When Islamic State Comes, Who’re You Going to Call

 

We have all seen the heart-wrenching videos placed with their idea of bravado, aplomb, pride, expecting admiration and approval with their destruction of museums, antiquities and the complete eradication of the ancient city of Palmyra. Below are some stills of its former glory and magnificence and its last moment before going to its afterlife where it will hopefully meet its peoples in one of those numerous unfathomable dimensions the physicists keep claiming are all around us doing things they cannot find or understand but their math claims they exist. As a math major, I now understand the need for Riemannian’s analytic geometry; drive physicists out of their minds. They are only playing in ten to twenty-six dimensions when in math you must make proofs for n-dimensions which makes theories a bit gnarly as well as lengthy. The Islamic State barbarians have destroyed entire museums where some of the oldest and only examples of ancient writings and artifacts existed. Complete histories have been destroyed, stolen from posterity. They base their destructions on the thinking that anything older than Islam and not complimentary of the Quran as they interpret it through their chosen hadiths, then it has no value or reason to be preserved. They live and die by a creed which allows for no other knowledge than the Quran and Islamic writings, and solely Sunni Islam as even other forms of Islam are considered to be heretical. Their world would use weapons of modernity but destroy the science and knowledge required to replace or produce more and then wonder why their cause will necessarily be defeated. The question is made starkly simple, how much longer will the developed world and those who have any hope for a future of an enlightened society wait and allow the barbarous destructions to come to the areas which grow ever larger where Islamic State rules through violence and rejection of the comforts and advances in medicine, science, agriculture and any advances made in the past ten centuries and further if Islamic State is permitted to realize their dream of a world Caliphate under their rule. Such a world could not even accommodate the population of Asia, let alone the world. A world under the Islamic State would by necessity require a seventy percent or more decrease of the earth’s population in order to remain viable, fed and supported. The vision of the Islamic State has already murdered tens of thousands of people if not hundreds of thousands and surprisingly the majority of their victims have been Muslims who simply did not measure up to their standards, whatever those may be. Imagine for a moment the Islamic State possessing nuclear weapons and the intercontinental ballistic missiles to deliver them. Does anybody believe for a second that they would not set them to flight targeting the main cities of the infidel? We’re talking the annihilation and destruction of as many major metropolises with the predictable losses of life. As the vast majority of those who would be murdered in such a series of nuclear infernos would not be Muslims and by Islamic State standards the majority of Muslims would not be sufficiently Islamic to avoid being murdered in any purge that would follow the takeover by the Islamic State. The Islamic State would console these victims of their use of nuclear weapons with telling them they were fortunate to die as shahids, martyrs for Islam.

 

Palmyra in its Former Splendor and Complete Destruction

 

The possible next threat to historic sites and structures could be everything between the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, the Holy Land. The entrance has already been primed and the first jihadist from Gaza has been identified. The family of Islamic State Gazan Mufleh As’ad Abd al-Wahed Abu Aadra, aka Abu Abdullah, who was killed in or near Tripoli, Libya received notice of his death on February 15, 2016. There were no particular specifics about the circumstances of his death as reported by the Ma’an News Agency on February 16, 2016 where it was stated that he died during fighting. There have been reports of Hamas cooperating with Islamic State fighters in the Sinai Peninsula. There have been reports of occasional rocket launches from within the Sinai Peninsula for which the Islamic State and Hamas have claimed joint cooperation in these attacks. That begs the question of how long before Hamas is forced to swear loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Arabic: أبو بكر البغدادي) and be reenforced by Islamic State fighters and equipment thus creating a greater danger for Israel. As horrific such a threat could and would cause for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), that would be marginal compared to the threat if the Islamic State were to replace the Palestinian Authority. Oddly enough that threat is minimized as long as Mahmoud Abbas remains in power and there is no peace forming an Arab Palestinian State which would potentially force the IDF from sizeable area of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) leaving them vulnerable to Islamic State infiltration followed by their takeover. If the Arab Palestinian State included the Old City and Temple Mount in East Jerusalem, Hevron, Bethlehem, Shechem, as well as numerous, nearly countless, sites from Jewish history and numerous graves, moseleums and other physical locations which are precious to Judaism and Christianity, these sites would be destroyed without a moment’s thought. Without any IDF presence their would be little to prevent a forceful takeover as the probability that many, of not the vast majority, of Palestinian Security Forces would be highly likely to actively work with the Islamic State than they would be to resist such a takeover. Once Mahmoud Abbas slips the mortal coil and leaves this world, there would be a hue and cry for elections which might be hijacked by the Islamic State. Abbas being protected by the Palestinian security forces might be sufficient but in all liklihood, without the presence of the IDF providing intelligence information and security in both Areas B and C while Area A is under Arab Palestinian force protection which is still very dependent on Israeli intelligence. In many ways the continued rule of the Palestinian Authority in place and not just a pawn of the Isamic State depends just as much on Israeli assistance as their intelligence gathering capabilities are limited. There have been numerous times where Hamas, and other operatives, could effect the security of the citizens under the Palestinian Authority (PA) or even assassinations of Palestinian leadership, priming a takeover by the Islamic State and thus threatening Israel. Such an eventuality is something the Israelis need to address in the immediate and not some time on the distant future.

