Isis turned one this past month and, according to them who know these things, it's a 'real' , 'new', evil that seeks, not a place at the 'table', but the actual removal of said table. According to the wise, it's celebrating the feast of Ramadan in a very special way because of that.
Counterpunch exposee!
Clear-eyed realists, (it beats the drug-induced kind) such as Canada's Steve Harper and 32 percent of all Canadians 'know' (otherwise he wouldn't have deployed half the Canadian Air Force, and all of the sniper force, to aid Iraq in their destruction of ISIS/IL) what a 'threat' they really are - even more than the evils that are Putin, and the NDP. (Well not really - 65 percent of us recognize the 'threat' of Putin to be so great we want to send the whole army to eastern Europe. And the NDP is actually starting to 'come a winner' for Canadians!). Can we be faulted if there aren't as many targets in northern Iraq as there were in downtown Libya, or Afghanistan? Target richness is variable, eh? But that shouldn't stop us looking, or bombing.
Naturally, you have to have security for 'the mission' and so that's why most Canadians are earning their campaign ribbon in sun-blasted Kuwait, where the fear of the 'bolshie bomber' is lessened and the 'jihadi jitters' not so bad. Although that's equivalent to flying out of Base Trenton to a war zone around Iqualuit . Even with their 'long legs', Canada's F-18's require air-to-air refueling to get here, stay there to look/bomb and then return to base. It's a good thing we have 'friends and allies'. I wonder what they're charging for the 'joy juice' even if delivery is free.
It makes one wonder what happened to the magnificent forces that 'shock and awed' Saddam, blasted Iraq into the middle ages and now seem to have redeployed somewhere else. Do 8 Canadian aircraft make all that much difference?
While Canada was 'holding the line' in Iraq, Isis apparently is running amok , (to 'celebrate its birthday'?), almost everywhere else. There have been on-going attacks in Nigeria, Niger and other parts of Central Africa. Isis is still fighting in Libya. ISIS took Ramadi and Palmyra in the face of the best mediocre 'bang-bang' some money could buy (We've 'trimmed that fat' in Iraq.). It attacked the friendly AU forces in Somalia last week. It made an outrage in Pakistan. Yesterday, it struck at Egypt in the Sinai. 'ISIS fighters' (viz a guy with a gun - but completely different to shooting-up a black Bible study class) supposedly struck in peaceful Tunisia and in France with 'front page-grabbing terror attacks'. About the only thing the west can counter with, is a growing number of 'security arrests' and regular announcements that the drones have nailed another 'biggie'. Thank goodness the Taliban haven't shared the secret of the 'invasion rowboats' - but then, they are 'enemies' of ISIS as well and, maybe, because of that, they are no longer, perhaps, as much the 'enema' we've been fighting for the past 14 years as they are potential 'peace partners'. Or maybe they still are scumbags in need of killing, we haven't figured it out yet. All is couched in possibilities.
What we have figured out is that Iran is behind it all. Not, as some wags thought, Saudi Arabia and the other Arab forces of light and goodness. From Ansar al Aqba to Zeddi al Djinn ANY and EVERY problem in the middle east leads back to Teheran - in an almost straight line! The mad ayetollehs of Teheran are plotting the demise of western civilization, don't cha no? Just the same as did Darryl the Mede as he swept down on snoozing Nebuchadnezzar.
And just a soon as they spill the atomizer: Kablooie! Civilization as we know it goes poop!
In the meantime - even though their economy has 'gone bust' with the sanctions program - they're shipping-off the last of the national wealth to pay for unibombers. Somebody ought to tell the Iranians. They, being the decent people they are, wouldn't stand for that and there is a perfectly good Shah ( 'Och, he's a lovely wee boy"- as Mum would say) and his court-in-waiting in New York.
Meanwhile we'll keep the table polished and gather around it the 'hard core' forces of 'piece and progress'. The world needs gay marriage and real 'love' more than it needs high explosives or even another banking fiasco. If there's one thing we can stand for and they can't, it's human rights, and the free-market system. We don't shoot innocent sunbathers, or even drop bombs on them. Well not unless they're Russians, for, you see, them 'Islamics' don't doff their duds at the beach, where you could really scope 'em out with the drone optics and nail them. Or at least get some 'actionable' imagery to post in the trailer.
We will, for the foreseeable future, 'keep on keeping on'. It's them invasion rowboats (robots???), eh?