ISIS: After the Fall

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Friday’s attack did not occur without a greater context. Though it’s too soon to speak with certainty, it would appear that ISIS (aka Islamic State, aka ISIL) is beginning to weaken and may soon collapse. The evidence for this proposition is plentiful. After years of superhuman military performance in which towns fell to the group in a matter of hours, often having been emptied of resistance beforehand by the sheer (justified) terror of remaining, great swathes of IS-held territory are now falling (just as rapidly) to Syrian and Kurdish troops. The controversial Russian intervention seems to have greatly diminished ISIS morale and the US and UK drone strikes (which today disposed of a particularly vicious fool known as Jihadi John) are steadily picking off the group’s here-today, gone-tomorrow leadership. And while ISIS boasts of being the penultimate destination of all Muslim believers, the number of ‘Western’ Muslims travelling to Syria to join the nascent Caliphate has been falling consistently for months, perhaps a reflection of a declining reputation on its part.

Let’s be optimistic and presume this is the case. Let’s presume that ISIS has but a few more blood-soaked months of life left in it. What happens then? What should happen to the thousands (and there are still many thousands) of ISIS members when their protective unity is no more? Obviously, this will initially require one of the largest mass arrests since the fall of Nazi Germany. But what comes after that? What sentence or punishment would be sufficient for the crimes these savages have delighted in committing over the past five years?

You’ve probably guessed my answer already, but I’ll detail it regardless. If an ISIS militant is captured in the midst of combat, he should face the death penalty. If this sounds excessive (and I’m sure you don’t think so), remember that had any of the medieval crimes ISIS members have committed over the last few years been committed in America, a death sentence would have been issued in every case. This really is no different. Furthermore, we’re already issuing death sentences from the air with our drone strikes. I can think of no valid counter-argument to this.

After the fall of ISIS, captured fighters should not be extradited to their home countries, but promptly turned over to the Syrian military (the Kurds, Russians and Jordanians are too humane). Given the moral standards of the Assad regime, we can be sure the correct action will be taken, and with little compassion or fanfare. ISIS members have lived by the sword, and they shall die by it, too. For over half a decade, they have massacred uncountable civilians, beheaded them, cut their arms off for ‘witchcraft’ and other imaginary offences, thrown gays from the top floor of bombed-out buildings, gang-raped non-Muslim women, and sold others into sexual slavery. They have recently shot 200 CHILDREN in the head and uploaded footage of the crime onto the internet. Before that, they butchered Christians on the shores of the Mediterranean, turning the sea a dark shade of red. They fed other Christians to dogs, watching gleefully as they were agonisingly ripped apart.

Just as the Nazis were hung for their crimes, so must ISIS hang for theirs.

D, LDN

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Hysterical Evil: The Crimes of ISIS.

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The very least we can do, as human beings coddled in the luxurious safety of the Western world, is to keep the suffering of those in darker situations in our minds and to prevent it from being buried under passing time.

What is going on in ISIS controlled Syria and Iraq defies credulity and logic. There has been no evil of this intensity, industry and sick creativity since the fall of the Nazi Party. No Soviet Gulag ever concealed the amputation of limbs. The war in Vietnam involved no attempt to impregnate the women of the enemy. Only Hitlerism at its most bestial merits comparison with the Islamic State.

Given how frequent the reports of death and destruction have become, it is only human to feel what popular sociologists call ‘compassion fatigue’; the tiring out of the capacity for shock or sympathy. While understandable, I really think we should fight that emotion. These are real people dying, and their suffering only has meaning if it is known and remembered and if conclusions are drawn from it.

Though Satanic from the get-go, Islamic State’s brutality has become distinctly theatrical of late, almost as if the savages are thrilled by the attention of the civilised world.

Today, polished and clear footage shows bearded militants embracing two blindfolded ‘homosexuals’ (the militants are said to have whispered words of forgiveness to the condemned, no doubt to raise hopes of a stay of execution). Shortly after, they are seen pelting the prisoners with sharp desert stones until their heads lose their shape, and dribble with purple blood. After the bodies stop twitching, the stoning relents, and the gathered throngs disperse.

