Coming Death of Europe and the European Union

 

 

Finally British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin’s Peace for Our Time which started World War II can be put to rest just as it put the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg which started World War I to rest. That might indicate to many that German Chancellor Angela Markell’s announcement that Germany would accept 800,000 Syrian refugees which was the dropping of the European Union flag starting the final invasion of Europe as we know her, the bitter and painful death of Europe and the European Union.

 

 

Top Left) Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg which started World War I.
Top Right) British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Announcing, “Peace for Our Time” Leading to World War II.
Bottom Left) Angela Merkel Posing for Selfie with Syrian Refugee.
Bottom Right) The European Union Flag Starting the Race of Refugees Overrunning Europe Coming not to Settle but to Conquer.

 

 

If those flooding into Europe were actually families of all ages with many being three, four or even five generations traveling seeking a sane and orderly place to rebuild their lives, then it would be acceptable. But these are not largely families nor are they all Syrians; these are refugees from the length and breadth of the troubled Middle East from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Yemen to Libya to Somalia. The problem is the non-Syrian members of the refugee hordes and those both planted and others simply the product of a poor education system who are easily influenced by those planted within these groups who will spread influence and others who are easily influenced by these placed within the systems.

 

The fuel which will sustain the fires, both literal and figurative, has been in place and willing to follow any leader who promises a better future. That better future which will excite the youths from the existing Islamic populations whose parents fled the exact same system as what will be promised as the solution to their problems, a system where these underprivileged youths who have received an inexcusably poor education or were raised in Islamic Madrasas which have been subverted simply teaching the promises of jihad and the redistributional systems where they will be given their shares of a new society which they will bring into existence through violence and revolution. The greatest share of the wealth they redistribute will necessarily end up in the pockets of the instigators and the real power gained will also be exclusively shared by the leaders of this grand jihad, this grand revolution which is fed by class and racial rhetoric which will stoke the fires of the inequality of wealth distribution and their inherent right to these riches after the conquest of Europe.

 

The real problem also lied in the freedom to travel anywhere within the European Union once one establishes residency in any one of the European Union nations. This will make the spread of the instigators and facilitators crossing from one country to the next always preaching the same story of how the riches of those who now rule have stolen from them and their right once the new order of the Sharia and Islamic rule has been established. Any Muslim who tries to prevent their youths from making the same mistakes which were behind the failures of the Arab Spring or committing themselves to instituting the exact same governments which have spread the misery equally to those being enslaved by a government that is all about submission; will be imprisoned, if they are fortunate, or executed. This includes but is not limited to submission to Allah, submission to Islam, submission to the Sharia, submission to the Iman and submission to the government which will claim be to be an extension of Allah. The Imans, the Sharia and the hierarchical system of a dictatorial theocracy control the real wealth and power. It will be vested in the few at the top and just sufficiently shared with the highest tier in the political and religious scale of a strictly ordered society and the Imans who tell great stories of the shahids who liberated the land for Allah. The state of affairs for the masses will be little different after the initial spoils are redistributed much as was true immediately after the French Revolution which soon led to a secondary revolution between the two then opposing solutions and the strongest but not necessarily the best side won and the French have been attempting to perfect their socialist order and their republic all the while missing the systemic problems within socialism, but fear not as the winds of change are about to blow and blow with the very fires of religious fervor and unprecedented zeal not seen since the Inquisition and sharing much of the same horrors.

 

The winds of Islamic Caliphate are coming to Europe and the only antidote has been forsaken to such a point as there is little if any hope that Europe will find the resolute will and G0d fearing faith to make the sacrifices necessary to combat the evil that is coming. The disease which fathered this change has been a long time building and its most apparent problem has been the cause of the necessity to bring in foreign sources of labor which will now extinguish all that Europe has built and either tear the signs of Western based systems and their most obvious symbols out by the roots or convert these monolithic cathedrals into Grand Mosques and take the statues and obelisks which festoon Old Europe out by their roots. The architecture will have to be altered to please the new masters and some obvious pillars to another time will need be torn asunder. The prime example would be Titus’s Arch with its symbols of Roman General Titus’ spoils from the defeat of Jerusalem and the putting down of the Jewish (Israelite) revolt and taking the spoils of war by taking the sacramental treasures from and sacking of the Second Temple back to Rome a sign of his triumph (see images below).

