War on Terror II

Since the Paris terror attacks of 13 November it is as if we have awoken from an all too peaceful sleep to find ourselves in the plot of a James Bond novel. Except that if this were offered by the James Bond franchise it would be dismissed as too improbable – and too violent.

A group of theologically inspired Islamic fanatics have taken control of a huge swath of what we used to call Mesopotamia – the land between the two rivers. The rivers being the Biblical waters of the Tigris and Euphrates. They control a territory bigger than England with a population of more than eight million people. They levy taxes, issue decrees and injunctions; they even, apparently, empty the dustbins and offer free dental care. Although we are not supposed to call it a “State”, it actually does function like a state.

Though perhaps the most brutal and barbarous state that has ever existed. They execute whomsoever accords with their definition of an infidel by beheading, on a virtually continuous basis. Crucifixions have become common. Gay people, Yasidis, anyone who is thought to be apostate are being exterminated. Slave markets are flourishing in the streets of Raqqa and Mosul for the first time in centuries. There is systematic rape of women. And now they are exporting their extreme violence to our very doors.

And yet their extreme brand of fanatical Islam, which sympathetic scholars insist is Koranic, continues to attract thousands of wannabe Jihadis from all over Europe, the Arab world, South and Central Asia, even Australia. Not to mention the thousands of fifth columnist sympathisers who, it is reckoned, live amongst us.

They have, it is estimated, 30,000 troops (who are paid US$300 a month), 50 tanks (Russian T55s, captured from the US-financed Iraqi Army when Mosul fell last year) and 2,000 pieces of artillery, including 23mm anti-aircraft guns. What’s more, they could have chemical and biological weapons. They have an estimated US$2 trillion in assets and a steady income both from taxation and from the sale of oil and archaeological artefacts to all kinds of unsavoury counterparties. They supposedly also receive cash donations from wealthy sympathisers in the Gulf States.

What do they want? I’ve been reading around this of late, and I’d like to share with you soon what respected Western intellectuals like Graeme Wood, Michael Burleigh and John R Bradley are saying. It’s chilling stuff. Let’s just say for now that they think big: they want to annihilate Western civilization (and Russia, to boot).

Too far-fetched for James Bond? Maybe, but be assured that we are now in War on Terror II. I asked my 13-year old godson yesterday how long he was going to keep the French tricolour on his Facebook profile photo. “Until ISIS is defeated”, he told me. That could be a while.

I’d also like to take a look soon at the impact that the first War on Terror (2001-10?) had on the markets. But for now, I just want to make one observation which I think is significant.

In 1090 a fanatical Islamic sect led by the self-appointed Caliph, Hasan bin Sabah, captured (by trickery) the impregnable mountain-top fortress of Alamut in central Persia (about 100 kilometres from modern day Tehran). From there Hasan sent out a posse of highly-trained, fanatical and ferocious men to kill nearly all the leading princes of the region. These fanatics came to be called the Assassins. According to the great Colin Wilson (in his Criminal History of Mankind, 1984), these Assassins were the first terrorists.

Now the English (and French) word assassin comes from the Farsi ashishin. This word, in turn, comes from hashishim – the word for those who took hashish. For the assassins were fired up by their charismatic leader by taking large quantities of mind-bending drugs.

How interesting then that yesterday, in the Mail on Sunday, that human oracle, Peter Hitchens, pointed out that the one thing that links all Islamist terrorist attacks is drugs. The Bombay killers were on cocaine and steroids. At least one of the Boston Marathon bombers smoked cannabis. Drummer Lee Rigby’s assassins were high on cannabis. The author of the Tunisian beach massacre was a cannabis user. The nutter who started shooting on the TGV from Amsterdam to Paris was a convicted dope dealer. The Kouachi Brothers, who masterminded the Charlie Hebdo massacre, were cannabis users; and we now know that several of the authors of the atrocities in Paris were dope users stroke dealers. Indeed Saint-Denis, where the final shoot-out with Abaaoud took place on the morning of 18 November, is notorious for its drug culture.

No coincidence then that the Taliban in Afghanistan were financed by hashish exports. One of the biggest victims of these illicit exports has been Russia. It’s not well known that there are whole towns in Russia’s Far East which are blighted by drugs.

I know that people who want to legalise the use of cannabis for recreational use won’t like this: but War on Terror II will be intricately connected with the War on Drugs.