Then the pope asked, "'Do you understand?'" [2] No one has been heard saying: "Yes, I do!"
What "real war" is ISIL waging exactly? Is it a religious, a psychological, a cultural, an economic, a political and an empire-building war all wrapped up in one? No one seems to know for certain, or is willing to say it. And what will the outcome look like? Nobody is predicting, except for ISIL (see map below).
In trying to learn a little about what is going on, this blogger has pieced together some facts that he interspersed with his opinions that could be disagreeable to some, yet he writes.
ISIL, a radical offshoot of the Sunni tribe ("[m]ore than 85 per cent of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims are Sunni" [3]), had "[i]n 2014, after taking control of territory in the Sunni heartland of Iraq...proclaimed itself a caliphate, calling other states illegitimate and placing itself as the exclusive authority over the Islamic world." [4]
"A caliphate is an Islamic state. It [is] led by a caliph, who is a political and religious leader who is a successor (caliph) to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. His power and authority is absolute." [5] "The caliphate - a state governed by Sharia law which ISIS plan to claim - covers areas from Spain in the west to China in the east." [6] Below is a map [7] that delineates its ambition.
This could just be stage one. Stage two could include the whole of Europe, but nobody seems to care, perhaps it is too unrealistic, and everyone is too complacent. "[BBC reporter Andrew Hosken] said, 'Once they have their caliphate, they plan to turn against the rest of the world. They envisage the whole world being under their rule.
'They have 60 nations against them, including the United States and Russia, so one would think that is pretty unlikely.
'But one would have thought the first steps were unlikely as well.'" [8]
Since those first steps were taken in Iraq, leaders of the free world with some of the most powerful weapon systems have been unable to stop the advance of ISIL. Instead, they opened up Syria and Libya for ISIL to enter when they had no business in destabilizing those countries, nor had (in this blogger's opinion) the ignorant and coward invader [9] of Iraq any business in changing another country's regime.
While it is no use recalling the prophetic phrase "mother of all battles" made famous by the late Saddam Hussein of Iraq, there is nothing to look forward to either, because the major world powers do not quite know what to do about the spread of ISIL and its random killing tactics other than being remorseful and taking in refugees to compensate for having created havoc in the region, and being needlessly preoccupied with matters such as race, sex and weather while occasionally dropping bombs here and there so that now and then an interim victory or two can be claimed.
Meanwhile, most of the rest of the world live a life of Godless, self-centered secularism. The unfortunate fate of others would just be another forgettable headline. In denial of ISIL's momentum outward from the Mideast and EVIL's momentum inward into man's soul, the shrewd, petty, unloving-of neighbor and do-anything-you-want-so-long-as-you-don't-step-on-my-rights people exist everywhere, in envy of those who have been given much by God. To make sure that their rights are being guaranteed, some would run for and be voted into office by their like-minded supporters.
While in office, some of the self-proclaimed Christian politicians would stir up patriotism and instill fear in the hearts of people under the cover of intellectual dishonesty and rationalization in order to obtain their consent to sacrifice the livelihood and lives of others for their own glory, in hopes that their legacies would endure and be respected, and that the doors to wealth after they leave office would continue to remain wide open for them.
The ambitions of a politician in the west may vary from those of a caliph of ISIL, but their modus operandi are in some ways quite similar, although the latter tends to rely more on force and less on words to make a point. Instead of patriotism, an ISIL caliph resorts to fanaticism to compel those under him to give their lives in battle to gain territory (natural resources and strategic positioning) and to change regimes (barbaric power grabs under the false pretense of religion rather than the guise of Mideast peace), and instead of telling lies, an ISIL caliph orders trained killers to kill and suicide bombers to bomb to instill fear in and force obedience from those yet to be conquered.
Admittedly, the caliph of ISIL's style and approach is not identical to western leaders but in at least one way ISIL's caliph is indistinguishable from some of the world's most powerful figures: they all pick out the weak and defenseless to invade, kill and defeat. Chivalry is lost on them. What differentiates the thuggery practiced by the caliph of ISIL from the collateral damage caused by "justified" bombings by those with power and might is that the caliph of ISIL does not have complex, big-budget, cutting-edge weapons whereas those who had contributed to the rise of ISIL have always had a technologically-advanced and well-funded military under their command, no matter how misguided.