 

 

 

 

Islam in its current Jihadi form refuses to permit the colossal works such as Titus’s Arch on the Via Sacra in the Forum Romanum, Rome, Italy (above) or the Arc de Triumph stands in the center of the Place Charles de Gaulle (originally named Place de l’Étoile), at the western end of the Champs-Élysées, Paris, France (below) as such works either predate Islam, Titus’s Arc, or have no reference or meaning in Islam, Arc de Triumph, thus are simply distractions from Muhammad and Allah and as such are deserving of destruction. These also represent great victories or are standards or national monuments and as such must be brought low before they inspire some future generation to reassert their national pride. Without such reminders of a past independent from Islam it is far easier to keep the people in a state of submission. Further, a people in submission without any signs, monuments, great works of art, literature, movies, music, or anything else not honoring Islam and declaring the superiority and completeness of Islam are inconsequential. A story, apparently first appearing in the thirteenth century (mentioned first by Abd al Latif, who died in 1231, and later by Gregory Bar Hebraeus, who died in 1286), says that the Arabs, under Caliph Umar, destroyed the Alexandria Library shortly after the conquest of Egypt in 639 AD. The story rumored that Caliph Umar stated, “This library, if the books it contains agreed with the Koran, then they are superfluous, and if they disagree, then they are heretical. In either event, they are worthless and should be obliterated.” The books of the Library were put to the torch being used to heat the palace baths. Such was the reasoning which led to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan by the Taliban claiming they were the objects of idolatry and thus an abomination which must be destroyed. Similar claims have been documented for the actions of the Islamic State when they came upon items which were not of Islamic origins, especially if they were from religions which predated Islam.

 

 

 

 

We covered the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in our article titled Israeli Choice Between Terminal Terror or Settling Our Lands which were one of a number of such desecrations committed in the recent past and if Islamic State, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda get their way, the destruction has just begun. The items which would stand a high likelihood of being destroyed upon Islamic, especially the ardently zealous, passionately obsessive and compulsively dedicated with a fanatical devotion to Islam and solely Islam, possession of Western Europe would include irreplaceable artwork originals including the entirety of the Louvre in Paris, France. So many victory and other celebratory arches and obelisks, untold statues, historic sites, religious monoliths such as Stonehenge and countless libraries, film collections and archives, art museums and so much more as to be unthinkable. Further, many churches would be transformed into Mosques or otherwise destroyed, the main cathedrals would have their ornate artwork and mosaics plastered over as was done to the Hagia Sophia, the complete destruction of the Sistine Chapel as that has solid irreplaceable artwork, much done by the greatest painters of the day such as Michael Angelo as well as the stores in the Vatican vaults, their artwork and so much more (especially if the rumors are true that the original vessels, sacrificial items, the candelabra and other artifacts taken from the Second Temple by Titus referred to above and came into the hands of the Catholic Church early in the formation of the church and have been kept hidden and official denials issued when approached on the subject. But there will be other events which will change the entire scenario long before it gets to the horrific stages expected to arrive sooner rather than later.

 

The main problem has been the split between Old Europe (Western Europe) and the former Warsaw Pact Nations (Eastern Europe) with the most forceful stances taken have been Poland and Hungary who have refused to permit any refugees from remaining within their borders. The problem will come to a head once the refugees are issued European Union National identity cards or Blue Cards to be able to work throughout the European Union. Once the refugees gain the ability to travel, work, reside and cross into any European Union country, those nations who have refused to allow them entry except to pass through on to Germany, France, Scandinavia or anywhere other than Poland, Hungary and the other Eastern European nations and European Union members for now will soon be leaving the European Union either by choice or dictate. We suspect that once this comes to a head that the United Kingdom, which is already about to have a referendum on whether to remain in the European Union, and the majority of eastern bloc European Union member nations will all flee from their membership or attempt to remain members and also be permitted to define who may or may not cross their borders for as long as the refugee situation persists. If the European Union decides to be stubborn and refuse the eastern bloc nations, then there is a good chance that we are witnessing the immediate death of the European Union. If exceptions are granted for the former Warsaw Pact nations, then the days of the European Union are numbered. The European Union cannot long survive once it has granted that as long as member nations insist, then there can be different rules for some and the binding rules for the others you have an untenable situation where all European Union nations are equal, just some are more equal than others. That never has worked very well.

