Tag Archives: ISIS

History never begins with a sudden event. Isis now presents itself as an ideologically superior alternative to Al-Qaida.

08 Wednesday Apr 2015

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The other day I came across the term Fourth Generation Warfare.  A term used by military thinkers to describe conflict at the end of the 20th century.

Now I am no General but my first reaction to the term was ” Fourth Generation – Kill everyone up to and including Great Grand Dad.”

The problem is that our traditional definition of “war” is outdated, and so is our imagination of what war means.

How many wars have you witnessed since World war Two.

So how many the easy answer might just be: too many.

I was lucky like most of us these days as I was not around for either of the World Wars. 

 

Some time ago I wrote a post ” We watch as a civilization thousands of years old goes to rack and ruin Nov 2014.

With 20 million soldiers worldwide and every conceivable weapon it’s no wonder we have a world that is incapable of living in respect of each other.

Right now in 2015, it’s hard not to get desensitized to death and violence.

https://youtu.be/ALDyfZMJOmA

The Syrian war is now in its fifth year.

Anyway back to the term Fourth Generation Warfare.

This term is used to describe the current growing inferno that is currently wreaking havoc in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen which will engulf the whole region and beyond and has the potential to push it over the threshold into a third world war.

What is needed is a concept which explains to blinkered military and political leaders why *they cannot win* unless they change what they are doing in *truly radical* ways.  Why?  Because what has changed is the near instantaneous nature of the cognitive and moral aspects of war, empowered through information technology.

What we are really seeing is that the increased “dispersion and democratization of technology, information, and finance” brought about by globalization has given terrorist groups greater mobility and access worldwide.

Isis ,Hamas and Hezbollah ( If you consider the latter two terrorist organisations) ,especially, have established themselves as organizations capable of addressing the everyday problems of their constituencies. They are integrating themselves into the social and political fabric of Muslim societies worldwide.

While we watch they are turning their constituencies into effective weapons by creating strong social, political, and religious ties with them; in short, they have become communal activists for their constituencies, which have, in turn, facilitated the construction and maintenance of substantial financial and logistical networks and safe houses. This support then aids in the regeneration of the terrorist groups.

We see that even in the so-called information age, the use of brute force remains an effective tactic in many parts of the world.

Terrorists, guerrillas, and similar actors generally aimed at eroding an opponent’s will to fight rather than destroying his means.

“Maybe those gangs of Islamist terrorists and Jihadists are doing a hell of a job destabilizing and fragmenting the Arab world.  And surely the US/EU will continue to look from on high and make-believe they see no terrorism and hear no terrorism until the whole region is set for a greater Israel scenario.”   To Quote (Hillary Clinton.)  The next President more than likely of the USA.

No boots and uniforms on the ground has turn ISIS, contrary to Al Qaeda hoax, into the most dangerous international terrorist organization the world has ever come to witness.

If ISIS is allowed to grow bigger in the hope of fragmenting the Arab world and giving more space and influence for the Zionist entity then this whole thing will turn into an imminent world menace.

Unfortunately or perhaps fortuitously there is no stomach in the west to tackle ISIS head on. That option has long gone.

The main target behind ISIS is to ignite a Shiite/Sunni inferno that is drag Saudi Arabia and Iran into a dreadful conflict that will destabilize and weaken both states.

ISIS is already issuing passports and promotional publications for the new Caliphate and is now presenting itself as an ideologically a superior alternative to al-Qaida.

All three groups – Jabhat al-Nusra and Zawahiri’s al-Qaida on the one hand, and Isis on the other – share the same goals: the creation of an Islamic state in Syria (and Iraq.)  Iraq is already a country of two distinct halves.

Everybody now seems to have some kind of involvement in this fight, which may have killed more than 200,000 people, and no one has a realistic idea of how to end it or for that matter to navigate the chaotic seeming tempest of our modern world.

One way other the other history never begins with a sudden event.

No matter what terminology we use ISIS definitely has its origins in the USA invasion of Iraq after 9/11.  It is now shaped by the nature of conflict which is taking on an increasingly sectarian characteristic. As a Jihadist organization claiming to represent the true Islamic Khilafat, its project( for the lack of a better word) will not stop at the current borders and it will continue seeking to expand its territory.  Building its own state and consolidating its power in the areas it manages to control.

So where do we stand to-day?

As the attention of the world focused on Ukraine and Gaza, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis)  captured a third of Syria in addition to the quarter of Iraq it had seized in June.

The frontiers of the new Caliphate declared by Isis on 29 June are expanding by the day and now cover an area larger than Great Britain and inhabited by at least six million people, a population larger than that of Denmark, Finland or Ireland.

