--- Why it is impossible to defeat ISIS in the present political climate.... Our liberalism and our civilised values are seen as weakness by the fundamentalists. They have the upper hand because we are a different country to 1939. Because we do not have the resolve to make the decision to question every Muslim in the UK to ascertain which are good and which are bad (as we did with the Germans in 1939-45). I keep coming back to this point because the difference between now and then is in the way the UK is run. If you look at the war logically you could say that we should have not bombed Dresden because innocent Germans would be killed. You could say the same about bombing ISIS - that innocent Muslims may be killed. It depends how much you want to achieve your objectives. Now, the UK in 2014 is a very different place to 1939. For a start, we have large numbers of people who dont really attach themselves to being part of the national culture, preferring an overseas identity. Secondly, we are liberal - this means that we do not fight fire with fire and we do not see all Germans/Muslims/whoever as one and the same for the purposes of war. Now, if you are in a war situation, and you begin to humanise the enemy you start to think what about his wife and children and the fact is that you have two choices. You either become a conscientious objector or you go to the field of battle unable to kill your opponent.. The natural outcome of that is that they kill you. If self-preservation does not kick in when you are at war, you have to accept that you will be a casualty. Now, if most people become conscientious objectors and the enemy is at the gates then you still get killed. This is because a Jihadist with a machete is not going to ponder whether you have a family. And they will not think that you should be spared because you decided to be pacifist. They will kill you all the same, just as they did Mr Henning. If we needed to mobilise on a large scale - with conscription - against the Islamic fundamentalists we would fail, as eventually we WILL run out of squaddies to fight and will need to rely upon conscripts. This is a new Vietnam in the making.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 12:20:16 +0000
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