 

This situation was partially brought on by shifting population numbers where replacement levels were not met for a number of decades now. Germany having one of the worst within all of the European Union member nations may have been spurred by the vital need for younger workers as their pension bill increases and the number of workers kept declining, not a situation with which any nation can long survive. The same problem but nowhere near as severe has struck the United States thus one of the reasons there is no great hurry to close the southern border. The situation in the United States is not comparable to that of the European Union as in the United States the situation is being addressed by ignoring the influx of illegals across the Rio Grande River. The United States is blessed in that their illegal immigrants are largely Hispanic Christians with a large number either Catholic or after reaching the shores of the United States discovering and becoming Evangelical Christians. That is a far smoother transition than what Europe is facing. Further, the immigrants to the United States are coming with the intent of becoming Americans and assimilating with the exception of their intentions to remain religious or at least more religious than the average American, sad but true.

 

The Europeans are facing an entirely different problem. The refugees and the illegal immigrants which have been flooding Europe from the south by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, have an entirely separate and different religious, social, and political background which is completely in every way incompatible with European history, European religious freedom, even freedom from religion for the majority, work skill levels, educational levels, morals, social ethics, and just about everything right down to food choices. Their inclusion will completely alter what it means to be European. These illegal refugees from across the Mediterranean Sea are far more likely to adopt at least some of the European ethos while those coming from the east out of the Middle and Central East from as diverse a set of nations as imaginable will be mixed with most being honest refugees and amongst them hidden in plain sight will be entire terror squads. On top of the Christian Syrian refugees and some Iraqi Christians who compose the smallest of the smallest percentages, there are influxes of Islamic, largely Sunni which may perhaps be the slightest of breaks, with refugees arriving other than Syrian there are also Iraqi, Afghans, Pakistani, Yemenis, Iranian Arabs, Saudis and even some Egyptians and Sudanese. This is a challenging mix and the fact that many of the refugees have little or no skills and at best a rudimentary education level, is a complete change from what the European Union nation are accustomed. This is a completely separate and alien set of backgrounds which will also present problems in finding them employment. This is a problem as the last thing the European nations and the European Union do not need is a workforce who require rudimentary educations and training on even what a time-clock is and the stress in European society will quickly hit the breaking point and soon thereafter the boiling point.

 

We may be about to witness the splintering of the European Union. The first ones to bow out will be the eastern and former soviet Warsaw Block nations who might return to Russian orbit or may strike out on their own. Should the Eastern Europeans decide to make their own version of the European Union then Israel should use her friendship with Poland, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States and any others to receive preferable trade relations and potentially membership in any group they might form but Israel should be careful that these nation are not taking their time to simply gain a better bargain in reentering the Russian orbit. Some of the Eastern European Nations favor Israel, even more so than many of the Western European nations who are behind the BDS in Europe and have taken the Western European nations and have been instrumental in financing NGOs which oppose Israel and support the destruction of Israel and replacing it with yet another failed Arab kleptocracy. The strangest thing was the admission by Mahmoud Abbas that he had refused to accept or even make a counter proposal, just as did Yasser Arafat before him, too he rejected an offer from Israel’s Ehud Olmert which included placing Jerusalem’s Old City under international control and granting his 99.5% of the lands he demands and a tunnel between Judea and Gaza for Arab use only. Whatever the reason he gave, it was most definitively a bald faced lie! Abbas was offered lands from the triangle to offset for the settlement area Israel was retaining. Still the Arab capital would have been in East Jerusalem. Abbas was basically admitting that he could not be made happy with a loaf of bread under each arm and a bag full of marmalade, butter and some India Black Tea on the pot waiting. There is no hope short of marching the population of Israel westward into the Mediterranean and then Abbas would continue to take millions and then complain to the world that he needed more to be held responsible and if they did not fill the coffers. The world will eventually tire of that petulant child and his temper tantrums and let him scream and pound the floor kicking and screaming until he passes out. We can turn on the televisions if need be, but this they would not cover, but no matter, most Israelis we have had enough with the suited terrorist and his lies and false claims, his projection and finally, his damage to the Arab people whom he supposedly serves. We guess that is what you get when you deal with charlatans who are only in the game for the terror and pain they can inflict and the dollars and Euros they are able to steal, all else be damned.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Greek Debt, the ‘No’ Vote, and the European Union