It is believed to have some 30,000 fighters in its ranks, with about 10% of them from the West. ( 3,000 Westerners)

In a few weeks of fighting in Syria Isis established itself as the dominant force in the Syrian opposition, routing the official al-Qaida affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, in the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor and executing its local commander as he tried to flee.

In northern Syria some five thousand Isis fighters are using tanks and artillery captured from the Iraqi army in Mosul to besiege half a million Kurds in their enclave at Kobani on the Turkish border.

In central Syria, near Palmyra, Isis fought the Syrian army as it overran the al-Shaer gas field, one of the largest in the country, in a surprise assault that left an estimated three hundred soldiers and civilians dead. Repeated government counter-attacks finally retook the gas field but Isis still controls most of Syria’s oil and gas production.

Branches of ISIS have sprung up in Egypt and Libya, and in March 2015, the Nigerian-based Islamist sect Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS.

ISIS is definitely not Al Qaeda.  Al Qaeda distanced itself from ISIS as it grew increasingly violent and intolerant, even of Muslims.

It has no boundaries in regard to its savagery.

This inferno will not be controllable, and nobody will be immune from it, most of all the Jewish state of Israel (maybe only then the US/EU will regain some of their lost senses and start to see and hear the evil of their own doing.)

Our reluctance to act promptly and decisively with the present and imminent danger of ISIS might seems contradictory to their holy Gospel of war on terrorism, but a closer look will reveal the perfect harmony of the western passive stand with their newly adopted trend of 4th generation asymmetrical warfare.

What is the beauty of this new 4th generation warfare?

In brief, the theory holds that warfare has evolved through four generations:

1) The use of massed manpower, 2) firepower, 3) maneuver, and now 4) An evolved form of insurgency that employs all available networks—political, economic, social, military—to convince an opponent’s decision makers that their strategic goals are either unachievable or too costly.

This is laughable : The Caliphate may be poor and isolated but its oil wells and control of crucial roads provide a steady income in addition to the plunder of war.

When it comes to ISIS is a different story; it’s an obviously more organized, highly militarily trained to use US sophisticated weaponry and attracting evermore young recruits from the west.  Who by the way through the Media are its biggest propaganda arm with on average 25 articles per day.

The group uses social media outlets such as Twitter, Whats App, and Facebook to promise new recruits material rewards, such as free housing and a steady salary.

Egypt

The most virulent militant organization in Egypt, pledged allegiance to ISIS.

Libya

At least three militant groups, one in each of Libya’s three regions, pledged allegiance to ISIS.

The group has also reportedly received funding from wealthy individuals in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey, and Qatar and then used the money to buy arms on the black market. These nations support ISIS because both consider Iran and Syria a threat, share anti-Shiite sentiment, and want to protect fellow Sunnis from violence sanctioned by Assad and Maliki.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar have passed legislation banning such aid, but the governments have done little to enforce the laws.

As we are unwilling to cut the head of the serpent we can only hope that ISIS might have its own internal disagreements about the future. (A slow burn, rather than complete eradication, may be the best possible outcome).

First, a dispute with local populations and the more indigenous groups that have their distinct concerns and priorities other than the strict interpretation of Sharia law, and this dispute is already in place in Syria and some parts of Iraq.

The second.  A conflict within the organization between its Iraqi wing that might prioritize the “sectarian conflict” with Shias and issues related to communal identity, and the global wing that adopts the ideology of jihad and looks beyond Iraq.

So we are left with: Why do it yourself when your own enemies (infiltrated by covert operatives) could do it, even better, and change their own sovereign country into a failed state ready to be controlled and subjugated.

The price we might pay in a future conflict could be high indeed.

Life is not a solo act. It’s a huge collaboration.

We are the only beings on the planet who lead such rich internal lives that it’s not the events that matter most to us, but rather, it’s how we interpret those events that will determine how we think about ourselves and how we will act in the future.

Tony Robbins

So where does 4th Generation War come into the picture. War is war no matter what term you give.

It is a loose collection of ideas that does not hold up to close scrutiny.

4GW has reinvented itself several times, taking advantage of the latest developments in technology or tactics, and whatever ideas or theories happened to be in vogue is not working.

Victory in 4GW warfare is won in the moral sphere. The aim of 4GW is to destroy the moral bonds that allows the organic whole to exist — cohesion.

There does not seem to be anything Moral about ISIS or Drones.

Through the haze of horror and grief we all witness this war is becoming internationalized and we are running out of time to do anything about it.

Mr Bush wanted to leave Iraq divided up into three separate states along sectarian lines, Sunni, Shia, and Kurdish.  He got his wish.

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We watch as a Civilisation thousands of years old goes to rack and ruin.