A "real war," however, does not necessarily require high-grade weaponry and sophisticated tactical maneuvers. For example, "Hamas and other, more radical Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip have built up an arsenal of basic rockets which over the years have steadily increased in range[, ...but] [n]one of them are particularly sophisticated[,]" [10] compared to Israel's "most precise weapons in its arsenal: missiles launched from an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV)-the latter more commonly known as a drone." [11] For the Palestinians, rocket "[r]ange...is crucial. Bringing the population of major Israeli cities under threat, however inaccurate the weapon, causes huge disruption and fear." [12]
Nor does a "real war" have an end date. Aside from the seemingly endless one between good and evil, the Israeli-Arab conflict "has roots dating back to the man Abram. Abram of course was later renamed Abraham by God, (Genesis 17:5) and is a man greatly revered by both Jew and Arab, and Christians as well." [13] The period covered in the Book of Genesis was a very long time ago, and ISIL, it is assumed, is part of Abram's saga [14] which is on-going without a final chapter in sight, and ISIL's war merely adds a new layer of complexity to it.
The war ISIL is fighting, is real, and is not limited to a specific geographic location. If ISIL members and its sympathizers were situated on one continent, it would be easy for a military powerhouse to wipe it out with a couple of hundred or so of megaton nuclear bombs [15], [16], but bombing does not work when a battleground can erupt at any time, any place anywhere in the world against anyone who is considered an infidel [17]. It was July 26, 2016, the day a Catholic church "in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in Normandy" [18] became a battleground. The combatants were two teenage "Islamic State 'soldiers'" with a knife and an unarmed 84-year old priest [19] who, unlike the Knights Templar in the 12th century with "hand-to-hand combat skills" [20], was defenseless.
This war of ISIL seems to be fought with relatively inexpensive weapons such as knives, trucks, AK-47s [21], IEDs (improvised explosive devices) [22] and the new VBIEDs (vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices) [23]. While ISIL has not won the war, it has not yet surrendered. In the process, it has essentially neutralized the budget-busting and penetrating power of self-guided precision warheads, making them impotent in places where ISIL terrorists had recently gone to kill: a concert hall (Bataclan, Paris) [24]; a nightclub (Pulse, Orlando) [25]; a street (Promenade des Anglais, Nice) [26]; an area outside a bar (Eugene's Wine Bar, Ansbach) [27]; a Catholic church (Église Saint-Étienne, Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray) [28], venues that are part of day-to-day life around the world.
These and other attacks appear to be unstructured and spontaneous, carried out by individuals who are/were, or who imagined that they are/were, part of ISIL. Whether the caliph of ISIL officially recognizes them and approves of their actions are not nearly as important as the degree of emotional distress inflicted upon those whose lives have been affected by such acts of terror while leaving behind a vague sense of uneasiness in the communities nearby.
Therefore, it can be said that the form of warfare ISIL is engaged in is more psychological than large-scale conflagrative. On this basis, it would be reasonable to assume that ISIL's real goal is not to engage in the mass murders of "infidels" (it would have to kill at least 77% of the world's population based on 2010 figures [29] if that were the case) but to convert them to Islam. A war that forces people to adopt ISIL's version of Sunni Islam is a religious war against Catholics, Christians of other denominations, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and believers of other religions and of no religion, as well as Shia Muslims and other non-ISIL Sunni Muslims.
If ISIL's religious beliefs are not entirely consistent with Mohammad's idea of Islam but represent a rather restrictive lifestyle based on its unique version Sharia law that nobody seems to know and most everyone seems to fear (to read more about Sharia law in general, see [30], [31], [32]), then ISIL is waging a war against a self-righteous (and hypocritical) modern culture that it cannot accept and will not tolerate, one that is technologically-addicted, secular and morally permissive but is also plagued by sharp differences of opinions on issues of race, gender, transgenderism, homosexuality (gay marriage, adoption and surrogacy), abortion, drugs, sex, global warming and so on.
If on the cultural side, ISIL is battling the modern society, then on the economic side it is taking on the world's financial structure by having its own economic system that is so convoluted that even scholars found it "difficult to compare the revenue to the expenditure needs since expenditures will depend on a multitude of unknown factors, in particular the group’s military strategy. " [33] Ironically, even those who wish to contain ISIL need to be supportive of its hybrid monetary-bartering system, according to scholars who recommended that the "Iraqi government salaries to employees living in Daesh-controlled areas could be paid in-kind with goods which are less fungible than cash; perishable foodstuffs, for example. This would make it harder for Daesh to turn taxes on salaries into resources to pay fighters or purchase weapons." [34] With such a messy hybrid system in place--a cash and goods-only economy, banks (and taxing authorities) would simply be unable to track the flow of currency (the exchange and accretion of wealth), thereby making the international monetary system dominated by big central banks and the local tax collection agencies impotent, in much the same way the international military allies have been made impotent by ISIL's messy and inexpensive military plans.
