Mohammed Amin al-Husseini (محمد أمين الحسيني‎ Arabic) as well as detachments from Algeria, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen attacked Israel from every border the morning she came into existence. There were additional forces usually simply referred to as irregulars some of which represented the Muslim Brotherhood and components of the Arab League as well as other terror and Islamist organizations and groups. This was how Gaza was occupied by Egypt and Judea and Samaria partially occupied by Jordan, an area they renamed West Bank to remove the Jewish designations and honestly known as the Shomron by Jews and Israel.

 

The Arabs have their state and it is Jordan. These occupied areas were liberated in the defensive wars of 1967 (Six Day War) and 1973 (Yom Kippur War). Israel successfully defended her lands in these conflicts. Since then Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt when they made peace. This satisfied the requirement in United Nations Security Resolution 242 (UNSC Res 242) which was adopted unanimously by the UN Security Council on November 22, 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. It was adopted under Chapter VI of the UN Charter. The requirement was that despite Israel wining a defensive war brought on despite repeated cries for the Arabs to reconsider while the world sat silently waiting for Israel to be destroyed, for Israel to return part of the lands gained, not all of the lands. Israel survived and thrived but, unlike normal nations, was not permitted to retain the spoils of a defensive war in order to prevent further wars. Israel was demanded to return lands, not the lands or all lands, simply lands while establishing for themselves “Secure and Recognized Borders.” Once Israel had returned the Sinai Peninsula, she had satisfied the demand for the return of land. Israel annexation of the Golan Heights was done to establish “Secure and Recognized Borders.” Since the Shomron was initially part of Israel until the illegal occupation by Jordan, there should be no problem, but the world cannot allow Israel to live in peace. Instead, there came the invention of the Arab Palestinians who were established by the PLO, Arafat, the KGB and the Arab League in June of 1964 with the inauguration of the PLO terror group. The plan was to use the history of the Jewish People against Israel by adapting it, with a few flourishes, replacing the Jewish People and Israelites with the pretend Arab Palestinian entity. One prime example of a flourish is the claim they inhabited the land with the Canaanites for nine-thousand years and furthermore, Abbas also claimed that the fictitious “Canaanite-Palestinians” were the creators of the modern-day alphabet six-thousand years ago (watch video below), a thousand years before any modern written language has been recognized by anthropology studies of ancient civilizations. The Shomron is an integral part of Jewish and Israelite history and the heartlands of Israel. This is history and verified by historical records. But the levels of deceit which is beyond those attempting to destroy Israel by any means and no matter the cost to civilization has never been reached, there is no limit to their perfidy and lies.

 

 

There is a simple set of maps that prove what is and is not belonging to Israel. Below is a map of the original Twelve Tribes and the lands they ruled which spanned both sides of the Jordan River. The Promised Lands were those west of the Jordan River but with the assistance of Moses intervening to permit tribes to remain in lands east of the river where they found good grazing lands for their cattle, they were permitted these lands providing they were the point of the spear leading the other tribes into battle to take the Promised Lands, and then they could return to these lands. They built shelters for their families, fences for their cattle and led the other tribes in the taking of the lands and vanquishing completely the Canaanite tribes. The other side depicts the initial lands promised and becoming the land of Israel upon her declaration of independence in red on the right with the extended Davidic-Solomon Empire in yellow, which came after the defeat of the Phoenicians and Philistines by King David and King Solomon. The Hebrew Empire reached from the Euphrates River in what is today northern Syria near the Iraqi border through to the southern edge of the Negev where it meets the Sinai Peninsula and the Egyptian border then, just beyond where it exists today. Israel is not requesting those lands they initially inhabited though the initial British Mandate, which had been intended to give the Jews the lands as, estimated to match their initial lands. Unfortunately, the religiously guided and writers of the Balfour Declaration and San Remo Conference and other related treaties and papers following World War I were not the men it was decided should enact what they dreamed. The people who were tasked with the implementation of the British Mandate were more beholden to the promises the British had lavished upon numerous Arab families during the war and left the crumbs of what was considered worthless land, the prime real estate east of the Jordan River had been reserved for their Arab friends the Hashemites, so leaving the rock strewn hills, swampy lowlands and southern desert lands to the Jews, areas that had been tried and refused to provide succor to those who resided thereupon, allowing for a few subsistence farmers and a shepherd or two per hundred miles with the slimmest of herds to survive along with a paltry number of residents to remain and live in Jerusalem, Hevron, Shechem, Tiberius, Caesarea and Akko; all but Akko consisted of predominantly Jewish and Christian residents.