08 Saturday Nov 2014

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"The Arab aid to Gaza"

If a van load of thugs arrived in your country and started beheading your brothers and sisters it would be reasonable to assume that you might get a bit cross. Not so if they appear thousands of miles away.

It must be one of the greatest questions as to why the Arab world with all of its wealth is so bent on self-destruction.

How do you engage with a culture where only yesterday one of its countries recommended to lift a ban on driving for woman over 30 who must be off the road by 8 pm and cannot wear makeup behind the wheel. (The Ban is part of the general restrictions imposed on woman based on strict interpretation of Islamic Shariah law.)

The problem is that Sharia is not just a set of laws, but rather an ideology that encompasses the Islamic way of life, covering topics from business transactions to food. The Koran, the holy book of Islam, uses the term sharia to refer to the revealed guidance and directives given by Allah.

The Koran does not explicitly say you have to cover yourself in this manner. The Koran basically says you should “cover” yourself, without being specific. It probably means, “Don’t run around naked”

As with many other religious scriptures, the reference to dress is open to interpretation and has been shaped by centuries of cultures in different nations.

We like to think all cultures are morally equivalent and hold the same beliefs as we do. They don’t and we have a long way to go to accept all our cultures in the meantime the Arab woman will achieve equality—but wisely, on her own terms rather than those of the western woman.

The atrocious treatment of women in the Arab world is well-known.

Forced to wear the hijab, i.e. headscarf

–          Forced to marry someone according to the family’s will

–          Must undergo excision “procedure”

–          Gang rapes for not “respecting” Islam

–          Killed by a relative because for “dishonoring” the name of the family.

It seems to me as we in the West are the driving force in history ( ignoring ancient history) that ever since the establishment of Israel the Arab world has being in a constant state of conflict. Whether they are interested in foreign affairs, emergent markets, human rights, understanding their heritage is a question still to be answered.

We on the other hand can hang our heads in shame of most of the history we have created. Now like in the past we are moved by an array of forces that we do not fully understand.

We have turned a blind eye to the Arab world for millennium out of fear of upsetting the price of Oil. As a result we are now ( for the last thirteen years) witness the destruction of one of the riches old civilization in the world – the Middle East.

Why is it since the Arab Spring that Arab countries seem to be incapable of creating countries that are stable?

Is it because since 9/11 we over react and think the solution is Democracy that creates countries that are supermarkets of Capitalism.

Those of us who are live in what we call Democracy are only just beginning to realizes that wealth has to be shared, that inequalities have to be remove, that values have to be restored, that power has to be reflected throughout the population, that freedom of expression, and religious beliefs must be respectful of the nation that they reside in if unrest is to be avoided.

The problem with Arab countries (some of which now can be difficult to call countries, Syria, Iraq) is that they are run by vile regimes cushioned by the wealth of oil and gas (which is running out) they remain hidden behind a religious belief that dominates all functions of life. (See previous post: To most of us the World of Islam seems incomprehensible)

Surely it is time that we heard from talented Arabs. Not those that are suffering from some pathological antipathy to democracy. But from intelligent humans that with common sense could remove religions beliefs from the functions of state to allow their countries become respected citizens of the world. I know that such a suggestion is repugnant to many Muslims but Islam is itself is an addict of modernization.

After all whether you like it or not we all share the world no matter what we believe in.  Then again if we all the same the world would be an extremely boring place. On the other hand none of us would exist or will exist if we don’t stop branding it with wars, abuse, and our beliefs while it is in our short time of care.

I am sure that if Mohammad or Jesus were around these days they would both preach that life is not a bunch of fanatics bent on killing and destroying the world and that Capitalism and Greed do not have to go hand in hand.

It becomes increasingly difficult to form an image of the future other than as either a perpetuation of the existing state of affairs or as a catastrophic obliteration of it. It seems that the exploration of the future has become too detached with Social Media from our present to be useful.

We find ourselves in a perpetual state of transition. We need to learn how to limit the pain and suffering of change as well as how to impact effectively on the direction of change. Then we can live and nurture change with pride rather than shame.

When we’ve found a way other than death to annihilate our beliefs, we can finally stop thinking one way or the other about it all. Go back to simply being alive. Neither selfish nor selfless, each one of us just another creature inside an ever-changing world of experiences.

Or would we be just exchanging one distorting lens for another. The problem is as old as time itself. It is becoming easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism.