Despite being poor and inefficient, ISIL does not seem to be doing badly. History has shown that neither poverty nor inefficiency nor both will wear on people until they become extinct. For example, still in existence today are "different types of political organization...defined by Elman Service. These are the Band, Tribe, Chiefdom, and State." [35] In other words, although ISIL has fantasized about an area of the world it would like to see itself controlling, nobody said it has to be a state, under one caliph, or that those adhering to ISIL's version of Sharia law and Islam cannot be small groups of self-governing nomadic tribes that reject all other religions, modern culture and its economic system. In fact, small bands of ISIL terrorists are already well spread out. Besides France, Belgium and Turkey, "[i]nvestigation records show that [ISIL's] foot soldiers have also been sent to Austria, Germany, Spain, Lebanon, Tunisia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia:" [36] They are also present in the UK [37] and in the United States [38].
Should a decentralized government unified under ISIL's Islam and Sharia-based laws continue to extend its reach, then ISIL is waging a war against the established and corrupt political systems of the world in which large populations subjected to them can at some point be bombed out of existence by an enemy state and in retaliation, large populations in the enemy state can also be bombed into oblivion.
At that juncture, ISIL with its ready-to-die, nomadic soldiers around the globe would have won without having to wage a war to expand its empire because a world that has virtually been annihilated would not have functioning armies, and the remaining survivors would not have a government that could print money and provide assistance. It would be everybody for himself. All of them would be refugees and migrants, seeking help wherever they could find it. In such a inhospitable environment where the instinct to survive overrides all religious cultural, economic and political differences, ISIL's Islam and Sharia laws may not seem so repugnant.
The scenario just described is unlikely to unfold, and ISIL is probably never going to simultaneously rule over all 193 countries, the Holy See, the State of Palestine, Taiwan and the rest [39], although it has to an extent affected some, and that, in this blogger's opinion, is already a major victory.
* * *
ISIL has brought the world terror and uncertainty. Its victory is over nations and individuals. Although some distance away from recent terror attacks, this blogger has been affected. The world he lives in today stands in stark contrast to the relatively innocent and care-free place he had grown up in, in which people are able to board airplanes and enter buildings without having to pass through security, to go about their daily lives without being monitored by surveillance cameras and to attend an event or a church service without ever wondering whether it would be safe. In other words, it was a world where life could be lived with a certain "je ne sais quoi," abandon perhaps, that can only be had when the mind is at peace and the heart is filled with childhood's joy.
That era, although not perfect, was as close to an existence in Heaven as life on earth could imitate. From the present vantage point, an apartment ensconced in perhaps the most liberal and hedonistic city in the world, the antithesis of what ISIL wants to see under its rule, it looks like life in parts of Europe could one day become hellish like parts of the Mideast [40], [41], an unwanted potential brought upon by those on all sides of this "real war" who sold their souls to the Devil, those whom It carefully hand-picked (more accurately, pitchfork-lifted [42]) to be used as disposable predecessors [43] of the Antichrist.
[1] http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/cnsnewscom-staff/pope-francis-war-not-war-religion
[2] http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2016/july/documents/papa-francesco_20160727_polonia-volo-andata.html
[3] http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/what-is-the-difference-between-sunnis-and-shias/article8065425.ece
[4] http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/the-sunni-shia-split-at-the-heart-of-regional-conflict-in-the-middle-east-explained
[5] http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/06/what-is-an-islamic-caliphate-and-why-did-isis-make-one/373693/
[6] http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/597254/ISIS-Map-Europe-Terror-Organisation-Andrew-Hosken-Caliphate-Abu-Musab-al-Zarqawi
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] This blogger believes that he was ignorant because whatever degree of intellect and goodness God had given the creature he had freely given up in exchange for what Satan had to offer him: a fleeting satiation of his desire for vengeance, appetite for greed and lust for power, fueled not by the oil in Iraq that he desired but by arrogance, pride and deceit that are characteristics of Satan, and that he was timid because he invaded Iraq with phantom WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) when he could have invaded countries like Russia, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea, all known to have nuclear capabilities but dared not. This blogger also believes that Satan cannot successfully tempt those with unyielding faith in God but can easily manipulate those who believe in themselves and who bring God (or Allah) into the conversation only as a means to achieve their unscrupulous ends. Ignorance and timidity, however, did not disappear from the seats of power--they were inherited, and the offsprings are Libya and Syria. On the other hand, Libya and Syria could have been an outcome of a lethal game of political one-upmanship. The rules of this diabolical game require the power players to treat humans as pawns to be expensed. Regardless of the number of human lives that will be sacrificed, if one side has invaded one country, the opposing side has to invade at least two to "win." If the deadly sins of greed and wrath gave birth to a destabilized Iraq, then the deadly sins of envy and pride produced Libya and Syria. All these deadly sins can be grouped together and expressed another way: "haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush to evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community." See
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+6:16-19
[10] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28245343
[11] https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/06/30/precisely-wrong/gaza-civilians-killed-israeli-drone-launched-missiles
[12] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28245343
[13] http://focusonjerusalem.com/TheRootsoftheIsraeli-ArabConflict.htm
[14] To document a chain of events dating back countless millennia to the time when God created the universe and man to the rise of ISIL is beyond the scope of this blog and the lifetime of this blogger.