 

The first domino has fallen and Greece has laid down their challenge to the European Union (EU) basically asking if the European body will respect them the morning after the vote to thumb their noses at the demands made on the Greek government and its people demanding that they be further bailed out for free. The Greek people have chosen to support their government in firmly demanding they be granted support from the rest of the EU, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for restructuring the repayment schedule and not be so strict and mean demanding that the Greek government act what they define as responsibly using the restrictive austerity measures forcing the struggling nation to tighten its fiscal belt and stop the generous expenditures giving literally free tickets to the people and retired workers and other items standing directly in opposition of the demands for austerity measures for the struggling nation to be imposed by the EU, IMF and the ECB to prevent the very default on Greek debt which occurred late last week. The Greek default on their debt payment made them the first EU member to fail to meet their financial obligations slapping them in the face and throwing down their gauntlet. Now all that remains is a seemingly simple vote for the members of the EU on whether to hold the Greek government to impose strict terms in order to meet the financial demands of those attempting to collect on their ‘loans’ made with demanding Greece now act in good faith and honor the terms imposed on them and the restructure of the Greek governments debts such that they would be capable to repay those debts. The crisis was brought to a head with the Greek failure to meet the $1.7 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund as part of a previous set of further loans and restructuring made to avoid a similar crisis last year. Now an apparent ‘No’ vote is a direct challenge for all that entails.

 

The Greek people have now, with their ‘No’ vote, rejected the imposition of the austerity measures demanded of Greece by those holding the notes of indebtedness from the Greek government. This is forcing a crisis which has very few options and will now test the EU and whether its single currency policies are functional or inherently flawed. This threat to the EU single currency system was set into motion the second that there was not any central monetary planning unifying the disparate desires and quirks of the independent nations. Without such a system, the Euro was bound to produce just such a financial disaster leaving only the question as to which nation would be the first to fall off the fiscal cliff, the first to dare to tread beyond the cusp of financial responsibility. The predictions of an eventual default had raised its ugly face before threatening the very foundations of the Euro system and posing the exact challenge being faced today with the Greek rejection of the financial restraints being foisted upon them by the centralized powers within the EU. I suppose that Greece was as likely a candidate as any to be the first to face the imposition of external financial limits or simply defaulting thus threatening the stability of the Euro shared currency system. What are the questions needing to be answered and the actions available to be decided defining the path forward?

 

The questions are simple ones that get down to the basis of the Euro and through that to the entire EU. The writing is on the wall for anybody with the nerves to read the warnings telling the tale that there would be a day where a people made comfortable by the very structures put in place as a universal safety net designed to care for those unable to afford the necessities of life due to unemployment or other difficulties eventually making living off the government’s various programs sufficiently comfortable that work becomes an option and not a necessity. With such a system in place it becomes not only possible, but in some cases preferable to live a simple life permitting government to foot the bill. Eventually such a life would become far more attractive living large off the government than working and living not all that much differently and people would realize that not working was as much an option, and a far more enticing option, and simply choose to live an easy life seeking other means by which to have the government pay for more and more until there is no more and they start borrowing. This works for a while and the government stimulates the economy with infusions of money and the Ponzi scheme becomes the way of governing always staying one step from ahead of defaulting on loans. Finally there is a downturn of the economy and a country with finances so fragile becomes a nation unable to recover sufficiently to pay its debts. A nation unable to repay its debts is recognized immediately to be a threat to the entire system so this government cannot be permitted to collapse and start anew and is instead propped up by the wealthier governments and international bankers whose sources of income have always been shady and now are becoming downright unsustainable.