Days before that, a lion-hearted Syrian who had campaigned locally against ISIS cruelty was made to kneel in the desert and shot point blank. Photographs were released of the murder.

Last week, 30 Ethiopic Christians were beheaded on the shores of Libya by ISIS fighters. Denied the most basic allowance of dignity, footage of their deaths was uploaded to the internet shortly afterwards.

Before that, a video depicted a young thief having his hand sliced off and the stump sown back up by an ISIS ‘doctor’ (if he is one, he disgraces the name of medicine). This insanitary and inhuman practice, relative to the other available retributions should perhaps be considered merciful.

Before this, photographs showed how a long line of Coptic Christians were made to kneel on the Libyan shoreline before being almost simultaneously beheaded, the massive ejaculations of blood from their necks turning the seawater deep red.

If ISIS ever had a point to make, they have surely made it.

It is very difficult to find the right words when talking about this. Terms like ‘savage’ and ‘beastly’ may offer short-term satisfaction, but they seem rather too mild when placed in captions under images like those described above. Even ‘evil’ doesn’t cut it; one must be more specific:

When mothers feel their children are threatened (especially newly born children), they can develop what is known in medicine as ‘hysterical strength’ – a superhuman toughness that is impossible under almost any other circumstance (at its most dramatic, a legend describes women lifting up cars to recover children trapped beneath).

ISIS fighters have achieved a kind of hysterical evil; a malice in excess of ordinary human potential. From its energy, it fuels its own perpetuation. Most people could never overpower their conscience to the degree necessary to behead a man in the morning, and then impregnate his daughter at night.

ISIS fighters are high on evil, thrilled by it, addicted to it, no longer fully in control of it, like rabid dogs. Needless to add, they have ceased to possess any human value and have thereby forfeited all human rights. Every further day they live is an abomination.

D, LDN.

The Demolition of Nineveh.

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When he established the religion of Islam in 630 AD, the Prophet Muhammad is said to have smashed the statues of ancient Arabic Idols in the territory now venerated as the Masjid al-Haram in Makkah. In doing so, he set an example that would ripple through the ancient Middle East like an earthquake.

Energized by the faith he imparted them, Muhammad’s followers charged the tired-out nations of humanity’s first golden-age, burning or smashing to pieces anything that attracted veneration or that stood for rival theologies. Their justification for this vandalism was the same used by the Prophet; nothing should be venerated except the qualities of God.

Wahhabis take this anti-idolatry stance to the wild extreme. In the modern city of Makkah, the Saudi religious establishment has ordered the bulldozing of numerous buildings venerated by millions of less orthodox believers. This includes the house Muhammad was born in and many other buildings connected with the Islamic Salaf (original or ‘rightly guided’ generation).

What is currently occurring in the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh is therefore completely in keeping with Islamic theology as promoted by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.

The Mail has posted pictures today depicting ISIS barbarians smashing statues in an Iraqi museum, some of which date back hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. The surprised comments in reaction to them are shame-faced. Assyrian activists have been reporting the destruction of Nineveh for some time. The media has been pathetically slow to catch up.

The ancient city of Nineveh, whose ruins are located within the neighbourhood of the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul, was capital of the Assyrian empire and is mentioned throughout the Hebrew Bible. Its famed city walls are on the ISIS hit-list and may be blown up at any time. Should ISIS proceed all the way to Baghdad, the city of Babylon – to the South of the modern capital and an equally famed centre of ancient culture – will be treated the same way.

The question forming from the smoke of this destruction is whether we, the human collective, have any respect for our past, for the treasures that served as mileposts on the way to our present complexity. I do. I think we all should.

Death to Wahhabism. Death to the preachers of nihilism. Death to ISIS.

D, LDN.

Oh What a Lovely War.

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As I write, the forces of the modern world are busily engaged in its defence. In the skies over Mesopotamia, F-22 Raptors – those beautiful, sleek monsters of war – are releasing smart bombs destined for the hide-outs of civilian-killers and child rapists.

