If we are really “at war with ISIS”, as President Hollande has said yet again in the wake of the ghastly Jihadist murder in St Etienne, then it’s about time that France – and indeed every Western nation – starts fighting it to win!
What would a real “war” involve? Twelve serious measures, without which talk of a “war on ISIS” is nothing more than wishful thinking or a cynical attempt to lull the public back to sleep. Here they are:
* Arming all police officers and firemen, both on and off duty;
* Giving all retired service personnel concealed firearms permits and handguns;
* Training and similarly arming an army of patriotic citizen volunteers who would randomly protect possible targets in plain-clothes;
* Two members of staff at every school should also be trained and armed to protect pupils;
* Soldiers at present stationed in or due to go to Syria or Iraq should be stationed at home instead. The Syrian Army and its allies will crush the Daesh Caliphate, especially if the West stops backing the so-called ‘moderate rebels’ who so often turn out to be throat-cutting Islamists as well. French, German, British and America troops should be protecting their home streets, not destabilising Syria;
*Sanctions against Syria (which are killing innocent children every day) should be lifted in order to speed up the victory of the Syrian government over the Jihadi ‘rebels’;
* Genuine military co-operation with Russian forces battling ISIS, Al Qaeda and their allies in Syria and Iraq, and the extension of the resulting multi-national bombing operation to Libya;
* Sanctions and other measures aimed at rapid regime change should be used to help the overthrow of the Wahhabi dictatorships in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Money and ideological training from these medieval Salafist states are central to the rise of Muslims fundamentalist terrorism;
* The banning and dismantling of the Muslim Brotherhood and all institutions and NGOs run by or linked to it;
* The arrest of all ‘returned fighters’ and their extradition to face justice for their crimes in Syria or Iraq;
* The rounding up and expulsion to the Middle East of all Islamists and anyone who expresses sympathy for them,
* The re – introduction of the death penalty for acts of terrorism.
If, as the ‘experts’ keep telling us, we really face a war that will go on an least a generation, it will also be necessary to address the demographic questions posed by the combination of the low birthrate of indigenous Europeans on the one hand, and immigration and high birthrates among most Muslim communities on the other.
While slamming shut the gates to the continued flood of ‘refugees’ from failed Muslim states is an obvious and essential first step, what else needs to be done is a matter for extensive, serious and free public debate.
The same is true of Western foreign policy, which needs a radical rethink to reflect reality and our national interest, rather than being manipulated by lobbying groups and vested interests so that much of what is done in our name in fact only inflames the situation further.
The West also needs to work with and learn from secular Arab nations such as Syria on the development of counter-radicalisation strategies which are based on tried and tested methods by those experienced in dealing with Wahhabi fanaticism and strengthening the hand of genuine moderates.
This will achieve far than listening to PC ‘expert’ no-nothings who simply keep repeating “this has nothing to do with Islam” like so many parrots.
What needs to be done urgently in terms of security policies is, meanwhile, much simpler and easier.
Any politician or journalist claiming that we are “at war with ISIS” while refusing to take these basic steps is not in the slightest serious about winning the war. They either need to start doing their job, or to be replaced by those who will.
