"The Pen is Mightier than the Sword", but the Sword slashes still!

In the article entitled "The Pen is Mightier than the Sword" published via this site on January 9th this year, I likened the reaction of the world's satrical cartoonists to the events of Paris 7/1 as 'pens raining like arrows from an English Longbow pierce the shields of the enemy and their guns are dashed from their grip and smashed into a state whereby conversion to plough shears might be the only option'. 

The artistic response showed that attacks on our hard-won freedoms would be repulsed and as we know, those who committed the atrocities paid the ultimate price and rightly so. In the ensuing weeks though, images have been crafted and published that were said to depict the Prophet Mohammed (Peace and Blessings be upon His Holy Name). This, in my opinion is an 'Arnham' moment; a Bridge too Far.

Since my first ever deployment to the Middle East in 1986, which has subsequently led to exposure elsewhere in the UAE, Syria and Turkey to name but some, I have amassed vast numbers of contacts who are of the Islamic Faith. I have visited Holy Shrines where most Westerners could not readily have access to. It will perhaps come as no surprise that I hereby rule out ever uploading any text or image that would offend the sensibilities of my many friends and colleagues, not that I have considered doing so anyway. Freedom of Expression is one thing and very precious it is too: Freedom to Offend is not a 'right', it is a serious 'wrong' and a dangerous one too as we are continuing to observe.

Events in both Belgium and Germany serve to remind us that there is an organised network of radicalised individuals who will stop at nothing in the prosecution of their own brand of evil and one which is entirely unrepresentative of that Faith that they profess to serve. Within the past week in Niger, some 42 churches were torched in coordinated attacks by radicals in that country as a reaction to the publication of images that have given offence. That these various attacks are so clearly planned and organised give lie to the suggestion that these events are spontaneous; so clearly a command structure is in place!

It is a certainty that events such as Paris 7/1 are not likely to be unique one-off's. European governments have had to suddenly divert a lot of costly resources to bolster their internal defences and to improve their Intelligence Services. Here in Great Britain, we have perhaps far more experience in these matters and as such, our Intel structure is more advanced. One can only speculate as to how 'full' the accommodation areas beneath Paddington Green police station might be in recent weeks and months and as we move forward through 2015 too.

That we will ultimately come under sustained attack (s) here in the UK is a certainty; it is not a question of 'if', but one of 'when' and our internal defences must be strengthened to enable our resistance to be resolute and ideally pre-emptive. This takes a lot of resources and it will fall to whoever is in power in Westminster after the General Election in 2015 to ensure such resources are funded. If we get a 'Leftie' outfit in Number 10, we can forget such ideas, but if we manage to secure a Tory majority, the party of natural governance, then we may stand a chance.

Exigent circumstances require equally exigent responses. It is my fervently held belief that we should declare an immediate moritorium on ALL foreign aid payments whilst reserving a position for treating individual cases on merit, but on a 'point of need' relief basis only. The resultant savings, which would amount to billions of pounds, must then be diverted to our Defence budget. For years, our over-stretched Armed Services have been paired back and are now woefully under-strength. We must re-build our Armed resources and at the same time, continue to bolster our Intel Services too. 

Furthermore, withdrawing from EU membership would also free up several billions and these funds can at least in part, be diverted to the cause of self-defence. I acknowledge that lefties and weak liberals reading these paragraphs will be horrified at these suggestions and that I might be simply making tongue in cheek remarks simply to be inflammatory, and I will concede that I often resort to such tactics especially after an ale or two, but in this I am deadly serious and mean every word of it.

In many ways, we are paying an enormous price for the Blair-era where not only did his foreign policies of waging war where none needed to be waged, serve to radicalise enemies, many of whom were raised within these shores, his policies of open-door immigration has in many ways, swelled the ranks of forces alien to our way of life. 'Blairs Wars' and other aspects of his 'reign' cost a great deal at the time and will continue to do so for some years hence. He should hang his head - ideally over an executioners block - but still he jets across the globe in 'Blair-Force One' without a care in the world. History will judge, inexorably.

Paris 7/1

In conclusion, I repeat the final paragraph of my original article on this topic for it remains to be relevent:

We mere mortals can do very little but to remain as alert as we can especially at transport node points, places of worship especially perhaps, synagogue's amongst other such places. Even sporting arena's may not be immune to attack. This is not to appear scare-mongering; it is merely an expression of common-sense. As citizens of the world, irrespective of creed, colour or calling, we have a collective duty to look out for each other, to love our neighbours and to strive to do towards others as we ourselves would desire to be treated. If we do so, we adhere to the Prime Commandment not only of Christianity, but Islam too and as such, there can be no simpler and bloodless way to defeat the common enemy.

Postscript:

 We have now learned of the apparent beheading of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa, which was announced in a video generally agreed to be credible, and appeared to mark a grave turn of events in a crisis that has gripped Japan for nearly a week. 

This 'death-cult' cannot be allowed to continue to function and coalition forces must combine all necessary resources to locate, identify and neutralise them without mercy. 

By

Chris Green

Beşparmak Media Services