"...rely on God and kill him in any manner."

So far ISIL have proved little in their struggle in trying to create ultra Islamic Statelets, and overall it is a struggle they are bound to lose not least by studying the lessons of the past within the theatre of war, any kind of war.

ISIL might be good with computer marketing with a few bearded and ugly rabble rousers on the ground who cant get a girl without raping her first while stalking the streets of Birmingham and elsewhere trying to stir up hate, but that is about as much as they can do. Their other marketing strategies are already proving that they are doomed to failure starting with the beheadings of innocent people and have proved to be a very good recruiting poster for their perceived enemies. Their enemies are growing fast who will not be halted or slowed by the ugly spectacle of those beheadings whose soul intent is to instill fear. In the theatre of war it is just another day and their violence must and will be met with its equal.

It was June of this year when this gang of murderers first became global in the eyes of the western world. Their mantra is simply this: “if you can kill a disbelieving American or European-especially the spiteful and filthy French-or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that joined against the Islamic State, then rely on God and kill him in any manner.” This bit of Islamic rhetoric is from their spokesman, Abu Mohammed Ad-Adrani, calling on supporters to attack foreigners wherever they are and that means even in their own country.

Most of the more prominent rabble rousers also seem to have inserted the name of ‘Mohammed into their own name.

The reality is ISIL does not have a State but want to make the world an Islamic one. Like the Nazis before them, the Japanese, Pol Pot, Mao, Idi Amin, Stalin, and more within a very large historical narrative, their time was also brief and could never endure.

“To rule by fear…”, so succinctly put by Winston Churchill, “…is like riding an angry tiger while hoping you will not fall off his back, and the tiger is getting very hungry.” And that is a history that has always repeated itself.  

We are a fragile species engineered with a primitive instinct, and whether you have a mortgage to pay or live in the hills of Syria, under fire we become the same; whether we fight or die is measured by how much we fought to preserve what we believe to be ours and that of future generations.

This latest war will be fought exactly the same way as all others, and how it is fought is of little matter as long as it is won.

Barry Clifford