PARIS ATTACKS: Time for a reality check

By Patrick BAHZAD

We are at war now, says the French press ! No, we are not at war now ... We have been at war for some time already, not a conventional war, but a war nonetheless.

The trouble is, lots of people in the West in general, and in France in particular, didn't know or didn't want to know this uncomfortable truth, and a number of so called "analysts" and "experts" refused to acknowledge it, even after the January attacks on "Charlie Hebdo". 

Earlier this year, I wrote a piece on SST "WRITING ON THE WALL: The significance of recent trends and patterns in Jihadi terrorism". Now, I realize I may sound like those "told you so" armchair strategists, but I want to warn again - like others - about the dangers our societies are exposed to. These threats are complex and just going after potential accomplices, or their backers, won't cut it. 

This is now everybody's business. Most of us however have forgotten what it feels like to be targeted in our streets. Well, it is time to remember. France has never been at peace for more than 60 years and it definitely looks like that record is not going to be broken !

Earlier today, the French President said that we would "have no mercy for those responsible". I hope he means it ... The enemy, who will have heard these words, will relish the challenge. Showing no mercy is not a problem for them, they haven't shown any thus far. But are we ready for such a fight ?

Time to have a good look in the mirror and brace ourselves for things to come. This is only the beginning and we should not be afraid to confront that reality. There can be no turning back and no escaping this time !

Comments

[Patrick Bahzad]

It is indeed what they claim to have done: retribution for bombings on ISIS training camps in Syria.

[Valissa]

Why France? http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/11/14/paris-france-terror-isis-daesh-isil-column/75772206/
France's Muslim population is about 5 million or 7.5% of the nation's population — the largest such concentration in Europe. But that is only an estimate. The French don't really even know how many Muslims are among them.

Because collecting such data is illegal estimates range from 5% to 12% of the population. And after Catholics they are France's largest single religious bloc, a population that is all but totally opaque to the leaders of the French nation.

Two decades ago, the Count Alexandre de Marenches, the longtime head of French intelligence, warned me as we were writing our book, The Fourth World War: Diplomacy and Espionage in the Age of Terrorism, that the principal challenge to France was this presence "within our nation of another nation we do not understand, whose language we do not speak, whose customs we do not know, whose hopes and aspirations we do not share."
------------------

The author of the column... David A. Andelman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Andelman

[Patrick Bahzad]

You're making some points that deserve being taken into account. However you should exercise more caution in the words you chose, your argument would be just as strong.

[Jack]

Aka

If the reaction is going to be similar to ours after 9/11 then exactly what you fear will happen. The hysterical fear generated by the Borg will provide the backdrop for an even more repressive environment. The vision of Jefferson and Madison will surely become a footnote in history.

I feel certain there will be no reflection on the role played by the West in the destabilization of secular ME states into anarchy on the back of delusions fed by Ziocon propaganda. No reflection on the support by the West of jihadi funders and instigators like the Saud and Gulfies.

Unfortunately I have this feeling of deja vu.

[Robb]

I was also wondering how long this would take, I guess the answer was not long. The obsessive focus on these pet projects (Assad, Putin) and the assumption that the jihadis are "provoked" into these acts is mind boggling. These are planned and concerted attacks not responses to being provoked.

R

[Robb]

Curfews? None of my friends in France are reporting curfews so not sure where that information comes from.

[Patrick Bahzad]

Richard,

I agree, we will overcome this foe.

[Patrick Bahzad]

Be that as it may, not State is going to let its citizens get slaughtered on the streets of its capital city.

[Patrick Bahzad]

That is the "trap" that needs to be avoided.

[notlurking]

Another fellow who just emptied the bases. Well said......

[Herodotus]

Patrick,

One would think that after the attacks France has endured while having about half of its Muslim male population heading to Syria for jihad. That the DGSE would have at least eyes and ears in operation?

[PeteM]

If you are going to challenge my comment you could at least print it!

[turcopolier]

Peter M

Ah, my bad. Send it again. pl

[Tigershark]

Is it not time to go after the public and private "bankers" of ISIS? Yes, they have money from oil sales, ransoms, and other sources, but events like last night require financing. Some of the financing has to come from outside of ISIS held territory, since there are no electronic transfer of funds from that territory to the rest of the world.

Go after the bankers. "Request" they stop funding ISIS. (and AQ, for that matter) If they do not comply, insure "management change." Some of those "bankers" have villas in the south of France. Accidents happen.