Just look at nuclear power it is again reasserting itself, presented by governments and the industry, as a ‘savior strategy’ to the far more serious threats of carbon emissions and climate change. If democracy is to mean anything, it means that everyone gets to weigh in on the process of how these promises are made and renegotiated. The future city is expected to give us absolution for all our industrialized sins:

ISIS HAS BEEN CREATED BY US IN THE WESTERN WORLD. SURELY WE CAN DO BETTER. Western countries made a bundle selling arms to Arab despots. We can wiped Isis off the face of the earth at cost of many lives, but why bother when lack of fresh water will lead to further conflicts.

The water crisis can become an opportunity for a new form of peace where any two countries with access to adequate, clean and sustainable water resources do not feel motivated to engage in a military conflict.

If only Israel and Palestine political leaders promoted a one nation solution using the above truth they would achieve more in bringing lasting peace to the Arab world and all of us.

It would brake the back bone of ISSI and show the world a true example of brotherhood. In a few years opposing camps will have little choice but to co-operate and share resources, or face ruinous conflict. A moment’s glance at the strife and violence endemic in the Arab Middle East tells us that is a tall order.

We followed news reports stating different reasons for the uprisings happening in so many countries at once.  Poverty, repression, decades of injustice and mass unemployment have all been cited as causes of the political convulsions in the Middle East and north Africa

We don’t need a one world government. We need a one world people.

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Lets Call a Spade a Spade. ISIS are maniacs in foreign lands that want war.

05 Sunday Oct 2014

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They say that the beginning of wisdom lies in recognizing the facts.

Let me start by saying that the title of this piece does not reflect my personal opinion. I believe no matter what you call them, ISIS, ISIL, or the Islamic State, that these barbaric maniacs are everyone’s problem.

It is easy to write and express one’s opinion but it is a totally different kettle of fish if you were the person that had to send young men and woman into war.

Most wars are started by nations look to their own self-interest in the final analysis. Greed – the desire for more power and more territory.

* Religious idealism * Corrupt governments * Discontent and poverty * starts wars.

This war has all the ingredients combined into one.

If you don’t believe me watch one of the beheadings they perform on video for the entertainment of the masses.  If you don’t think ISIS is our enemy TODAY, you are seriously misguided and potentially delusional.

The question is how do we stop them from driving around flying black flags and saying, ‘Hey, come blow us up’…

Is it too late, and will more violence only embed the current positions? ( Leaving a cesspool of frustrated terrorist armed to the teeth to fight it out between themselves.)

Should we say we’ve done enough damage and all that can be done now is bomb them.

Is it naive, the obtuse or the dishonest to believe (or profess to believe) that trying harder will have the slightest chance of producing a different and more favorable outcome?

Twenty-three years after Operation Desert Storm laid the basis for George H.W. Bush’s ‘new world order’ and 11 years after George W. Bush went his father one better by capturing Baghdad itself — ‘Mission Accomplished’ —

The Iraq war has resumed in the form of a small-scale but apparently open-ended air campaign.

As the United States and its Coalition partners moves into the eighth week of its bombing campaign against the Islamic State, we still have little info about the scope, duration and cost both in human terms and financial, or what will be in place when ISIS is destroyed?

Is there or should there be any strategic objective? Other than U.S. weapons being used on both sides.

Libya is an example of the disasters that U.S. wars leave behind them — a war, by the way, with U.S. weapons used on both sides, and a war launched on the pretext of a claim well documented to have been false that Gaddafi was threatening to massacre civilians.

The answer is that there is no long-term strategy. 

The present military of bombing is just a substitute for strategy, indeed, for acknowledging the fact that nearly a quarter-century of military involvement in Iraq and in the Middle East more generally has produced next to nothing of value.

Regardless of how well we do the job it is quite obvious that the Iraqi government isn’t going to be able to hold up. With another x amount of years of war and it is certain that any little hope of forging any durable political order will be destroyed.

Together with its neighbor Syria ( supported by Moscow who suspects Washington’s ulterior motive is removal of its ally, Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad) like Syria it will end up as waste land of religious fractions fighting it out over what ever oil is left.

So where are we to-day. 

Today, ISIS and al-Qaeda compete for influence over Islamist extremist groups around the world. Some experts believe ISIS may overtake al-Qaeda as the most influential group in this area globally.

Isis now controls territory the size of the UK, it is making £600,000 a day from oil and has a fighting force of 10,000 militants, according to a leading expert.

Isis offers fighters more money than any group in the region – $400 (£243) a month – and offers more military equipment, to boot. Isis is trading of antiquities, some up to 8,000 years old, from which they are thought to have made around $36 million (£21.8 million) from just one region of Syria. ISIS is selling oil by the barrel on the black market for between $25 and $65 (£15 and £40), the terror group is thought to be raking in around $2 million (£1.2 million) a day.

From Syria they could be making double or even triple that.

