For what it is worth, this is the ostensible reason (according to BBC News) for the atrocity in France ... one guesses that the deaths must be greater than those in France. The daily cost is $8.2m which is interesting. The total cost is $1.2bn to date which might be very interesting to the residents of the decayed inner cities of America. The map of the countries involved is the map of Islamist targets and both the UK and France are on it alongside the US so is Australia and Canada - three out of thar four have had recent terrorist incidents. In addition, tiddlers involved include Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark, two of which have strong populist claims regarding the right to promote cartoons attacking Islam alongside France. Nearly 2,000 US servicemen are operational with slightly over 3,000 permitted. The operation has the code name Inherent Resolve. In this context, the gunmen in France may well have seen themselves as warrior-raiders dealing death at the barrel of a gun as our side deals death from above. This is the real war - not with Islam - but an existential struggle taking place in a foreign land in which one side is threatened with extermination when the military build-up is complete and the other side is determined on that extermination - eventually. These are the sorts of fact wholly evaded in todays media coverage of the protests in France - as if the deaths in France were some wholly random act of evil instead of an evil act arising out of the broader context of the general evil that is war. All wars escalate and get out of control unless there is a quick victory and this one will be no exception. The connection between what is happening in the Middle East and what is happening in Europe needs to be faced and the naivete of Charlie (indeed of all Charlies) becomes a bit clearer. This is not an argument against exterminating ISIS but it is an argument that people should stop whining and face the consequences like men (in the ancient equally evaded code of honour in which was was once conducted). More casualties are to be expected and grand protests will do nothing to change the determination of Islamists - the best it can do is stiffen spines at home by providing a simple narrative of freedom and amongst allies (many of them only concerned with or regime dynastic survival) for war. The mood at home thus seems much closer to the crowds baying for war in 1914, only they do not even know they are baying. They thinjk they are mourning - the real mourning comes later.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 19:40:05 +0000
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