Over the last couple of days as this blog post was being written and over the last couple of weeks the terrorist army ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) to give it one of its names; has invaded Iraq from Syria and in a very short time has pushed all the way to the gates of Baghdad. You will have noticed that I called it a terrorist army, with a strength of around 12,000 men this is no longer a group of seperate entities but a fully equiped, highly motivated, religously extreme and murderous Jihadist Sunni army.
This army has one aim, to establish a Caliphate across the Muslim world with Sharia Law being the only law. If it succeeds in this then the next expansion will be into the west. That though is in the future, however distant.
Last June when the west; mainly the UK and the USA were debating on to whether to go into Syria and help the Free Syrian Army (FSA) there were upwards of five different terrorist groups that had joined the fight. ISIL (ISIS) was one of these groups. Even last June it was way too late for the west to put boots on the ground as these terrorist groups were becoming ever more prominent. At this stage the US Government were providing weapons and ammunition to the FSA either with or withour exact knowledge of where these arms were ending up. It does now seem clear that the US Government were either inadvertantly arming what is now known as ISIS or arming them without the foresight of the coming conditions in Iraq and the threat to the west we see today.
Last June I posted this picture onto my twitter time line.
Which brings us back to the present, leaving politics aside; Tony Blair in his role as Middle East Peace Envoy (I think he may be in the wrong job) has lately said that we must fight against President Assad in Syria and fight against ISIS in Iraq. His comments by various politicians and observers had been called mad, to say the least. We are now back to fighting with them in one country and against them in another. So lets just amend the above picture for the present day.
But where does all of this leave the citizens of the west and especially those of the UK? Well in the ISIS army there are a approximately 500 British Jihadists. Video footage and internet comments by these hardened fighters over the last week tell us how they will wreak havoc on their return to the UK, especially around the time of the general election in 2015.
Now it may just be some huffing and puffing but there have been Jihadists returning from Syria with a hatred for the west and luckily they have been intercepted by the security services.
This present threat has been brought about by some really inept decision making by UK and US Governments which has allowed conditon to deteriorate in the Middle East and with our open door policy with regards to immigration it will be harder to stop 500 returning UK Jihadists.
But with regards to the call for havoc on their return there is a far more present threat posed by sympathisers and UK radicals who have stayed behind and continue to live here. Will these messages from afar spur these home grown terrorists to action before there Jihadi brothers return?
With what seems like a lack of concern or a lack of commitment for the publics safety from the government; this latest turn of event means we as citizens need to be on our guard more than ever to protect ourselves. Though the fighting may be far away it is really much closer than we think.
The macroscosm of war and terrorism will impact on your microcosm of personal protection.
Dont be one of 30 who walk by!
Stay Dangerous
Rock