There is no doubt the ‘Islamic State’ poses a danger of sorts to USA and Europe but the danger is negligible.

The United States plans to train and arm an initial 5,000 Syrian rebels, but this would not be a sufficient number to retake territory seized by the Islamic State.

The longer we wait to annihilate these barbaric monsters, the heavier the cost will be.

To have any chance the U.S. would need to train between 12,000 and 15,000, the costs would likely run between $200 and $320 million per month, This adds up to $2.4 to $3.8 billion per year. The deployment of 25,000 U.S. troops on the ground, as some have recommended, costs would likely reach $1.1 to $1.8 billion per month, and $13 to $22 billion annually.

All wonderful for the arms industry.

Even if this was to happen and ISIS were wiped off the face of the earth there will be a need to leave troops and supporting structure in place for decades to avoid repeating the mistakes of unleashes responses beyond the control of the actors as now is all too evident.

This is exactly how ISIS came into existence in the first place.

The U.S. and its junior partners destroyed Iraq, left a sectarian division, poverty, desperation, and an illegitimate government in Baghdad that did not represent Sunnis or other groups.

While the Syrian government declared war on its own people.  Almost 200,000 people had already died in this conflict, and 3 million made homeless it is no wonder that we have given birth to a monster called ISIS.

President Obama, recently said, “We don’t have a strategy yet for fighting ISIS.” He acknowledged that a group like ISIS “is beyond the pale; that they have no vision or ideology beyond violence and chaos and the slaughter of innocent people. And as a consequence, we got to all join together – even if we have differences on a range of political issues – to make sure that they’re rooted out.

I would respectively point out that ISIS is in possession of U.S. weaponry provided directly to it in Syria and seized from the Iraqi government.

The U.S. armed and  trained ISIS and allied groups in Syria, while continuing to prop up the Baghdad government, providing Hellfire missiles with which to attack Iraqis in Fallujah and elsewhere.

At last count by the U.S. government, 79% of weapons transferred to Middle Eastern governments come from the United States, not counting transfers to groups like ISIS, and not counting weapons in the possession of the United States.

You don’t have to be a General or Military expert to see that unless the world mounts a massive ground offensive ISIS will not be defeated. They will melt into what is left of the civilian population and the vast territorial lands they now hold.

The sooner they feel the full force of the world led by American (who has the largest obligation to retake the arms they brought or gave to the region) the sooner we can move to a peaceful solution and an eventual victory over radical Islamic terror that wants to control the world.

It entails destroying the Syria’s Assad regime, and shoring up the Afghanistan’s new President Ashraf Ghani who recently took office in the country’s first democratic transfer of power, making a pledge to stamp out corruption and calling for peace with the Taliban insurgents who marked the day with a fresh attack in Kabul.

After all blood and treasure spent in Afghanistan US delegation to Ghani inauguration will not include any cabinet members.”

My suggestion is grow-up and face the reality.

Washington refuses to consider working with Russia as long as Moscow insists that U.S. strikes need Syrian and U.N. approval.

Our, and the USA  only choice is to kill them before they kill us. If not the United States would be better served simply to butt out and leave it to the Regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran who are more directly threatened and in a far better positioned to deal with it. What a blood bath that would be.

The Big question as always is what will we leave in place if and when ISIS is destroyed. What are the desired end state in both Iraq and Syria, not to mention Afghanistan?

Bombing nations into ruins, and shipping more arms that will eventual turn up on our door steps is no solution.

Removing Inequality/poverty, with education, healthy and fair trade, is the long-term resolution to the worlds sorry state.

As I said at the start of this post God forbid any of us had to order young lives into a war. I like all of us can only hope and offer our sincere sympathy with those that have already losses their liver and love ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There will never be peace in the Middle East as long as western powers intervene into Arab affairs.

27 Saturday Sep 2014

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Now I am no Historian so the Biblical and Historical Origins of the Problems in the Middle East are to say the least some what beyond me.

Anyway for what its worth here is my stab at explaining the Middle East.

Tell me if I am wrong.

In light of the attacks of 9/11 the big question to answer was why.

Why do these people hate us so much.?

So much that they are willing to give their own lives simply to kill, to start a war, or make a statement.

The answer to this question truly lies in the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and the utter failure that Westernization has been in the Middle East.

As far as I can see the present day situation in Israel may be the most difficult political situation in world history.

It alone dates back to thousands of years before Christ when the Israelites left Egypt after two hundred years of bondage they began forty years of wandering the desert in which they encountered many enemy tribes such as their sworn enemies, the Amalekites.

While these days, the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict takes place at a domestic level, its roots, as well as the frequent failed attempts at peace that spanned the 20th century, stemmed from international interference and mismanagement.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been one of the defining political issues in the Middle East for decades.