 

Logic would dictate that Islamic State would necessarily need to conquer Jordan in order to reach the Jordan River to cross into Arab PA areas but that has already been proven incorrect as Israel already has needed to remove an Islamic State cell in Samaria. The cell was made up of two Islamic State terror operatives with five Hamas terrorists rounding out the team though the released indictment stated the cell was seven Arab Palestinians planning on terrorist strike within Israel against Druze Israelis and then escaping to Syria to join with Islamic State forces there. Other reports have surfaced of the Islamic State presumably recruiting in the PA and of Arab Palestinians forming cells independently planning on joining the Islamic State. These reports show that the Islamic State has sufficient Arab support to simply call for a massive uprising against Mahmoud Abbas under the reasoning that he has become weak and is actually working with the Israelis and corrupting Islam. They could further implicate Abbas and the rest of the higher level and more successful Palestinians of having made their wealth by denying the people proper use of resources and funds with which they have enriched themselves and a select group of business people who make up the chosen elite who make their millions of dollars off the back and suffering of their fellow Muslims. This might succeed if the Islamic State can also make some inroads with the PA security forces and particularly turn members of Force 17 who are the elite units responsible for the security of Mahmoud Abbas and other top PA members. Probably the most outlandish example of opulence would be the residence of Mohamad Abdel-Hadi Pictured below. Granted, this particular residence has to be an aberration from the norm even for the highest ranking amongst the Arab Palestinian society. There probably are not that many who live this lavishly while the rest of the society lives impoverished lives living in squalor of the refugee camps. Such flagrant ostentatious a display of wealth would necessarily engender great resentments and make infiltration and turning of the society against its leaders who were so obviously ignoring their suffering.

 

Opulent Residence of Mohamad Abdel-Hadi

 

This is where the Arab Palestinian society goes completely off the rails as there are those who are making for themselves a decent wage. Many of the new and upper middle class Arab Palestinians make their higher wages working for the Israeli businesses built and run in the parts of Judea and Samaria which is often referred to by its less Jewish name of West Bank. These are the very same companies and factories which the European Union and now also the United States have started marking as separate from items from Israel and are demanded to be clearly marked made in the West Bank. For many European and American consumers such labels will only make the items more in demand explicitly because they are made east of the Green Line as these consumers know the truth, buying such goods only assists the Palestinian workers as well as the Jewish workers for these companies and their products. They know that Jews and Arabs make the same for performing the same job and promotions come on merit thus there are Arabs who are managing Jewish workers as well as Arab and Jewish managers also managing Jewish and Arab workers. Should the Islamic State take control of the Arab sections in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) these Arabs who were in the employ of any Jewish owned workplace will be demanded that they murder fellow workers, especially their Jewish coworkers, as the first step to proving their commitment to the Caliphate. Those refusing will be murdered on the spot in a public display. The Islamic State demands will only escalate from there. One sure sign that Islamic State has made inroads to Judea and Samaria will be when Arab Muslim workers cease coming to their workplace without notice or on short notice in large groups. The final sign will come when some, potentially most of the remaining Arab workers rise up attempting to murder as many of their Jewish and Christian coworkers. When the Islamic State arrives in Judea and Samaria and is closing in on replacing the PA through a coup, the wealthier Arabs will take their accumulated wealth and depart leaving their mansions behind. Below see a comparison between the Arabs either residing in the refugee camps in the midst of their Arab brother and sisters who are just as poor and living in similar structures but with freedom of movement and some of the richest of the wealthy and their residences and other places putting to lie the storied complete wretchedness of all Arab life under the PA and Hamas. The stark differences are beyond imagination when one figures in the hundreds of billions of Euros and Dollars provided by the nations of the world either through direct funding of the Palestinian Authority, UNESCO funding refurbishing and upkeep of denoted World Heritage Sights, UNRWA refugee agency founded for the continuation through generation after generation where the “refugee” label is unique as it is passed from each generation unto the next generation ad infinitum, numerous NGOs where a percentage of their funding is siphoned off the top and various other streams which provide direct funding of terrorism, all of which could have brought every Palestinian out of poverty. Below are some more pictures of the good life which flourishes in parts of the Arab Palestinian society. All is not desperation as there are the wealthy and the middle class. These are the people which the Islamic State would target in their desire to turn Arab against Arab using the tried and true communist method of class warfare. The wealthy are made the targets for the poor who desire instant wealth making them susceptible to be used to further the ends of the Islamic State officers. The elite commanders would use one of these mansions from which to command. It is likely case of the spoils of war.

