At the end of August, I published a blog entry discussing the need to take ISIS out. For whatever reason, that post didn't light too many fires. I wondered why...because I believe that the subject of ISIS (or ISIL) is perhaps the single most broadly threatening issue of our times - it now makes the nightly news internationally. However, I am equally certain that most people think that, while a hideous manifestation, ISIS is pretty much about the Middle East and not about Canada...and that is just plain wrong!
In that post, I asked this question: what happens when some of our own decide they don't like the way we do things here in Canada, leave the country for indoctrination and training in a different and radical way of life, then re-enter Canada as Canadians (because they are)...except that now they are amongst us with a new objective of radically changing our customs and laws? Nobody commented and nobody has offered any reasonable answer. That is perplexing because the question describes what is actually happening right now!
The challenge for ISIS is not to revolt us with an on-screen beheading or two or three. That part is easy for them and they've done it, will again. I have actually heard people say "well, if those guys (the victims) hadn't tempted fate by putting themselves in harm's way, they'd be alive today". Pretty uninformed comment. Others prefer to believe it's all about Israel...another "Jewish problem". To both of those views, I say nonsense...you're ostriches. This is about anything and anyone in the world that isn't Sunni Muslim. And it is by no means particular to the Middle East (much less Israel which is not involved). It is everywhere now and we'll see that manifesting very soon, I fear.
If you wondered, as I did, whether there would ever be a World War III and, if so, what it would look like, let me point to ISIS. World War III has arrived and it is a worldwide conflict of ideologies. What is ISIS and why should anyone reading this care? ISIS is a well-financed, highly organized, training-reliant, social media-savvy terror group...terrorists who want to instigate and create religious war in the name of their fundamentalist interpretation of Islam which is in line with their quest for an all-Muslim world. The first line of attack for people we call terrorists is to inspire fear or to 'terrorize'. Second and, simultaneously, they need to make good on their threats, hence the videos of beheadings we have now become familiar with...they have our attention and that of our governments. That attention has created a coalition of the willing...countries that have formed a kind of "cooperative" to rain airstrikes down on ISIS locations. Good? Yes, but not good enough.
Canada is involved...I could say it's only minimal but placing any Canadians in harm's way is a serious commitment. My view about this, however, is that in many endeavours, the operative adage must be 'in for a penny, in for a pound'. In other words, if we have 100 advisors in Iraq and/or Syria on the ISIS project, they are all potential victims. And if we are there with potential victims (as are our partners), couldn't we put enough manpower and materiel on the line to ensure that we win the day and win for all time? That means that I believe in boots on the ground being essential. Could we suffer losses? Yes...indeed, we would. But here's another (and more populist) adage 'pay me now or pay me later'. I will say, without hesitation, that Canada will, at some point, put boots on the ground as will the United States and Great Britain...France already has. And we need Muslim countries to do likewise. They are already anti-ISIS and so demonstrating by joining the coalition of countries launching airstrikes meant to degrade this hideous organization.
ISIS is in growth mode. It was unheard of a year ago. It was able to take advantage of weaknesses within the Iraqi government and military and of disarray in Syria, in civil war for several years. But, make no mistake, it is an amalgam of rag-tag stragglers, malcontents, and religious nut bars who may well have come from Al Quaeda, Al Shebab, Hamas, Hezbollah and (terrifyingly) from the house next door to you! Yes, there are Canadian and American and British kids being trained alongside many from other countries. Some of them are back among us now and others will be soon. The plan is to cause chaos domestically. Are we prepared to leave it to our police forces, secret and otherwise, to do what was done in Australia recently...interdict the bad guys? To an extent, yes. But, I mean no disrespect in saying that some of this evil will slip through the cracks and tremendous damage could be done with great harm to civilian populations. What is our military for if not to allay both those fears and, indeed, change that reality?
In my original piece on ISIS, I said this..."We see equality and human rights as a basic concept and they do not. No god figure in the history of human religious practice has ever called for the eradication of every non-believer the world over and, by the way, that includes the God of Islam, Allah. To suggest otherwise is to misinterpret, twisting words in order to make them fit with one's own agenda."
I went on to question the sanity of it. Sane people simply do not cut the heads off guiltless (or any other) human beings to make some point and this behaviour used to literally terrorize on a world scale is intolerable. Left unchecked, it is an exportable behaviour and it will be coming to Canada! If we don't make the full commitment to destroying ISIS, it is at our peril. And, not to politicize this any more than it does in and of itself, it is not helpful that the de facto leader of the "degrade and destroy" coalition is a weak sister in the person of President Barack Obama.
I am not the least bit interested in Islamic fundamentalism or Sharia Law except as it affects me, my family, people I know, and my country. If what it takes to keep that nonsense out of Canada is an active military mission, I'm supportive. I think this is so urgent and so required that I'd go so far as to say that I'd support it even if it meant an increase to my taxes. In a survey published very recently, Americans at large said as much to the tune of about 60% of those surveyed. I hope our countries and their leaders hear us before it is too late.
Those who know me would readily attest that I do not countenance violence or killing. But they also know that if the option morphs into 'kill or be killed', the rules change. If we do not make the hard choices now, ISIS will continue to expand, hence my contention that we are staring into the face of WWIII. The initial phase of WWII saw Hitler, a really swell fella compared to this collection of misfits, seize a neighbouring country. Soon afterwards, he began killing those he believed to be inferior human beings. I think we're well past all of that with ISIS. Let us act now.
Peter
We can only hope you won't have to say I told you so.
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