Since its inception the State of Israel has been at war with the Arab countries surrounding it.

The ethnic conflict theory explains that it is not territory, politics, or economics that prevents the achievement of peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people’s, instead, it is a deep-seated hatred of one another that neither group can overcome.

Unless they do so by some miracle and form one nation (which will be the saving of the Middle East) there will be no coming back from a full scale perhaps nuclear war.

It is simplistic and self serving for political leaders in the West to tell us that the terrorists attacks happen because they “hate freedom,” or “hate our democratic values” or “they despise our love of liberty.” Many, in fact, hate what they perceive as materialistic Western values, but this is not what leads them to kill themselves in suicide bombings, or to murder thousands of innocent civilians it is the paranoid rhetoric about Western attacks against Islam elsewhere that is spreading from the religious fringe to the mainstream and now ISIS.

Indeed, the events of the past few years have broken the precarious old Middle East order without replacing it with a new order. And although rival
external and regional players have been pushing their own agendas for a new
regional order, none of them has prevailed. The competition among these rival visions and forces appears destined to continue in the years ahead.

So what is the middle east?  It would be easy to describe it as an area of the world, a simply a breeding ground for turmoil, and has been for centuries.

Now, however, the region can expansively be said to contain “the area from Libya E to Afghanistan, usually including Egypt, Sudan, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the other countries of the Arabian peninsula”so the Middle East can only be loosely defined, and it is important to know that these countries are separate and do not truly form one cooperative unit.

Within this vast area there are many different nationalities within their population including Arabians, Iranians, Iraqis, Pakistanians, Egyptians, Saudi Arabians, and many more.

The most common religion found in the Middle East is Muslim. However not every Middle Easterner is Muslim, there are also other religions just as in any country such as Christian and Jewish.

So here is no set definition for the area known as the Middle East since shifts in global power over the years have affected the topography.

Many dynasties and kingdoms have ruled the area of what we now call the Middle East.

In almost all of the societies, it is the wealthier, educated, and a particular race or ethnicity that ruled. These positions were usually acquired through power, either by a civil war or an overthrow of the previous government.

Not every country mentioned above has the same access to the water sources, which will naturally cause problems. …. (Water Issues in the Middle East One would think there are enough conflicts to be had in the Middle East.)

Of the many conflicts that revolve around the area’s history, politics, religion, territory or ethnicity, one more can be added to the group: Water.

These societies all need water, but not all have the same resources to get to that water.

This is a hotbed of vice in this area as only a few of the countries in the Middle East have total control over their own water, leaving most of the others to depend on the graces of those few countries to manage their water magnanimously enough to supply them with what they need.

For example, Israel has control of the Golan, and Egypt of the Nile, and Kuwait of the Persian Gulf. Oil is in abundance, but only to a limited number of countries in the Middle East causing great economic disparity between those who have, and those who do not. Kuwait, having access to the Persian Gulf, produces a large supply of oil to international players. Given its high value internationally, and its worth.

But this is not the main reason behind the difficulties of bringing Peace to the Middle East.

A major source of conflict in the Middle East during the last fifty years has been the dispute between Arabs and Jews over Palestine.

For hundreds of years, the great majority of the people living in Palestine were Arabs. But at the end of the nineteenth century some Jews in Europe were becoming increasingly bitter about growing anti-Semitism. They started to talk about setting up a state of their own where they would be free from persecution. The conflict itself can be dated to 1948, when the state of Israel established independence, but the underlying problems responsible for the creation of Israel, and as a result, the conflict, can be traced back as far as the 19th century.

Now it far too difficult to track back through the centuries the History to the sorry state of the Middle East.

Lets just say its full of stories of betrayal. If you want one just look at what the British did with caretaker of Mecca Sharif Husayn in 1914.

Anyway its water under the bridge, but for any serious understanding it will have to be swum in.

We will put our toe in.  At the end of world war one when the Allies had secretly carved up most of the Middle East among themselves in what came to be known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement 1916 which I am sure you have all heard about.

No. Not surprised. It was a secret agreement between the British and French involving the partition of the ottoman empire.

It effectively handed over the control of Syria, Lebanon and Turkish Cilicia to the French and Plalestine, Jordon and areas around the Persian Gulf and Baghdad to the British. It was never completely fulfilled because Valdimir Lenin who was to have influence in Turkish Armenia and Northern Kurdistan took the hump and released it to the press.

Moving on.

The Arab League Secretary Azzam Pasha said this statement below on September 16, 1947, eight months before the state of Israel was established.

” But it’s too late to talk of peaceful solutions”

The Arabs held this mentality in a time when Israel was not yet a fact.