 

Soon another country teeters at the edge and begins to go down the exact same path as the previous, only more rapidly, then another and another until it becomes the crisis that is so large it can no longer be ignored or swept under the rug and propped up under auspices that this next new solution, austerity being the latest, will save the system, a system so broken that saving it is well past any possibility. The eventual default was set in motion at the very outset as was predicted by British Prime Minister the Lady Margaret Thatcher when she wisely refused to allow Britain to become dependent on the Euro and instead reached a balancing point that her merchants and industries would accept Euros as payment but that such payments must always be transferred into the Pound Sterling on the British ledgers and thus met by the EU. The Lady Thatcher once stated it referring to exactly this problem when during an interview with Thames Television’s This Week on Feb 5, 1976 she was quoted as saying, “I think they’ve made the biggest financial mess that any government’s ever made in this country for a very long time, and Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.” This is exactly where Greece now finds itself and where Spain, Portugal, Italy and soon potentially others find themselves all in different points on that slippery slope, it is simply further along and at a steeper point that Greece finds itself, the point where other people’s money has run out and they have become reluctant to continue providing, period, or have they. There is one option where Greece is freely given yet another infusion of monies and the marry-go-round will continue. The debt will be restructured except this time there will be no set repayment process set up but instead a demand that Greece show its good faith of intent to eventually repay the debt once profitable times return, and those providing the crutch will continue to pour good money after bad with no false expectations of ever being repaid. Greece will have become that poor wretched relative who nobody ever speaks about but find themselves constantly meeting their bills for them. This eventually leads to the next crisis, what happens when most of the family of EU nations becomes Greece?

 

The EU cannot financially choose to continue supporting Greece but not because it would be a strain on them financially, it would hardly be noticed as such is how small a percentage of the total EU financial institutions that Greece requires even if it were to totally fail and every Greek citizen were receiving government livable wages. The problem is one of precedence. Once the EU sets the precedent financially holding Greece’s hand and paying its way then the path is set for other nations to demand similar treatment should they fall upon hard times. Should one look far enough down the road and it is not difficult to paint the picture they will envision, an EU that half its nations survive and are carried by the other half, and the wealth produced by the providing half is completely consumed supporting the rest. The entirety of the EU production and profits are consumed by the other nonproductive half. That is not a system that will survive even the slightest of difficulties and that will spell the end of the EU right behind the end of the Euro. But is the other option going to end any differently?

 

Imagine if the EU forgives the parts of the Greek debts it is able and forces Greece to return to their own currency yet remain in the European Union, where will that lead? Again it becomes a matter of precedent as now any nation which is approaching insolvency will demand the same generous exit strategy gaining a partial bailout which does not need be repaid and a return to their native currency without any penalty. There will come a point where the EU will no longer be the panacea promised and instead will become a small block of successful and wealthy nations having paid the exit fee for the remaining nations who now use their own currency and benefit from EU membership solely when conducting trade within the EU. This will have greater effects outside the EU as the EU will set their exchange rates for the Euro against their own national currencies until they are determined to be financially readmitted to the Euro club once again. There will always be the possibility that these less productive and less affluent nations will find their stride economically and be capable of rejoining the Euro based nations but most would be relegated to using their own national currency. The real problem will strike when even those nations which had been marginally able to keep astride the powerhouse economies of the likes of Germany will now constitute the least wealthy of nations still using the Euro and there may come during a time of economic stress where they too may be forced to return to their own currency or an even more frightening scenario would be the most productive nations decide to be like Britain, namely accepting the Euro in payment for trade deals or from tourists but operating using their own national currency as they would realize that would benefit them in deals outside of the EU and they also would no longer be pressed into supporting the economically weaker nations.

 

Any path taken would necessarily result in the end of the Euro and the stresses from the nations all returning to their own national currency eventually dissolving the EU as it would no longer serve any purpose beyond setting unified trade agreements through the Euro. Anyway one might slice this rotting cake that started with the Greek default; the result is the same, the unraveling of the EU starting with the demise of the Euro. The Euro might continue on much as Roman coins and the Spanish Pieces of Eight hung around well after their issuing nation no longer held the sway and influence they had in their prime. The question then comes as to what Europe may look like down the road without the EU as a calming inclusiveness that it once provided largely through the sharing of a common currency. Would this signal the return to the epidemic of conflicts, much as was the way of things throughout history? What will happen when the EU dissolves and there is no European unified front and each nation is now unleashed to trade completely without any concerns or other brotherly obligations. The initial return to cutthroat trade practices with each nation set against its neighbor may, over time, exacerbate old rivalries leading to skirmishes and even on to open warfare? Violence is only one part of the problems as there may be demands for reparations from the nations which had debt forgiven under a moment of weakness and magnanimity more forced by the EU than entered into with willingness and a smile. The failure of the Greek economy to sustain any kind of parity with the major economic powers within the EU will necessarily result in the end of the Euro as a trans-European unified currency, also as Lady Thatcher had predicted in her actions to forestall and eventually put to rest any hope that Britain would fully resign control over her own currency. This will prove to be the death of the Euro, the necessity for every nation to control its own currency unless they would willingly surrender their fiscal and economic planning to a central budgetary committee appointed and solely answerable to the EU and acting independently of the member nations forcing upon each their assignments for production and receipt of funds from Brussels. Nationalism or completely collective socialism, which would Europe choose. Britain would never enter such a trap, but could the entirety of the rest of the EU nations join such a group and actually make it work, that’s a tall order for any organization. Nope, could never happen, not in a million years. The other question that would remain to be seen is how the death of the EU would affect the relations out of Europe with the remainder of the world. These are interesting times, and they appear to be getting ‘curiouser and curiouser.’

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Revulsion or Revolution, The ISIS Conundrum

First perhaps we need clarify that we here at BTC refuse to recognize the terrorist bands which makeup ISIS and have declared themselves a new name of IS claiming that they are now an actual nation state and the home to the new Caliphate. Due to this decision not to honor the declarations of an overgrown terrorist group on the order of Hezballah, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Muslim Brotherhood and their delusions of statehood, we will continue to use their initial name ISIS, the name of a terrorist group which terrorizes through such horrific actions as beheadings leaving the heads on poles as a display of their hold and threat on an area, crucifixions, mass graves, rapes and slavery including sexual slavery among other depraved actions in order to terrify, cower and intimidate those it holds the power of the sword and a legitimacy spelled in the spilling of blood. Should our doing so be perceived as an insult then all the better as we could not be more proud than to be detested by such as ISIS.

 

The beheading of American photojournalist James Wright Foley provided the Western world the unavoidable definition of the barbarity which is ISIS, or as they now refer to themselves, merely IS. This is not to minimize the horrors which included the mass murders of Christians, some by a torturous crucifixion, the attempted genocide of the Yazidi Peoples, rapes and enslavement of numbers of women and children, forced conversions, mass killings, burial of victims alive and other horrors, all of which had been reported in many newscasts since ISIS initially broke out of Syria sweeping across western and central Iraq. The sickening and repugnant video which was released this past week which included the threat to further behead other American and Western hostages being held by ISIS such as Steven Joel Sotloff, also an American journalist captured in Syria covering that civil war, should the United States continue their campaign assisting those resisting further ISIS advances. The United States limited bombing efforts have been described as being an assist enabling the Kurdish forces to turn back the advances of ISIS and even gaining back some ground which provided the Kurds with access to a route to rescue a number of Yazidi families and individuals as well as retake the Mosul dam which had ISIS carried out their threat to destroy the dam would have caused massive casualties and damage on the cities and villages downstream potentially past Baghdad all the way to the Persian Gulf.

 

The brutalities and threats to life, civility and modernity posed by ISIS through its ideals and definitions of Islam as practiced and brutally applied by their leadership is now unavoidable by the leadership of the Western nations. This new clarity of threat that is ISIS screams out for unified action to prevent the further spread and genocidal purification of the population threatened by the advance of ISIS. Somehow, such an effort appears to be quite slow in developing and consists mostly of sporadic bombing by the United States and the early return to Washington by President Obama and similarly British Prime Minister David Cameron will also curtail his vacation plans and return to London. Any announcement of a change in tactics and applying force on the ground with the application of troops has been noticeably silent thus far making any such reaction at best slow in materializing. The purported American war weariness appears to have not been broken by the acts from ISIS including the beheading of James Wright Foley and threats to behead Steven Joel Sotloff along with other American and Western hostages. Whether these emotions will show signs of weakening is verily a contestable premise with many claiming that there appears to be no limit to the ability of the people, or at least the media portrayal of the people, to ignore current events and remain cocooned in their isolationist tranquility. This political inertia also readily ignores the presence of American military advisors who are stationed in the Kurdish capital of Irbil in support to the Peshmerga Militias who are currently confronting the Islamic State forces.

 

The future horizon holds its hopes on the new leadership in Baghdad as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is set to step down offering a glimmer of hope for a more stable Iraq in the face of the challenges ahead due to ISIS threats and a situation which President Obama on Monday called “a promising step forward.” Still, this remains something which, if it will actually signal any improvement, is a distant solution in a situation demanding immediate responses. The main available and viable presence which can and has already made advances in not only stopping the advances by ISIS but has actually tuned the tides and retaken lands formerly consumed by ISIS as they swarmed out of Syria and across Iraq, has been the Kurds from their semiautonomous lands in northern Iraq. It has been those Kurdish Peshmerga Militias who relieved much of the siege of the Yazidis and retook the critical infrastructure of the Mosul Dam both with limited but sufficient assists from United States airstrikes. This would be the perfect time to fully assist the Kurdish forces while simultaneously recognizing their independence and rewarding them with the statehood they had been promised at the resolution of World War I but were later denied this promise when oil was discovered in their promised areas and the British already had an advantageous contract with the leadership they had approved for Iraq. Kurdistan could become the first best weapon which could possibly circumvent the necessity for Western troops to place boots on the ground limiting the Western support to mostly a bombing campaign with some need for close air support in those cases where such would prove critically necessary, something not all that different than what President Obama has already committed to perform and perhaps a doubling of efforts.

 

The real challenge the ISIS threat might pose would be an attempted invasion beyond Iraq. The probability of ISIS turning their forces towards Turkey is almost completely out of the question as Turkey is either a current ally or a future ally of ISIS and stands for much the same application of extreme Islamist Sharia. Their turning to the east and into Iran would also be unlikely as ISIS lacks the manpower and military abilities to take on Iran as they are equipped with elite forces, airpower, heavy battle tanks and huge numbers of troops. Turning west into Jordan poses a similar problem even if on a lesser scale as far as numbers of troops capable of being fielded. Jordan does possess an air force but might turn to their western neighbor, unofficially of course, and request that Israel aid the Jordanian efforts through timely air support as necessitated. That pretty much leaves southward as ISIS’s most likely and viable choice. This would narrow their choices to Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. This choice is also dictated by geography and the self-imposed imperative whereby ISIS desires to avoid any direct confrontation with Iran. This forces ISIS into taking a western approach around Baghdad and also leaving room between themselves and Jordan which brings them to the northern border of central Saudi Arabia. This would place the ISIS penetration points somewhere west of the main Saudi Arabian oil fields and east of the main Saudi Arabian main military airfield which houses their squadrons providing the initial line of attack or defense from Israel. This airfield is home to a large contingency of United States provided F-15s and F-16s, some of which are very probably the latest and most modern variety available for export.

