A tough war to fight...

 

 

 

"How in the world do you fight someone so intent on living, fighting and dying like we have gone back to the 7th century?"

When I first went in the service in 1969, the battle theater was twofold. First, Viet Nam was still raging. Our troops had to learn how to fight a growing and determined asymmetrical enemy. It was tough as well as brutal. The second was the ongoing Cold War with the Soviets and to some degree, the CHICOMS (Chinese Communists). My duty while stationed in the Western Pacific mostly involved the Cold War, although I did lend occasional support to the Viet Nam war effort.

That was tough enough back then. Now it is a whole different ball game. We are asking our military to do the following: 1) Downsize your forces while 2) Preparing for an emerging Russian threat, especially along their southern border and 3) Preparing for an emerging "Blue Water" Navy in the Western Pacific from an emboldened China and 4) Somehow, someway, try and learn how to fight a growing and amorphous group of religious zealots who want to take the world back to the 7th century. And by the way, who also end the world as we know it.

On the news this morning, it was reported that Italy is on high alert for a terror attack. Why Italy? ISIL has made it known that under this Caliphate, it will conquer Rome. I think we need to adjust our thinking way back in time to understand. How far back? Crusades or further. And is Italy prepared for a terrorist attack? Not much, not much at all. They are only a hop, skip and a jump away from Libya. If Rome is a symbol of Vatican power from centuries ago, than what a tempting target it must be.

Here is the reality of Italy. Very little military. Some trained anti-terror police, but not nearly enough for a full frontal terror assault. And Italy has let in a ton of immigrants who have fled war torn Northern African countries. It was not too tough to have a few bad actors slip in with them.

How serious is this threat? In October (less than six months ago) there was a magazine article in a called Reflections of the final crusade. It was very blunt and to the point. It said:

 "We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women, by the permission of Allah, the Exalted. If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it, and sell your sons as slaves in the slave market. Every Muslim should get out of his house, find a crusader, and kill him...and the Islamic State will remain until its flag flies over Rome." 

After they beheaded 21 innocent Christians on the shores of Libya, they reaffirmed their threat to come to Rome. The leaders of Italy know they are not fully protected right now. They have cut their military back to the bones to save money and help their out of control debt. They believe in times of trouble, the United Nations will protect them. Good luck on that one.

Maybe it will take more incursions in Europe to wake people up. I hope not, but it might have to come to that. And by the way - Istanbul, Turkey is also under the gun. Why? Remember, you need to think like it was centuries ago. Istanbul sits on what one was Constantinople. The seat of the ancient Roman Empire. It was established by Emperor Constantine the Great in the first century. Much history, including the first crusade, took place in that area of the world between 300 AD and the 12th century.

How this will eventually play out, I have no idea. I do know this from my military training - know thy enemy. And we know precious little about what motivates this group to fight on. We need to get smarter, and fast. We need to take them seriously, very seriously. War is coming. It is coming to Europe, it is coming over here. We can either bury our head in the sand, or prepare to defend ourselves. Our sins are from events which happened centuries ago. However, that really does not seem to matter.