[annamaria]

" it would have been so much less trouble to have allowed Hussein, Mubarak, Assad, Gaddafi, et al to have kept these people suppressed."
You mean to leave these people alone in their functioning states instead of "doing balkanization" of the Middle East to satisfy the longing for Greater Israel, as it expressed by Oded Yinon in his seminal paper?

"February 1982: Article in Israeli Journal Says Israel Should Exploit Internal Tensions of Arab StatesEdit event
The winter issue of Kivunim, a “A Journal for Judaism and Zionism,” publishes “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties” by Oded Yinon. The paper, published in Hebrew, rejects the idea that Israel should carry through with the Camp David accords and seek peace. Instead, Yinon suggests that the Arab States should be destroyed from within by exploiting their internal religious and ethnic tensions: “Lebanon’s total dissolution into five provinces serves as a precedent for the entire Arab world including Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and the Arabian peninsula and is already following that track. The dissolution of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon, is Israel’s primary target on the Eastern front in the long run, while the dissolution of the military power of those states serves as the primary short term target. Syria will fall apart, in accordance with its ethnic and religious structure, into several states such as in present day Lebanon.”
http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=oded_yinon
Here is a list of "before" and "after" the US/EU (and Israel by proxy of the US Zionists) intervention in the states of Iraq, Libya, and Syria. http://www.sinhalanet.net/lessons-for-sri-lanka-comparison-of-iraq-libya-and-syria-before-and-after-usnato-interferenceintervention

[FND]

Sorry. You are right. My wording could have been better, especially at this time of national mourning and anger against the disgusting and cowardly attacks against unarmed people. To clear up any ambiguity, I fully support the French people and government in their time of crisis and pray they make wise and effective decisions in their war against the jihadists. Thank you for your insightful reports here on Colonel Lang's excellent forum.

[annamaria]

"For starters" post did not contain any petty arguments. Actually, it presents some of the main problems for stopping the slaughter in Syria.

[rjj]

Footnote of dubious significance from the memory hole:

In the late 90s and early 2000s the homuncular power groupies** appearing on CorpsMedia displayed their pseudo-insider status cred with in-group cliches [??], slogans [??], and catch phrases [??] such as "Carthago delenda est"; "reason of state"; "little baby steps". Around 2002-3 a slogan of note was "The Road to Damascus goes through [sometimes "starts at"] Baghdad." Damascus made it memorable, as in "DAMASCUS?? Why?? WTF??"

Repeat: that was in 2002-3.

** e.g., people like Dick Morris, Newt Gingrich, et al.

[FB Ali]

Patrick Bahzad,

My condolences on this terrible atrocity.

There is no doubt that IS must be destroyed. However, that is unlikely to end the Jihadi menace, which arises from an ideological poison that has deliberately been spread among Muslims, and is still being spread. That poison is the Wahhabi creed that is sponsored and propagated by the Saudis and the various Gulf states.

The West has to decide whether it prefers the short-term gains to be obtained from cosying up to these Wahhabi states to the long-term menace that they pose. (Unfortunately, such decisions are made very difficult by the personal 'benefits' that Western leaders derive from such associations).

[Eliot]

Valissa,

"The Stranger within my gate,
He may be true or kind,
But he does not talk my talk--
I cannot feel his mind.
I see the face and the eyes and the mouth,
But not the soul behind."

- Rudyard Kipling

[BostonB]

A lot of very well informed people are anticipating the scenario jld mentions.

http://www.unz.com/akarlin/the-paris-terror-attacks/

[alba etie]

Brig General Ali
How much support if any does Daesh / ISIS have from state actor such as the ISI in Pakistan ?

[alba etie]

rjj
Operation Clean Break --- WTF indeed . I understand that Micheal Leeden is advising JEB ! campaign ...

[Kunuri]

Turkey did, just a few weeks ago, in Ankara, unless she did not consider those who were slaughtered their own citizens, or facilitated the whole thing herself.

[Tyler]

Patrick,

Good luck to you and your countrymen. I hope this time a more succinct response occurs vs. another round of "solidarity marches" to show how wonderfully unrayciss everyone is.

Don't forget to deal with the traitors in your midst, the ones who will say that noticing things is "Islamophobia" and will run to Marxist social theories to justify why its actually the West's fault that IS this.

Burning Calais was a nice first step to dealing with the invaders. France is one of the roses of Western Civ, and irreplaceable.