[15] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2101508/Want-know-effect-nuclear-bomb-home-town-Theres-app-that.html
[16] http://www.globalzero.org/blog/how-many-nukes-would-it-take-render-earth-uninhabitable
[17] http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/isis-urges-supporters-kill-named-muslim-infidels-west-rep-ellison
[18] http://www.inquisitr.com/3356183/isis-releases-video-of-killers-who-slit-throat-of-priest-during-mass-in-france-shows-duo-pledging-allegiance-to-terror-group/
[19] Ibid.
[20] http://hubpages.com/education/Secrets-of-the-Knights-Templar
[21] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK-47
[22] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improvised_explosive_device
[23] http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-created-a-new-type-of-bomb-2016-7
[24] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/20/bataclan-witnesses-recount-horror-paris-attacks
[25] http://time.com/4365965/orlando-shooting-bataclan-paris-copycat/
[26] http://time.com/4407755/nice-attack-witnesses/
[27] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/24/one-dead-and-ten-injured-after-restaurant-blast-in-german-city-o/; and http://time.com/4421119/bomb-bar-germany-ansbach/
[28] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/27/world/europe/jacques-hamel-85-a-beloved-french-priest-kil7ed-in-his-church.html
[29] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/04/02/397042004/muslim-population-will-surpass-christians-this-century-pew-says
[30] https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia_law
[31] http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/beliefs/sharia_1.shtml
[32] Those who wish to continue to learn more about Sharia can go to SHARIAsource at http://ilsp.law.harvard.edu/shariasource/. "SHARIAsource is a new initiative of Harvard Law School’s Islamic Legal Studies Program. Built with support from Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, SHARIAsource will provide an online portal of resources and analysis on Islamic law, in cooperation with scholars of Islamic law and policy in the United States and around the world." Ibid.
[33] http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/450/html
[34] Ibid.
[35] https://www.quora.com/What-is-definition-of-primitive-societies-and-their-characteristics-in-anthropological-context
[36] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/world/middleeast/isis-german-recruit-interview.html?_r=0
[37] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/26/open-borders-allow-isil-sleeper-cells-into-europe-and-uk--capabl/
[38] http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/terrorism/wrjp255a.html The chart shows that attacks coded "islm" has become frequent beginning in 2014.
[39] http://www.worldometers.info/geography/how-many-countries-are-there-in-the-world/
[40] http://yalibnan.com/2016/06/05/iraqi-civilians-fleeing-fallujah-drown-as-life-in-the-city-has-become-worse-than-hell/
[41] http://aranews.net/2016/06/12000-isis-militants-fighting-mosul/
[42] Souls that have been "pitchfork-lifted" are too wicked to get close to, even for the wickedest of creatures, Satan. As this blogger has always maintained, Satan despises all sinners. He believes also that Satan despises most those who reject God's love to obtain what It has to offer which It knows is nothing. Of all the creatures of God, this blogger thinks that Satan appreciates God's love most, having once been Lucifer, the most beautiful and most loved of angels but as Satan, It has to suffer without it.
[43] After these sinful, shameless and sycophantic souls are done with Satan's assignments, they are completely worthless. Even Hell does not quite know what to do with such nothingness. An eternity of suffering would be wasted on them. To be forgiven by God for their bloody atrocities and the hardships they have created would require a constant overflow of divine love so intense and so abundant that is beyond this blogger's ability to grasp. Perhaps these worthless souls just evaporate into nothingness that they had become, as if they never existed in any form. That, perhaps, is the most dreaded eternity of all, especially for those who desired so much in life, except for the love of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment