In this mailing: Bassam Tawil: The Real Threat to Europe Shoshana Bryen: Is This the Way to Run a War? The Real Threat to Europe by Bassam Tawil  •  February 19, 2015 at 5:00 am Commentators in Europe voicing opinions on the terrorist attacks at Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket in Paris, reverentially discussed the motivation of the terrorists, but showed distressingly little understanding of the meaning of jihad. Europe, hedonist and dishonest, is apparently willing to cut a deal with any violent dictator, including the most potentially violent: a nuclear-threshold Iran. To understand the fate awaiting Europe, it is necessary to listen seriously to what the upper echelons of Islam say to each other about their intentions -- in Arabic. These messages are quite different from those on Western television. What they say to each other is that the mission of Islam is to lead the whole world and eradicate all other religions, as they have been made irrelevant by the Qur'an. Charlie Hebdo's cover after the attacks illustrates the very weakness exploited by the Islamists. The cover shown Muhammad, with a tear, aligning himself with humanism. To every Muslim on the planet, it shouted France's weakness, its increasing surrender to the Islamist threat, and the growing strength of Islam. The real threat to Europe does not come from local Muslims who went to fight in the ranks of ISIS. The real threat comes from Muslims already in the enclaves in Europe. Their doctrine appears openly and without reservation, in books and on websites. It is spread in local languages in mosques by the imams in their communities. These communities command immigration; then the forming of enclaves in the host country, then the eventual violent takeover of the host. There has been collaboration between European governments and terrorist organizations in cynical deals, supposedly to prevent attacks on European soil, writes Bassam Tawil. What will France and Europe receive in return for their stupidity, apart from the perpetually broken promise of "no further attacks"? Pictured above, one of the Kouachi brothers murders a wounded policeman outside the office of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, on 7 January 2014. The late Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, predicted that Islam would conquer Europe without even firing a shot. To understand and explain the fate awaiting Europe, it is necessary to listen seriously to what the upper echelons of Islam say to each about their own intentions -- in Arabic. These messages are quite different from those on Western television. What they say to one another is that the mission of Islam is to lead the whole world and eradicate all other religions, as they have been made irrelevant by the Qur'an. Their doctrine appears openly and without reservation in books and on websites. It is spread in local languages in mosques by the imams in their communities throughout Europe. These communities operate according to an ancient Islamic code: They command immigration; then the forming of enclaves in the host country, then the eventual violent takeover of the host. Continue Reading Article Is This the Way to Run a War? by Shoshana Bryen  •  February 19, 2015 at 4:00 am How does a government "get beyond the crisis" without a plan to resolve the crisis? The Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) is an odd document, not yet debated Congress. Among other points, it prohibits "enduring offensive ground operations," but without defining them. President Obama seems to want it both ways -- to oppose American participation in large-scale battles in Iraq, but to have the "flexibility" to order them; to prohibit ground operations but to have American troops in place to carry them out. The administration thus appears to remain without an articulated strategy to prosecute the war IS launched against us, our allies and a broad range of civilian non-combatants. The 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division conducts a fire coordination exercise with Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles at Fort Carson, Colorado, in September 2014. (Image source: 3rd Brigade Combat Team Facebook Page) A Jordanian, 21 Egyptians and 4 Americans – sounds like the start of a bad joke, but it is not. They, along with thousands of others, have been murdered by the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh) in the Middle East, and by Boko Haram in Nigeria. The victims are Muslim, Christian (Nigerian Christians, Egyptian Copts beheaded in Libya, plus Yazidis, Chaldeans and 45 members of smaller sects in Iraq burned alive), and others (Japanese hostages and some who professed no religion). They are killed in places where governments have lost control of their territory to bands of increasingly well-armed Islamic radical forces. Continue Reading Article

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