20 oct 2015

The Islamic Army


I wrote this article a year ago, but I forgot to upload it then, so here it is.


I was talking weeks ago with a USA guy I know from a forum we both drop by, about the beheading of US journalist James Foley by members of the Islamic Army in Iraq and the Levant and the ruthless and barbaric cruelty they were showing, beheading, killing and crucifying people just because of religious reasons. We quickly concluded that we, infidels Western citizens, would be next on these terrorists' list and then he said, “this is the sort of thing that would necessarily prompt military action so severe as to utterly crush every last remnant of ISIS. Instead, we have daily bombings that kill some of the cockroaches, while leaving many others to carry on their dirty work”. "

The truth is that I fully agree with him.

Iran, a 90% Shiite Islamic country, has begun to tremble at the severity of the threat and they’ve seen themselves in the need of negotiate with the "Great Satan" to find ways to face Sunni IS

The last NATO summit in which President Obama asked its European allies to join a grand coalition to confront these bloodthirsty terrorists was not very succesfull as only ten of the twenty eight members of the EU, accepted to be part of it. Sadly Spain is not among them.

I’ve always found incomprehensible this EU attitude that made us consider Defense spending as something “not liberal”, “not progresist”, some sort of bigot related thing. Most Europeans do want no coffins, no blood, no spending big money on their Armed Forces, even if that mean the adoption of measures in order to face the very real threat IS mean, even being aware that the most of IS foreing terrorists come from EU countries. I mean, knowing in advance that we have the enemy at home is not reason enough to made them change their minds.

A few weeks ago, the new leader of the Spanish Socialists party -Pedro Sánchez-said in an interview on TV that Spain should have been part of the military coalition promoted by President Obama, but "this not mean sending military to that coalition" How can anyone eat this?

October 4, a “El Mundo” newspaper journalists asked him "What Ministry would you erase and where do you think there is a lack of budget’?” He replied that "More budget for poverty, gender violence…....and get rid of the Ministry of Defense."
Later that afternoon the Spanish Socialists party speaker had to call “El Mundo” to clarify his boss' words, "is not in the spirit of Pedro Sánchez to erase the Ministry of Defense."

OK, it is not in his spirit, but his words certainly reflect the true feelings of most of Spanish left wing parties who refuse something as basic as being ready to defend ourselves against an external aggression, paying the price for it. The most of the left wingers people I know –Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!- are convinced that we must reduce the Defense budget.

I read in a newspaper that only three countries meet NATO's recommendation to allocate 2% of GDP to defense. The USA with a 4'8%, United Kingdom with 2.6%, and pay attention now!!, Greece with 2.1%.

Greece, the country who lives in bailouts from the EU and under it’s economic control, which is mired in crisis and lives threatened by the rise of the extreme left and the extreme right, the one who distorted all public accounts, allocates more GDP percentage on defense expenses than next country on the list that is….....France!!! Greeks know for sure that one of their neighbors represents a threat for them –they have had disputes with Turkey since the Trojan war- so even if it means suffering the most painful economic and social hardship, they do not hesitate to assing economic resources -which obviously are detracted from other budget items- to provide themselves an Armed Forces capable of coping with those who might threat them. The Turkish army is among the 10 most powerful in the world.

In the case of Spain, our potential enemies, as President Rajoy stated weeks ago, come from the North of Africa. Make no mistakes, we simply can not take this threat as a joke, nor deny its scope because the truth is that we are a target of Islamic terrorists and here are two examples.

Ansar al-Islam in the Muslim Sahara, "Al Andalus is in front of our eyes and with Allah's help we will recover the Land of Islam and what was taken from us in the hands of our ancestors, no matter the time it might take."

Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of Al Qaeda leaders, "The Return of Al Andalus to Muslim hands is a duty for the Umma in general and for you (North Africans) in particular"

Last July, journalist Javier Casqueiro talked about a jihadist attack against the Tunisian army beginning his article in the newspaper “El Pais" with the following paragraph: "Tunisia three days of national mourning, Morocco under high alert for more than a week, Algeria maintains its security forces in a state of total surveillance and Libya is still in chaos. The ghost of jihadist terrorism in the Maghreb, now also in the theoretically most stable countries in the area."

Although many want to escape this reality saying, "it will not happen here," the fact is that the Shia have their own terrorists groups, Hamas and Hezbollah, both funded by Iran. Sunnis have their own too, Al-Qaeda and the IS, financed by Saudi Arabia. As soon as one of them obliterate the other, these terrorists will be headed to recover what they consider theirs. The words of Osama Bin Laden, "in the end of all, we ask Allah that the Umma can regain its honor and prestige and we can get up on all stolen Islamic lands, from Palestine to Al Andalus" are clear like pure water.

In 2013 Spain spent on defense 0'94% of GDP, light years away from NATO recommendation. Since 2008 the budget has been reduced by 32% and it seems that half of our tanks, for instance, are not operative.

From the time of Ancient Rome is clear that "if vis pacem para bellum", I mean, peace is only guaranteed if you’re well prepared for war and I'm afraid that 0'94% of GDP is quite insufficient.

Let’s learn from Greece. Let’s increase defense spending to ensure our Armed Forces are fully operational, are sufficiently equipped to ensure the security of our troops and are powerful enough to respond any external aggression strongly.

Problem here is that you can’t count with Socialists party -nearly 40/45% of the Spanish electoral body- to achieve this target. I do not want to imagine what would had been their reaction if President Rajoy had decided to join the coalition proposed by President Obama.

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