 

Palestinian Society
The Face of Two Worlds
Poverty vs Opulence

 

Finally, should Islamic State arrive on Israel’s doorstep be it from Gaza or from Judea and Samaria, will the forces of Islamic State engaging the IDF all of a sudden be classified as a different branch of the Islamic State that is fighting alongside the Arab Palestinians somehow absolving them of the label of terrorist forces. If there can be calls from politicians, NGOs, other individuals, governments and the United Nations to remove Hamas from the list of terrorists, there can and probably will be those individuals, governments, NGOs and other entities which will call for such regularly. It boggles the mind that it is considered a horrific terror strike when a small group of Europeans are murdered in a suicide bombing on a bus but when a similar assault is done in Israel the United States State Department, the European Union, the United Nations, numerous NGOs and individuals now claim that this was the act of an Arab who could not stand the occupation. The same will likely become the new reality that there will now exist a branch of the Islamic State will simply have become acceptable as it targets Israel, the new Jew. Israel is the Jew amongst nations and is the target of the new anti-Semite. Now one gets to choose their new title where they can be against the Zionist desire for all of the lands the Jews were promised; the “Settlers” because they drive Arab Palestinians from their homes and communities for their homes and then build new homes to live in; be against the Israeli government because many of its decisions and discussions are about ways of destroying Arab and Islamic societal cohesion by refusing the right of return of the “refugees” or other crime; or you can simply be anti-Semitic and hate Israel as it is the Jewish Nation. The one thing all these groups have in common is their hatred for Israel and Israelis and they are willing to make exceptions and allow any evil entity if it steals Israeli lands promised them, forces Israelis out of their homes and destroys the homes because they are located on the wrong side of a hill or any other reason as there are those who protest the building in Tel Aviv just as much as they do building in Beit El as any housing for the Jews is a crime as far as these individuals are concerned. Any building in Israel is illegal as the Jews do not belong in the Middle East at all. All too often, if one presses these people who make the claim that any buildings which will allow the Jews to make and set claim to lands in the Middle East where everybody knows are lands belonging to either the Christians or the Muslims, they also would prefer that the Jews leave their country and go back to where they came from. Continue asking them where a Jew can build a home. You eventually can name every nation’s continent, and even Antarctica and they will state the Jews have no nation as they lost it to the Christians and have been damned to never have a home but are to beg for permission in every nation; and it is the right and obligation of every nation at some point to decide the wretched Jews have done sufficient damage to their culture and people that the Jews must be forced through the borders even if doing so guarantees their death. These people do not believe the Jews have the right to live and thus anything sworn to murder Jews, even if they desire to kill you as well, for as long as you are fighting the Jews you are helping the world to be rid of a menace which is an abomination and a scourge of the earth. This is how it starts as Yasser Arafat was excused even when the United States had a tape of his giving the order to have an American Ambassador murdered in the Sudan as he was murdering Jews and attempting to rid the world of the Jewish State thus he had a higher purpose according to the United States State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and to all the rest as it was a well-known and documented assassination made by members of the PLO under the orders, direct orders, of Yassir Arafat and the United States continued to support him through supporting to improve the lives of Arab Palestinians knowing that Arafat was stealing almost forty percent of all aid right off the top. Who do you want defending the Old City of Jerusalem, the historical places in Bethlehem and all the rest of the West Bank from Islamic State, Mahmoud Abbas or Israel? Decide as you may have less time than you think because as soon as the crazy, insane and anti-Semitic leadership throughout the world get their way all of those precious holy sites would be handed to the Islamic State if the area became “Palestine” as too many of the leaders would think that would provide them with a new lease on life. They would be surprised when the Islamic State still finds them nowhere near pure and righteous Muslims and their only defense will be their claim to have been fighting the Jew, but that would probably be too little too late. The Islamic State would find a large and willing army as the individual youth would find the allure irresistible and the destructions that would follow would forever change the holy land into the all that is unholy land. So, still think Palestine is a good idea? Israel is the only nation which when attacked by Islamic State will take up arms against yet another group of barbarians pounding at their door. Israel knows how to protect the Holy sites and likely the only force which would protect the Christian and Jewish Holy Sites, all of them and the Baha’i Gardens as well.