 

 

The demands of the world have been more than satisfied. The map below is what, as things now stand, should be the final and definitive map of the modern state of Israel. This map includes the Golan Heights, the lands west of the Jordan River; border Lebanon along the internationally recognized Blue Line as confirmed by the United Nations, borders Egypt along their agreed upon and recognized border between the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev Desert, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It should be noticed that Gaza is not included as part of Israel though, according to the agreements from after World War I, these lands were included within Israel. The reason for this is Israel released all claims to Gaza turning it over to the rule of the Palestinian Authority in August of 2005 and by early September the final withdrawal of the last IDF forces was complete. Israel no longer controls, occupies or otherwise has any claim having surrendered Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. Subsequently, the Palestinian Authority lost their rule and control over Gaza to Hamas in a bloody coup in 2007. Since then Gaza has been ruled by Hamas with Israel only invading when it became necessary to respond to excessive assaults and rocket fire by Hamas targeting Israeli civilians. These attacks were initially limited to the southernmost residents in Israel but over time and with assistance from Iran, the ranges of these projectiles has greatly increased and will soon be capable of threatening all of Israel. The last war with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the terrorist masters of Gaza, they targeted the suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the next war it may well be Haifa. Israel cannot surrender any further lands as to do so would be suicide. That is the truth. If there is to be a deal, it should be to permit those Arabs desiring to relocate to do so without facing death threats from the Palestinian Authority or from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Israel would offer top price for their properties and possibly a bonus might be offered. The same offer should be given to the Arabs residing within Israel as well and in Gaza. This would reduce the overcrowding that always appears to explain why Hamas must fire their rockets from School tops and the roofs of clinics and apartment houses. These would be the closest Israel can expect and could be made into “Secure and Recognized Borders.” Israel did surrender the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza, no more can or should be asked of her. The United Nations demanded Israel surrender lands, not all the lands or even the lands, and Israel has met this standard and now need to be left to her own safe boundaries.

 

Definitive Map of Israel May 15, 1948
As the Sun Rose Immediately Before
Half a Dozen Arab Armies Invade
Assisted by Militias from Several Entities

 

President Trump, you claim not to be a politician and to be the one to bring a new age to Washington. Your claim is to drain the swamp and follow your own path ignoring the ‘Deep State’ as part of your cleaning of the mess the United States faces. As you may have already seen, the State Department is probably the most infected of your departments when it comes to people with their own policies and the desire to implement them whether the President agrees with them or not. The problems you had with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were not completely of his making, though he was the perfect fit for the State Department. Allow us to give you a little history on the State Department. The State Department advised President George Washington, President John Adams and President Thomas Jefferson to pay the tribute to the Barbary Pirates. Eventually, President Jefferson, a noninterventionist if ever there was one, to intervene and fight the Barbary Pirates instead of paying the ever-increasing tribute. The State Department backed the Soviets and Communism while now they back the Arabs, as they are Arabists, just like Rex Tillerson is. You have already shown more backbone than other Presidents, as you kept your promise to recognize the true and eternal capital of Israel, Jerusalem. This was the act of a businessman, keeping his word, and not the act of a politician, whose words are usually worthless when they become uncomfortable or difficult. Do not suddenly become a politician, though becoming another member of the swamp would be the easiest path for you, stand for what you know is correct from what you learned back in Sunday School and any Bible reading you have done since. It is time to uphold the promises which the United States also singed onto under the Anglo American Treaty of 1924 which made the United States a signatory in the Mandate System and an enforcer of the British Mandate as well as the others made by the League of Nations. Imagine that, a President actually enforcing a treaty that was ratified by the Senate February 20, 1925. If you are half the businessman you claim to be, then you know that your position requires you to fulfill all actions to as demanded by the Constitution. A treaty ratified by the Senate is, under the Constitution, the law of the land and as such must be upheld by the President. Uphold the treaty and permit Israel some strategic depth, which required all of the lands west of the Jordan River as promised by the British Crown and signed onto by the United States under the Anglo American Treaty of 1924. Doing so will guarantee you a great Presidency which will be considered amongst the greatest in the history books. Remember the promise from Hashem from Genesis 12:3 where it states, “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” The choice stands before you, which way will you choose.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Troubles Begin in Thinking Islam Must be Repaired by Islam