I’m pleased and slightly surprised to see this. Obama and Cameron have had to make a tortuous about turn to arrive at the current (correct) poise. It wasn’t so long ago that these men were advocating the arming of Jihadist groups in the same region. Now they are pledging to roll such forces back into the middle ages where they belong. Hooray for common sense (at last).

The babyish pacifists are already whingeing of course. Some are warning of ‘mission creep’ and eventual ‘boots on the ground’. But why would anyone object to that? Of course I’d much rather that we could defeat ISIS entirely from the air, but it’s far from certain that we can. We must prepare for whatever this war may ask of us.

As acts of violence go, this is as close to moral violence as can be imagined. The democratic forces of the West are mowing down the ambitions of an anti-democratic evil. The edges we enjoy in technology are finally being made to count. The modern world is showing its worth and I for one am loving every minute of it.

D, LDN.

Islamic State and the Coming Terror Wave.

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Those who believed Islamic State was a threat exclusive to the Middle East now have occasion to revise their opinions.

Intelligence agencies and government ministries across the West are warning of a direct threat to Europe and America from ISIS operatives. This morning it was also reported that photographs have been published on twitter featuring ISIS sympathisers standing beside American landmarks including the White House. While it is impossible to know whether these images are doctored, the ambition they portray is surely authentic.

An Islamic State is not a bear-trap, its cruelties barbed inward against its own population but leaving the external world at peace. The idea of a new Caliphate is to provide a united Islamic world, strengthened in numbers and wealth in order to project superpower onto those it has long defamed as ‘aggressors’; most notably Israel, the United States and Britain.

ISIS may already have the ability to launch strikes against our civil society. Its position next to the traditional transit route of Turkey gives it a portal to Europe, and its international recruits (and their paperwork) provide easy access to places like Australia and the United States.

Before the images mentioned above were published, David Blair, the Telegraph’s Middle East correspondent wrote the following:

“(With) the inflow of volunteers carrying European passports, including some from Britain, and with his control of territory and almost limitless resources, Baghdadi (The ‘Caliph’ of Islamic State) has a real opportunity to attempt to strike the West. Put simply, his goals are about to become clear. Either he will be content with suffocating his new domain, or he will lash out and seek to damage ours. There is every reason to suspect that he is capable of the latter. All that remains in question is his intent.”

While America therefore has sufficient reason to feel uneasy about ISIS, we in Europe should rightly be terrified. It would take very little planning for ISIS to launch a campaign of violence against this continent, and I strongly believe that is what is going to come about. As our militaries engage more directly against Islamic State targets in Northern Iraq, reprisals are almost certain to come, and quickly.

I don’t mean 9/11 style attacks. I mean something bigger and more professional. Unlike al-Qaeda, ISIS is a modern military with sophisticated lines of communication and countless foreign recruits at its command. There are ISIS contacts from Portsmouth to Paris, Malmo to Madrid. Be prepared for co-ordinated operations in many European capitals. London is particularly vulnerable given the large number of ‘Brits’ departing for Syria every week. Indeed, David Cameron has spoken today of the risk to British streets. Perhaps even our elites are waking up to what is coming.

Note that the initiators of the wave won’t all be Pakistani or Arabic men. There has been talk of black, Malaysian and White Norwegian fighters heading back and forth from the region, as well as countless females. This will be altogether new. Symptomatic of Islamism’s evolution from amateur to pro.

How should we feel then? Part of me dreads the coming terror wave. It will be chaotic and expensive in blood. Another part of me feels strangely excited. This is a time for heroes. We will all need to find the man in us (and yes, feminazi, I said MAN). Let battle be joined. We cannot co-exist with cave-men.

D, LDN.

ISIS: al-Qaeda on Steroids.

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The status of al-Qaeda as the leading edge of Islamist terrorism is at an end. Enter ISIS – the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (al-Sham loosely denoting the Levant). It is no exaggeration to say that this organisation, a military in all but recognition, is the gravest manifestation of Jihad in modern times.

For the past few months, ISIS has swept through deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia, beheading anyone who opposed them, and mutilating anyone who fell short of its understanding of Sharia law. The formerly Iraqi city of Mosul was for a period of days subjected to the meanest hell. It takes energy even to imagine it – the bleeding necks and purple heads, the screaming children and crackling gunfire.