 

Baha’i Gardens

 

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

The Conflicting Duality that is American Foreign Policy

American foreign policy is often a result of the struggle to assist people in need or under duress and the American people’s desire to mind their own business. America is often the reluctant warrior when using her vast military might abroad and even when using that might there is a definitive reluctance to unleash her entire might and fury. The problem is that even the measured and restrained use of American military might does not appear to be such as even that is well beyond the capability of any other nation on the planet and often more destructive than the entire forces from the combined forces of an entire region in which it is used. A typical example was the American use of force to take Panamanian strongman and international drug dealer and facilitator General Manuel Antonio Noriega into custody and to stand trial on charges in the United States. The force utilized to bring him to face charges in America were very limited by American standards yet were likely capable of not only overwhelming the Panamanian military but also that of the several surrounding nations if that had become necessary. The troops and forces represented by a single United States battle group attached to a single aircraft carrier and supporting ships which includes a contingent of United States Marines would be capable of conquering most nations on the face of the earth without needing to call for reserves or other reinforcements. The United States was probably the sole power in the history of the human race since the first city states brought civilization into existence and led to the formation of nations which had the capability and the opportunity to literally conquer the entire globe. Had the United States been a colonizing power in the ideals of the great European colonizers such as Spain, England, France, Portugal, and the Dutch; then perhaps the President and Congress would have acted on the suggestions of two of the greatest American Generals from World War II and as General George Patton suggested taken Russia and as General Douglas MacArthur suggested have taken China and as there were more American troops in Germany, Italy, France and England at the end of World War II, the world today might look vastly different with everybody throughout the globe voting for the President of the United States and for their own members to its Congress and there would be no United Nations other than the United Nations of America. That is the upper limit of American power at its zenith at the end of World War II. Every use of American military might since World War II had been but a small contingent of the potential strength America is capable of fielding and since she has done so on only the most dire of occasions, we can only hope we do not need her maximum efforts ever again.

 

On the other hand, and as was witnessed in both World Wars, America is the reluctant warrior and only enters into the fray as a final resort or in response to an actual attack on her people or threat thereof. More often we witness American military might bringing aid to areas struck by the most horrific catastrophes, be they the result of natural catastrophe or the result of human indifference. The American people are mostly of a mind to allow the world to decide on their own policies and to fight their own battles as long as they have no direct effect or bring harm to the Americans themselves. The Americans have often been called isolationists who more often than not withdraw from the rest of the world’s problems only acting by invitation or as a last resort to restore a balance they perceive has been lost. There was a period after World War II where the United States would respond and act to prevent the spread of Communist influence which was being spread by military means and most often against nations which had limited military ability to resist the forces backed by the Soviet Union on their own and without assistance. After the fall of the Soviet Union the United States also retreated from its use of military might throughout the world. This calm was broken by the attacks of September 11, 2001 when terrorists from al-Qaeda struck the World Trade Center Towers, the Pentagon and were prevented from striking a fourth target when the passengers brought United Airlines Flight 93 to the ground in western Pennsylvania. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq followed these events and America once again used a portion of her military might to avenge herself and strike at those they perceived had struck them. Before this vengeance was completed by many American’s ideas of what should have been accomplished and who held the strongest of angers the American military was brought home and once again the United States began to withdraw into her solitude until being required again to answer the call. We saw the other side of American military might in Haiti after the horrendous earthquake and again in Japan after the disastrous trio of an earthquake, followed by a tsunami and then the explosive failures of nuclear power reactors as a result of the flooding and force of the tidal waves. These are the more common examples of American use of her military might, that of bringing relief to those in dire need resulting from natural disasters. The United States is unmatched in her ability to provide such aid though a few other nations also spring to mind who are amongst the first to respond when the calamity of natural forces strike and wreak their havoc. The majority of Americans, that so-called silent majority, would be pleased if the world would never require the deployment of American military might except for the hopefully rare natural disaster where such military force is used to relieve the pain and suffering of the victims of the whims of Mother Nature and her forces often unleashed from within the planet herself.