 

There is a theme that in order for Islam to find some means of coming to grips with modernity and make the changes necessary for it to coexist with the non-Islamic world instead of seeking to destroy all which is not Islam must be managed by those within Islam and not the remainder of the world. This is a great concept for those of us who are not Muslims as it frees us from any obligation to work to assist Islam in finding a new path. It allows those who are not Muslims to simply wipe their hands of the problematic situation and leave all the heavy lifting for those within the sway of Islam. Imagine if we had decided that the problem caused by the Nazis had to be solved by those who were part of the Nazi party et al. Where would such an idea, if followed by France, Britain, Canada and the United States have led? Well, it would probably not have been very pretty. There were those within the United States who thought that the entire Nazi war was a European problem and that it should be left to the Europeans to hash it out. Their logic was quite appealing as the United States just finished fighting a European War called, you will love this one, The War to End All Wars. These Americans, and many others who were on the fence or just tired of European catastrophic endeavors and waring for supremacy over one another, simply desired to be left at peace and unbothered with the world even if it was heading for Armageddon and going to Hades in a Handbasket. They were winning the popularist debate and had most Americans believing the European War was no business of the United States, as it would never come to American shores, it was not their problem. Well, the attack on Pearl Harbor blew all that thinking right out of the water and propelled America into the war. Those who claim that Franklin Delano Roosevelt and many in his Administration and the Congress and other leaders of business and society knew the attack was coming and did nothing to prevent it are missing the point. Had these leaders of the United States, both governmental and private, known about the coming attack, what were they supposed to do? Plead with Japan not to strike Pearl Harbor? The Japanese had already decided; so that was not going to work, as they would not alter their plans. Call for a draft before the attack and try to get some workable defense in place all but instantly? That would never have flown in Congress and even had they drafted the entire population, there would not have been sufficient pilots or aircraft to stop the attack. Once the Japanese decided to strike, the war was coming to America and there was nothing that could prevent that; so any venturing into excuses and what ifs is a waste.

 

There is a message in the run-up to America entering World War II, namely that some things are inescapable and the sooner this is realized, the sooner the problem can be addressed, solved, or, if necessary, eliminated and all at far less cost in treasure and manpower. Imagine if Britain had listened to Winston Churchill’s warnings when he was telling them of the coming conflagration and the inevitability of war with the Nazis. Imagine if instead of sending Neville Chamberlain to the Munich conference the British had sent Winston Churchill. The conference would not have reached any agreement, Czechoslovakia would not have been gifted to the Nazis, and just maybe Germany would have been stopped as France and Britain kept their mutual defense pact with the Czechoslovakian friends instead of simply whimpering as the Nazis were gifted half and rolled over the remaining half soon thereafter without any response from Czechoslovakia’s so-called allies. Hitler would have been stopped cold as soon as he had entered Czechoslovakia instead of months later after building his war machine using the existing arms factories he conquered as part of taking Czechoslovakia. Instead the war came after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in which the Nazis and Soviet Union divided up Poland between them and rolled across their respective borders crushing the Polish cavalry and military meeting in the middle and that was the end of Poland with their prisoners taken to their respective conquers’ camps and many were simply executed as the Nazis and Soviets both viewed the Polish people as inferior and unworthy of consuming oxygen. This led to the most devastating war in which an unbelievable number of the resultant casualties were civilians far exceeding the totals and percentages of previous wars (see comparison between World War I and II below). It is startling that many historians look at World War II and realize that much of the death and destruction could have been avoided and the leaders of nations who could have intervened early and, by taking the bull by the horns, have stopped Hitler cold preventing his attempt at world conquest and the eradication of the Jewish People. What if the world is approaching another of those critical points where unfolding history is about to hit a divergence and the next couple of years, maybe months or even weeks, could decide the entire future of humanity? We could not be more serious.