To Day there can be no solution to the Middle East until the Israelites and  Palestinian people come together. If they form separated states the war will go on and on.

At the moment we have numerous conflicts that have the potential to join up into a WAR.

Conflict: A state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas, or interests; a clash.  War: A state of open, armed, often prolonged conflict carried on between nations, states, or parties“

To stop this happening  America should set a time-table to withdraw its financial and military aid to Israel unless it offers a one nation solution giving equal right to all. The hatred of a few holds the hopes of many hostage.

There are more than seven million Muslims living in America what has Israel to fear.

I know that this is a very simplistic solution’s to a problem that has been festered for centuries and has now burst like a boil into a Barbaric group called ISIS.

Bombs and guns (which will swap hands) will no doubt change frontiers and kill many but they will not and can not eradicate ethnic conflicts that are well rooted in the world’s history and perhaps inherent in human nature.

Come on Israel extend the hand of peace and tear down the walls of occupation.

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PS. You might wonder why I HAVE LEFT OUT recent Invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and all other recent developments. It seems to me that there is little point in highlighting the mistakes that have contributed to worsening of the present day state of play.  We will all have different fingers of blame to point whether they are pointed at Osama bin Laden, Bush, Blair, Bush, Saddam Hussein, Obama , Bashar al-Assad, Hamid Karzi, over the centuries we HAVE ALL CONTRIBUTED.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ISIS will merely disperse and conceal their forces.

25 Thursday Sep 2014

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A couple of jihadists approach the dead prisoners and finish off any survivors from point-blank range

In response to airstrikes this is exactly what ISIS will try to do.

The lessons in regard to this have been demonstrated over and over. You can flatten a place from the air, cause untold (as they like to call it collateral destruction) deaths and suffering, and recruitment’s to the flag of those being Bombed.

Since 9/11 the hornets nest we are now witnessing as Obama recently pointed out is a Net work of Death.

It is not my purpose here to attribute blame but to ask why in this modern age do we see fanatical, killers, on a mission, to wipe out anyone and everyone, from any religion or belief system and to impose Shari’ah law.?

A complicated question to say the least.

  1. Who helped these psychopaths rise to power?
  2. Who armed them, funded them and trained them?
  3. Why are ISIS very happy to show their atrocities? They post it on Twitter. They put it on YouTube.
  4. Is there any kind of constructive role the US can play in this nightmare scenario, military or otherwise, or should the Obama administration stay as far away from the situation as possible?
  5. What’s playing out across the Arab world?

The Taliban’s goals have always been nationalistic, in the sense that they claim to be fighting on behalf of Afghans against a foreign occupier. The things that propel them to fight are very local, very parochial.

These jihadist militants from Iraq were part of what national security analysts commonly referred to as Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Remember Al-Qaeda in Iraq was ISIS before it was re-branded.

We’ve had 30, 40, 50 years of dictatorship, secular dictatorship across the Arab world, in which you’ve had very weak left forces that can articulate a vision of social justice that’s also secular.

After the Arab Spring, the secular dictatorships have been overthrown for the most part, or they’ve been attempted to be overthrown, and there’s nobody else to fill that vacuum except for the Islamists.

We need to really think about what are the social origins, what are the political roots of ISIS.

What are the conditions in Iraq, particularly after 2008 and 2009, that led to the feelings of disillusionment and disenfranchisement on behalf of Sunni populations and the anger toward the Maliki government that allowed a group like ISIS to become strong in the first place?

While it’s important to keep in mind that the US and its Allies are indirectly responsible for the very existence of ISIS because of their invasion. The chaos that was sowed by the invasion and the resulting civil war were ultimately caused by the United States’ invasion and then its early withdrawal.

Was it Obama pulling out in 2010–2011 is what caused ISIS to grow and become strong, or the arming of Syrian rebels is what allowed ISIS to grow and become strong?

To think of ISIS as purely evil is a mistake. We wont get very far by thinking of them as purely evil because Jihadi Islam originates in Islam itself.

Are they more bloodthirsty than the Assad regime, or the Taliban, or al Qaeda?

Not by much, except that they try to minimize their atrocities; they don’t want the world to know about them. They hide their atrocities.

What’s different about ISIS is that they are harking back to the caliphate days of the Ottoman Turkish sultans until it was abolished by Kemal Ataturk in 1924.

This is an era of Islam’s ascendancy from the death of Mohammed until the 13th century. Some Moslems still maintain that the Moslem world must have a calif ( a representative of Allah on earth ) as head of the community.

So Isis believes that a Khalifah ( Allah representative )will unite all Islamic lands and people and subjugate the rest of the world.  