Al-Qaeda wouldn’t have dared to dream this. No effort of Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or a thousand other outfits has conquered this size of territory, acquired this much modern weaponry, or achieved this level of consistency in battlefield success. What we are witnessing is unprecedented.

In Slate magazine, Daniel Byman described the accomplishments of ISIS as follows:

“The territory already under its control is larger than (the State of) Israel, and it is not some barren desert: It includes oilfields, electrical grids, prisons, small manufacturing centers, and the weapon depots abandoned by the Iraqi military, including arms provided by the United States. When ISIS fighters conquered Mosul, they seized the central bank—and its reported $425 million. By comparison, al-Qaida’s budget before 9/11 was about $30 million—and we called it rich.”

Those who have ever wondered what society would be like under a Bin Laden-approved government need wonder no more. The pre-medieval has returned, but – like a steampunk horror movie – the barbarian hordes now posses M16s, Jeeps and video cameras on which to record their deeds.

To list all the macabre events individually would be a Marquis De Sade novel and end up just as long (and unreadable), so let’s isolate a few especially horrid cases:

Yesterday, a video emerged of ISIS fighters spraying gunfire at random civilians from a Humvee on their entrance into Iraqi villages. The organisation also boasted of killing 1,700 US trained Iraqi soldiers during the same invasion. Since then, it’s been reported that an ISIS member has posted a photo of a decapitated head on twitter along with the devilish caption “This is our football. #Worldcup2014”.

That should be enough to communicate the point. These truly are a new breed of monster, lacking in whatever qualities separate us from animals.

What is all this cruelty aiming at exactly? Well, the Independent Newspaper has helpfully translated a manifesto published locally by ISIS fighters.

• “People have tried secular rule – now it is time for an Islamic state.
  
• Women should wear loose-fitting clothes and leave home only when necessary.
  
• Shrines and graves should be destroyed.
  
• Only flag allowed to be carried is the ISIS one.
  
• Places have been opened for police and soldiers of the ‘unbelievers’ to repent.
  
• Drugs, cigarettes or alcohol (are) banned.
  
• Tribal leaders must not become traitors by working with the government.
  
• All Muslims (are) to pray at the mosque at the correct time.
  
• Money we have stolen from the government is for the public. Only the imam of mosques can spend it – thieves will have their hands cut off.
  
• We are the soldiers of Islam and we have taken on the responsibility of re-establishing the caliphate.”

This is fairly generic Islamism. A gun-sight trained on all that makes life worth living. 

So what are we to do? Obama and Cameron have so far behaved like headless chickens. It is likely that there will be drone strikes at some point. Boots on the ground are unlikely. Iran is offering help, but this should be declined.

A fundamental impotence confronts the West, largely of our own making. We simply haven’t got the military bases or the number of personnel to engage ISIS directly. Only the US base in the Gulf is well positioned enough for Western intervention. Other possibilities are mostly wishful thinking. Israel  – for example – could conduct (heroic) air raids, but this would probably result in protests from our effete ‘leaders’ and the harem of anti-logic that is the United Nations. Turkey meanwhile is not our friend, has never been our friend, and will never be our friend where it counts. Jordan isn’t strong enough to repel an army the size of ISIS, and finally, Britain’s army has been stripped to its bare bones and cannot conceivably act alone.

We are left in the position of a mere observer to world-history. That is what happens when military budgets are decimated.

In the unlikely event that Downing Street telephones me for advice, my policy would look something like this – We should be dropping thousands of explosives on any ISIS position cleanly separated from civilians. In Syria, a massive bombing campaign should commence against the ‘rebels’. Assad should not be armed further by NATO but the creaking equipment he has employed thus far will need spare parts, compatible ammunition (only Russia can supply this) and fuel. NATO should not obstruct the supply of these materials.

Although in reality none of us will ever be consulted for our views on this unsightly morass, we must nevertheless stay interested in its outcome.

The ISIS climacteric is fundamentally a pitched battle between the future and the past. Only a fool would say we have no dog in that fight.

D, LDN.