 

World War II Surpassed World War I
Civilian Deaths Against Military Deaths

 

Manchester, Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino, Orlando, Nice, and decades of terrorist activities in Israel plus any others anybody cares to fill in are but the latest wave of Islamist attempts to conquer the world in the name of Allah in order to fulfill the prophesy from the Quran, the part written in Medina to be exact (for more on the bifurcated Quran, please read our short article as an introduction Which Quran, Mecca or Medina? which has included numerous helpful links in the comment section added by our readers). The initial Islamic attempt in world conquest began in the year 622 under Muhammad for the first decade and then Rashidun and then the Umayyad caliphs covering the first wave of Islamic expansion (see map below). This has been followed by other waves with near continuous aggressions of varying degrees. Some of the history might be of interest to many Westerners.

 

Islamic Expansion

 

If one were to ask most Americans when was the first terrorist attack on the United States in the modern era, meaning the past one hundred years, what would be your guess. Most people would likely claim it was the attack on the World Trade Center which then requires asking which attack. Too many would then answer the one on 9/11, of course. That is the state of history knowledge for far too many Americans. The truth is there was one before the 9/11/2001 hijacking of four American airliners crashing two, one each, into the World Trade Towers; one into the Pentagon and the last one was crashed by the passengers into a field not far outside of Pittsburgh upon learning of the intentions of the hijackers. There was a first attack on the Towers on February 26, 1993, when Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil drove a truck filled with 1,336 pounds of explosives into the parking garage under Tower One with coconspirators Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin, and Ahmed Ajaj all led by the Blind Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. But even that is not the initial attack since the start of the Twentieth Century as for that we need go back to June 5, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, at 12:15 AM when Sirhan Sirhan Assassinated Democrat Party frontrunner candidate for President of the United States Robert F. Kennedy. The public was told that Sirhan was insane and simply was out of control, crazy, demented or anything other than terrorism by a Palestinian sympathizer born in Lebanon who identified with Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian cause and murdered Robert Kennedy because he supported Israel. Yes, the truth will set you free and the assassination of Robert Kennedy was an act of terrorism aimed at Israel and the United States by an Arab Palestinian supporting terrorist.

 

But when it comes to conflicts with Islam and the United States there is an even earlier precedent. The United States fought two wars with Islamic forces known as the Barbary Pirates who were stealing ships through piracy demanding tribute from the owning nations and taking the crews as slaves. The major slave trade in the Mediterranean was called white slavery to differentiate it from the rest of slavery in the African continent where the Arabs and Muslims played a critical role in acquisition of the African natives which were then transferred to the coast where they were bought by European slavers and then sold to ship captains who would transfer them for trading across the world. The Barbary pirates collected tributes from every nation and got more and more greedy and at some point, the United States came to the decision they were not going to be blackmailed any more. Under President Thomas Jefferson, probably the greatest of all isolationists of the Founding Fathers, the United States Navy and Marines fought the Pasha of Tripoli Yusuf Karamanli after refusing to pay the demanded tribute of $225,000, which led to his declaring war on the United States. You could say that President Thomas Jefferson obliged him.

 

But wait, there’s more. After the United States had somehow managed to win the war of 1812 against Britain, the Barbary Pirates thought that the United States would be vulnerable and began their piracy again, demanding ransoms. The Regency of Algiers Mohamed Kharnadji who was followed by Dey Regency of Algiers Omar Agha insisted the United States resume paying tribute this time to Algiers as their ships now ruled the seas. President James Madison showed the same resolve as had Thomas Jefferson and again the Barbary Pirates were defeated. What is of interest, the Barbary Pirates never signed an actual surrender but instead insisted that any surrender was but a Hudna. Traditionally, a Hudna lasts a decade or until the forces of Islam believe they are capable of defeating their enemies. The Barbary Hudna lasted significantly longer than a decade but it appears that it is coming to its end and they believe that the United States is primed to fall right along with Europe, Israel, India and the remainder of the world is all ready for harvest and they are out to pick it clean.

 

Why, you might inquire, are they so dependent on using terrorism as a way to defeat the world? Well, the world has only themselves to blame for making it appear that terrorism is the route they can ride to total victory. They watched how through terrorism and a campaign of lies and propaganda they believe they are on the verge of destroying Israel and how the Europeans have all but folded before them with terrorism and infiltration leading the way. It is simply appearing to be working and so they will ride it for all it is worth. As long as the world remains in a coma ready to surrender over enduring any struggle, then Islam will continue to surge. The continued reaction to every terror attack by the European elite is to blame Israel and the growing anti-Semitism spreading across Europe, even ahead of and in excess to the numbers of Muslim refugees joining the already present Muslim populations. The excuse that the anti-Semitism is driven by Muslims sounds hollow when percentages of those holding numerous anti-Semitic tropes far exceeds the percentage of Muslims residing in most European nations with amongst the most threatening being Sweden, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. What has been amongst the most disturbing trends are the numbers of people in the developed world who blame Israel and Jews for the terrorism when it strikes their country. There are many who claim if only Israel would give the Palestinians and the Arabs what they demand, then their own nation would be fine and the terrorism would stop. Making this even more distressing is that many of these people know that what the Arabs and the Palestinians demand is all of Israel and the Jews within murdered to the last man, woman and child and they have little problem with such a sacrifice if it would keep them quiet for a few decades, enough to last for their lives as they care not about the future, just about the now and their future. Beyond their lives, they could not care less. The willingness to sacrifice Israel is made all the more evident when votes are taken in various United Nations agencies and in the General Assembly where European nations consistently abstain rather than support Israel against false claims and demands to wrench lands from Israel through votes most recently in UNESCO. The developed world can decide to end this awakening of Islam now or pay a horrific price once the majority of Muslim nations have developed nuclear weapons programs with each maintaining and equipping ICBM’s with twenty, fifty, hundred, three hundred, a thousand or more warheads. At what point will Europe and the United States awaken to the reality that Islam is incapable of taming Islam. The reason why is basic, the pacifists cannot prevent those intent on war from violence through passivity. Islam does not require every Muslim to Jihad, but every Muslim is required to either pay, house or otherwise support those who do commit to Jihad, or at the very least, lie in order to facilitate and occlude any evidence of Jihad. And the bad new is that Greater Jihad is warfare and violence to expand Islam until Islam is the only religion worshiped on Earth and Lesser Jihad is self-improvement and the juxtaposition of the two is Taqiyya (see below for definition). Lastly, there are those few true lunatics who feel if they cannot rule the entire world, then there should be no world for anybody in which to rule.

 

Taqiyya defined in plain and simple easy to understand terms

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

United States Longest War

Ask most people what the longest war the United States has ever fought and you will most likely get Afghanistan as the answer. The only problem with this answer is it only states the most recent battle of the longest of wars in which the United States has been engaged. The truth is that the war the United States has been fighting in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq are but battles in a generational contest in which the first shots were fired in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean off of Northern Africa even before General George Washington accepted the final surrender from British General Cornwallis after the battle of Yorktown. The United States was founded already in a state of war which eventually would become known as the War with the Barbary Pirates. After two separate campaigns the Barbary Pirates were forced into signing a treaty ending their attacks and kidnappings on United States merchant vessels. This signaled an end to aggressions as far as the United States was concerned, but not so for their adversaries who simply had made a Hudna, a temporary end to a conflict taken by Muslim forces and nations when their enemy is more powerful than themselves. A Hudna differs in one significant manner from an actual peace treaty, it is a temporary form of a truce which is intended to be broken whenever the Muslims believe they have gained the advantage and are able to defeat their enemy.

 

This war of which this writing refers had its beginning in the city of Medina with the rise of Mohammad as the leader of a tribe who made up the first Muslim Army. Once gaining a strong and able army, Mohammad wrote a whole new set of rules and laws for the religion he was founding. No longer was it necessary to honor other religions or people as had been the case in Mecca where the first parts of the Quran was written. In Medina the Quran spoke of mutual respect and honoring the rights of those who were different. Such was no longer necessary and the sections of the Quran written in Medina spoke of the supremacy of Islam and the requirement to spread Islam until it becomes the only religion on Earth. These two separate faces of Islam has come to serve the Muslims well as it allows them to coexist in peace when their numbers are small and they are the strangers in a new land and to impose their religion once their numbers have reached a critical level. This war which was first declared in Medina with Mohammad and his rise to lead and eventually rule in Medina and set in the Quran the ideology that Islam must become the sole and supreme religion on Earth. Even with the death of Muhammad in 632AD this aim of spreading Islam throughout the world has never died. This long war has lasted emerging out of the Arabian peninsula continuing through the Crusades, the wars between Muslims and the Hindus in India and in modern times between Pakistan and India, the many permutation of the Arab-Israeli war, the Balkans conflict over Kosova, the Chechen conflict with the Russians, and even the current Shiite-Sunni conflict which is an intrinsic part of the Civil War in Syria among other conflicts throughout Islamic history.

 

The actual beginning of hostilities between the Barbary Pirates and the United States was initiated by President Thomas Jefferson despite his strong aversion to engaging in foreign conflicts, treaties or alliances. Thomas Jefferson’s initial contact with Islamic culture came in the company of John Adams when they were the ambassadors to France and Britain respectively when they met the ambassador from Tripoli and inquired as to why his countrymen were attacking American merchant ships and abducting their sailors. The ambassador answered honestly and simply responding, “That’s what we do. We are commanded to do so by Allah. It was written in their Koran that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every Mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to Paradise.” When Jefferson became President he decided that paying the Jizya to the rulers in Tripoli who were demanding more tribute every year had become overly expensive and endangered the future of the United States. President Jefferson stopped making the payments which resulted in a first of two wars between the Barbary Pirates and the United States. Where there was eventually a treaty ending that war, the Barbary Pirates once again returned to attacking merchants of the United States resulting in a second Barbary War.

 

Whether the current hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9-11 are actually a continuation of the Wars with the Barbary Pirates would be a stretch, the underlying rationalizations and justifications which led to those conflicts are attributable to the Quran. Don’t believe this article, simply take the words from the al-Qaeda Fatwa issued three years before the attacks on the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City which stated, “We — with God’s help — call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on Muslim Ulama, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan’s U.S. troops and the devil’s supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson.” The supposed original sin committed by the United States and their allies was their response to requests by the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia who requested aid as they felt directly threatened by Saddam Hussein when he attacked and overran Kuwait in August 1990. The United States entered Saudi Arabia in order to defend a Muslim nation from the seeming imminent invasion from a dictatorial expansionist lunatic. For risking the lives and paying a terrible cost in both personnel’s lives, equipment, and funds in efforts to protect a Muslim nation, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda declared a holy war against the United States which led directly to the death of nearly three thousand Americans on September 11, 2001 to which the casualties in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and the numerous terrorist attacks since all originating in that initial fatwa. The honestly saddest reality of this is the numbers of casualties and destructive actions are nowhere near reaching an end. How long and the final cost of this longest of wars may not be finished being tallied in our lifetimes, and that is truly the most regrettable of truths.

 

Beyond the Cusp