 

The dichotomy the American military is often accused of suffering from is actually a dichotomy found in the American public. Trying to classify the American public is a fool’s effort as it is comprised of individuals as diverse as any population anywhere, partially because they come from almost everywhere originally. The secret of America has been that they take the best from each culture and merge it into the whole of American culture just as they would merge the people from every culture into the American body public. While the customs from the old world, as it is often referred to, would remain within the family at gatherings and at home while each generation would slowly meld into the American ethos while still remembering their roots and knowing that a small part of what they brought was now part of the greater whole and this allowed them to feel at home and a part of a greater whole. This is how the multiethnic American people can unite and believe they are one. It is also why it is near impossible to read the American people as simply being from a single culture and background. Where the British are known for their stiff upper lip, the French for l’amour, and all the other stereotypes can be found among the American peoples because they are not a single, harmonious identity. Instead of their familiar background, the American slowly fits into their new identity such as the western cowboy ethos, the cosmopolitan New Yorker, the proper Bostonian, the unrestrained and experimental Californian, the middle America farmer and almost countless others all of which might describe a few but nothing is that straight forward. The same comes to bear when attempting to figure the American foreign policies. First off is that with every new President the person who shapes foreign policy the most is replaced often with somebody with a completely different point of view. This could not have been more evident than when President Obama followed President Bush and the interventional policies of President Bush were replaced by the regressive retreat which was enacted by President Obama. The other side of the equation is that even though President Obama and President Bush could not have had any more disparate foreign policy goals, one trying to right the grievance from the September 11 attacks and the other trying to reverse everything and retreat from the world and give the United States a smaller and more passive world presence, President Obama had been unable to completely reverse every last iota of the policies of President Bush most evidenced by the inability to close the Guantanamo prison as President Obama likely realized that not everything is controllable, even for the President of the United States.

 

The one sure and unalterable truth about the American foreign policy will change direction, not completely though possibly more radically than can be predicted, every change of the family occupying the White House. Still, there are certain core principles which even a President is obliged to follow; the will of the American people should they ever unite behind a cause or as a reaction to events, especially a perceived assault on the United States or her interests or allies. That is the one power which is capable of taking American foreign policy to its furthest extremes. The other truth is that it is near impossible to predict when or where the American people might demand a President respond. Where a President can resist or even deny the desires and demands of the American public, if their positions are strongly felt the next President will be elected to carry out their exact desires. It is this strange mixture of the whims of the people, the regular changes in the leader of the United States, and most of all, the fact that for the large part the American people have very little if any interest in most foreign policy and could not care or find a reason to follow foreign affairs and largely only care about domestic policies and their own expectations of the government. That means that when it comes to foreign policy decisions and setting the priorities the American people, probably the best regulating control over government ever invented, have little desire to use their regulatory control over the foreign policy of the United States. That means that the only real controlling and limiting influence on American foreign policy is the five hundred and thirty-five members of Congress, the one-hundred Senators and the four-hundred-thirty-five members of the House of Representatives who are mostly concerned with assuring their reelection as many are not capable of honest work. Many of these representatives of the American public are simply walking through their assigned paces, repeating lines fed them by their advisors, and attempting to satisfy those who finance their next campaign as well as attempting to meet any needs any of their constituents may request their assistance with right down to tracking down their errant Social Security check as each voter satisfied could mean another hundred votes the next election and an unsatisfied voter definitely means a few thousand lost voters support simply from viral word of mouth and social media. Mostly though they just read their teleprompters or recite memorized positions which often they have no knowledge or concept of their position beyond what they have been instructed. Yet these are the main and often only people with any power to affect the American foreign policy from simply being the result of some ulterior motives and schemes of the President or that of his handlers and advisors. The people and functionaries who hold the uppermost positions in the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, Homeland Security, the National Security Administration and the military, especially in the Pentagon, have the most direct influence on the President as they also control much of the research ordered by the President’s closest advisors and those who the government assigns the responsibility for crafting and influencing American foreign policy. Is it any wonder that it often appears as those controlling the American foreign policy are clueless or many on opposing pages all talking at once and the resultant output is pure gibberish, gibberish, a decent definition for American foreign policy if ever I heard one.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Time for American Support for Syrian Free Army has Passed