In doing so ISIS reject  international order altogether. This is why we must stand up and be counted.

As monstrous as the Islamic State may be, its success is fueled by legitimate grievances on the part of a Sunni population that has been relegated to second-class status by the Maliki government, a government that came into power as a result of the United States’ recklessly short-sighted invasion and occupation of the country, which is now supposed to be ironed out (yet to be seen) by the election of a new inclusive Government that is asking for help.

Now we’re essentially being dared by IS to intervene again in what has become a three-way civil war.

There is no solution but to accept the Bait and get rid of the blood thirsty LUNATICS, ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Brutal: Other captives are shot before being tied to makeshift crucifixes    image

I’m so speechless… there is no need for any more photos. 

‘Who Do We Think We Are?’ Nationhood is a Changing.

13 Saturday Sep 2014

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Here we are once again writing about a subject that in this part of the world will be put to the test next week – When Scotland goes to the poll – In or out.

What exactly are the Scots being asked to determining.?  Are they being asked as who its citizens are whether modern or traditional, European or non-European.

Or are they having an independent Scotland’s moment, giving concrete form to the tricky question of ‘who are the Scots’?

Or !  If creativity is not grounded in the soul, then reality is reduced only to the quantifiable parameters of markets and money; and with that, politics gets reduced only to the question of whether Scotland will be better or worse off with or without England until the oil runs out.

Now let me say that no writer writes in a vacuum but in this case that is exactly what I am doing because I believe that a nation is a soul of forgotten voices, a spiritual principle.

But in reality nationhood is often defined in terms of commonness of culture, language, history, ethnicity, religion and spirit.

The terms nation, nationhood, nationality seem to have become distant at a time when globalization, multiculturalism, intercultural or cross-cultural communication define the way we live with respect to ourselves, the others and the environment on the whole. This becomes usually more emphatic in times of hardships for a country, especially during foreign invasion.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori once summoned together people of different age and background to defend one’s country and culture.

So lets ask the question.

In the world as we know it to-day what do you think constitutes a nation or nationhood.? ( If your brave enough lets hear your views)

The world today is demarcated by borders according to the positioning of sovereign states of nations. Despite this, this sense of commonness as defined above is hard to maintain in present day society, when social, economic, demographic, technological and other developments take place in an eye shut.

Thus, in the present society a new feeling of commonness appears to define nation, nationality and nationhood. It is the attempt to balance “civic citizenship” against “cultural citizenship”

Nations are not naturally occurring phenomenon and nationalism pursues a behavioral entity of the nation.

Nations are basically fabrications and constructions perceived in the minds of ‘man’. the nation is an ‘imagined political community.

Another words the nation is now an exchange of cultures, and the erasure of borders and boundaries have given way to a globalized world in which all cultures negotiate.

Cohesive elements are provided by language, religion, shared historical experiences, physical congruity and others.

Nations can exist with or without a distinct political identity, that a ‘nation’ is the product and is born out of the birth of ‘Capitalism’,especially ‘print capitalism’ that enables the dissemination, development and spread of the imagination and subjective awareness in raising the feelings of ‘togetherness’,‘belongingness’ and the inclusive ‘we’, in the bond of world consumerism.

This type of cultures have slowly eroded our Western and Eastern culture in an attempt to fused our culture, to give birth to hybrids and mutants.

We need to start by asking the much deeper question of what we think that life is all about. What is a human being? Are we just egos walking about on legs of meat, here today, gone tomorrow?

While many of the broader discussions of globalization and regionalisation convey an air of inevitability, most neither advocate nor address the vexed issues raised by the free flow of people.

What, then, does the Nation or Nationhood mean to ordinary people?

Nationalism’ is a sentiment of loyalty towards the nation, which is shared by people, inherited blinkers of race and religion, what we call ‘loyalty to truth and beauty, justice and freedom or is the project to make the political unit, the state (or polity) congruent with the cultural unit, the nation.

A good example is the Current state of affairs  in Syria, Iraq with a violent secessionist movements in the form of ISIS trying to create a Muslim State.

Instead of living in harmony as most imagined nations around the world, this Lot of barbaric wankers want to create a nation with its roots in fear, suspicion and hatred of the other.

While in Europe, North America, Soviet Union and the UK there is a growing backlash against immigration and multiculturalism.  Nationalism and its xenophobic correlates continue to flourish to no avail  because flows of transnational migration will unseated the nation-state as the dominant form of political organization in the world today due to Inequality and Poverty, and Greed.

To have common glories in the past and to have a common will in the present; to have performed great deeds together, to wish to perform still more – these are the essential conditions for being a people, a Nation.  Long live free Scotland.

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