 

Such an attack would be in line with the ISIS announced agenda of facing and defeating the Islamic leadership which they view as impure. They have previously listed the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia as the pin-up leaders representing impure and non-Islamist governance which is in need of being destroyed and replaced with the pure Islamic governance which only ISIS is capable of providing. Additionally, should ISIS gain a sufficient foothold in the Saudi Peninsula, they could conceivably gain control over major parts of the Saudi Arabian oilfields, and an area heavily populated with Saudi Arabia’s minority Shiites. This would add additional impetus for ISIS fighters as they would not only be working to place their extremist purified Islamism over what they view as an unholy governance, they would also be able to force these Shiite, more accurately non Sunni, apostates in the eyes of ISIS to convert before the cleansing sword of the ISIS elite leadership. This could serve ISIS as a further recruitment piece of propaganda similar in scope but potentially far more significant in the numbers of new recruits under their control. This is what ISIS defines themselves by, areas and numbers under their control, a measure which they will only accept as sufficient by their control and rule over the entire world. As absurd as such a claim may sound, to the fighters and leadership of ISIS this is exactly what their entire purpose by which success is defined. Many also believe that they cannot be defeated and that their quest to rule over all of mankind is a blessed undertaking in Jihad and their success is guaranteed for as long as their actions receive the approval and support of Allah. Perhaps this would be a good place to define the difference between the Judeo-Christian G0d and Allah; the two are not simply separate manners for naming the same entity. The most readily and easiest way of showing this is actually cut and dry. Where G0d of the Jews and Christians is defined as the G0d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Allah is the god of Abraham, Ishmael, and Mohammad. They are as different as composed tranquility and chaotic ferocity. The reported actions, proclivities and self-definitions all prove the violence and explosive animosities which lie at the root of ISIS and from where its adherents derive their power and strength.

 

The hope is that the burning vehemence with which their new recruits are empowered with will consume them so completely that soon only the smoldering husk of ISIS will remain; a fragile structure that the slightest breeze is capable of destroying. The fear is that the only two results which will result from the efforts of ISIS, either their dream of an Islamist Sharia governed world will remain and will resemble a charred husk of uniformity enforced by the swords what molded it or the destruction of ISIS and the breaking of their swords before they carve up any more of the globe. The former will be the inevitable should the Western world refuse to engage and defeat ISIS militarily while at this juncture the later would be readily achieved with the timely application of overwhelming force of a full deployment of the entirety of the ready response forces which are available to NATO in case of any emergency, and if this does not so qualify then those forces are as useless as a chaperone on ones’ wedding night.

 

We are facing a challenge to civilization similar to the buildup to World War II when Germany could have been defeated as a response to their aggressive claims on northern Czechoslovakia or their poisonous interference in the Austrian elections and subsequent near bloodless invasion. Should ISIS remain uncontested and thus gain a foothold in the Saudi Arabian oilfields, then they will have gained a source of power, influence and financial riches beyond anything any previous Islamists have been capable of attaining. Sure the Taliban and al-Qaeda had control of Afghanistan and parts of the tribal regions of Pakistan and the financial largess of Osama bin Laden’s fortune and Hezballah influences the every move by the Lebanese government and the benefit of Iran providing them with weapons and their other necessities, ISIS would be gaining size and an endless cash flowing in that they could take their time and build a modern, well equipped and sizeable military force which would provide them with sufficient force that they could likely intimidate major Sunni Arab nations and potentially beyond to bend before their threat and surrender to ISIS approved governance. Add their increased ability would make Iran vulnerable to an ISIS attack which is currently out of the question today and such an accomplishment by ISIS would provide them with the arms to threaten Europe, North America and the remainder of the globe with their gained possession of Iranian nuclear and missile capabilities and power. The best thing would be for ISIS to be confronted now and not be left to Saudi Arabia, the GCC member nations and Israel to ally solely for the end of ISIS. Threats to the balance of power and the injection of a radical and extremist group be they anarchists, religious or Islamist like ISIS can produce alliances between some of the most divergent and even antagonist powers. Right now the plans and thoughts should be centered on how to and with what forces ISIS can be utterly and completely defeated in such a manner that no other groups will dare push that challenge point again. Let us hope that the leadership of the world awakens and deals with this challenge which thus far they have ignored pretending it is not there. Unfortunately, pretending that ISIS does not exist will do little to actually realize ISIS not existing but will more likely set up the scenario where many lives will be senseless sacrificed and far too much property and infrastructure will be destroyed making the worldwide repairs and recuperations unnecessarily long and arduous. Will the world awaken or are we doomed to once again repeat history by not answering the threat of the screaming barbarians at our gates.

 

Beyond the Cusp