United States President Obama stalled straddling the fence on whether or not to supply weapons including heavy crew served weapons to the presumably secular Free Syria Army until quite recently. If President Obama aimed to not actually support the Free Syria Army he handled the situation perfectly but if his aim was to assist in the overthrow of Assad and replacing him with a secular democracy then his actions have produced utter failure. The beginning of the end of the Free Syria Army came in the form of the assassination of one of the leading Free Syria Army Officers, Kamal Hamami whose nom de guerre is Abu Bassel al-Ladkani, by members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant with whom he was meeting to coordinate joint efforts. Qassem Saadeddine, a Free Syrian Army spokesman, gave the media a report on the incident stating, “The Islamic State phoned me saying that they killed Abu Bassel and that they will kill all of the Supreme Military Council.” This comes immediately after the beheading of a Catholic Priest, Franciscan Father Francois Murad, who was murdered with two other people in the countryside of Idlib in northern Syria on Sunday. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Islamist Sunnis have now declared Jihad against not only the Shiite and Alawite backers of Syrian Dictator Bashir al-Assad but also against the secular pro-democracy elements of the rebel forces.

 

One might seek to find out exactly what these developments will mean about the viability of the Free Syria Army and whether arming them at this point would end up indirectly but inevitably giving the arms to the al-Qaeda and other Islamist rebels. The truth is and has been almost since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War that the viability of the Free Syria Army had a limited use-by date. Unlike the Shiite and Sunni Islamist forces who are able to import reinforcements and replace those fighters who have fallen in battle, the Free Syria Army has no such luxury so as their numbers dwindled due to casualties they have been unable to replace these losses. This handicap is what made arming the Free Syria Army early in the Civil War an absolute necessity. The delay by United States President Obama in deciding to arm them was the death knell which has led to the point where their force strength has been so diluted that the Islamist forces no longer see them as a necessary force in the Civil War which is evidenced by the beheading of the Free Syria Army Officer Kamal Hamami. The efforts in Syria now have but two equally disastrous outcomes, either a Shiite run Syria with or without al-Assad but still completely under the control of and owing their allegiance to Iran or a Sunni controlled Syria under the leadership of either al-Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood or some combination thereof.

 

This present unfavorable situation within Syria where the possibility for a democratic state to result from the Civil War is no longer a viable option makes one curious as to why President Obama has chosen to start arming the Free Syria Army now when they have no future nor possibility of having any influence going forward. With the Civil War in Syria now solely a contest between Sunni and Shiite Islamist forces with no possibility for the pro-democracy Free Syria Army to prevail, is President Obama being given obviously false intelligence about the situation in Syria or is he intending for any arms now sent to arm the Free Syria Army to end up in the arms of the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al-Qaeda? Such a result cannot be a desirable result yet since the announcement last week of the intent of the United States to start arming the vetted members of the Free Syria Army with armaments the only reason they have yet to be shipped is because the Congress is standing in the breach preventing their being deployed. It is known that the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) has the arms stockpiled currently in Jordan in the ready to transfer across the border into Syria awaiting the ‘go’ signal in order to make the transfer. With any luck and the providence of fate the Congress, with the obvious exception of Senator John McCain who never found a battle he didn’t wish to send arms, will continue to prevent the United States making a serious tactical error by supplying arms into a situation where these very same arms will eventually become possessed by mujahidin forces currently fighting in Syria. Strike up one more for leading from behind for the Ditherer in Chief, President Obama who is once more too late to the party. The real tragedy is that had President Obama allowed American arms to be supplied to the Free Syrian Army at the onset of the pro-democracy struggle against Bashir al-Assad there may have been at least a slim possibility for a democratic result in Syria and there very well might have been far fewer innocent civilian casualties and have spared Syria from near complete destruction that has resulted in the years of the Civil War.

 

Beyond the Cusp