Monday, June 29, 2015

Our political leaders may be losing the battle against the sadists of ISIS but the decent spirit of ordinary civilised people will never be defeated

Our political leaders may be losing the battle against the sadists of ISIS but the decent spirit of ordinary civilised people will never be defeated 


I was on a beach in France with my family last week.

My parents lay on two sun loungers, next to my sister, her husband, and their two older daughters.

None of us had a care in the world as we sprayed sun lotion, read papers and books, chatted about various inconsequential matters, swam or slept.

I thought of this idyllic scene this morning as the British death toll in Tunisia reached at least 30 people – all shot dead as they did the exact same thing.
Grief: A young woman lays flowers at the scene of the mass shooting in Sousse, Tunisia - during which British tourists were shot dead as they tried to lounge in the sun on the beach 
Grief: A young woman lays flowers at the scene of the mass shooting in Sousse, Tunisia - during which British tourists were shot dead as they tried to lounge in the sun on the beach 
A police officer stands guard near the Imperial Marhaba resort, which was attacked by a gunman in Sousse, Tunisia on Friday. At least 30 Brits were senselessly slaughtered as they relaxed on their beach holiday
A police officer stands guard near the Imperial Marhaba resort, which was attacked by a gunman in Sousse, Tunisia on Friday. At least 30 Brits were senselessly slaughtered as they relaxed on their beach holiday
Grandparents, mums, dads, uncles, aunts, sons, daughters, nieces, nephews – senselessly slaughtered as they relaxed on their holiday.

Each randomly selected by a smirking young religious zealot who had decided it was their turn to be part of his terrorist organisation's murderous jihad.

He didn't know who they were, of course.

He didn't know the searing pain and anguish their sudden, vicious deaths would cause thousands of other people.

He didn't give a flying f**k about the stolen lives, shattered dreams, and snuffed out hopes he had just created with his one-man rampage.

He didn't even care about dying himself. In fact, he WANTED to die. In his eyes, that was the icing on the cake; the final Utopian validation of his pitifully deluded journey to martyrdom.
Each of the dead randomly selected by a smirking young religious zealot who had decided it was their turn to be part of his terrorist organisation's murderous jihad. He didn't give a flying f**k about the stolen lives, shattered dreams, and snuffed out hopes he had just created with his one-man rampage
Each of the dead randomly selected by a smirking young religious zealot who had decided it was their turn to be part of his terrorist organisation's murderous jihad. He didn't give a flying f**k about the stolen lives, shattered dreams, and snuffed out hopes he had just created with his one-man rampage
Tourists prays beside flowers placed in tribute to the people killed in a terror attack on a beach in front of the imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse,Tunisia. The resilience of British people is strong
Tourists prays beside flowers placed in tribute to the people killed in a terror attack on a beach in front of the imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse,Tunisia. The resilience of British people is strong

This gleeful assassin confidently, excitedly assumed he'd move very swiftly from his grim, bloody side-street Tunisian grave to the welcoming bosoms of 72 virgins.
He won't.

But that isn't any comfort to the relatives of those who died on that beach.
Nor will it help prevent us stopping this happening again.

Make no mistake, it WILL happen again. In Britain, in the United States, in France, in Australia, in the Middle East.

Everywhere.

We, the non Islamic State world, are now all at war. But a war like no other we have faced in our history.

A war against an enemy that delights in setting an ever lower bar for the the depths of its barbaric depravity.
Killing a bunch of tourists on the beach is just another day at the office for these callous, dead-eyed, twisted vermin. They love nothing better than concocting gruesome new snuff movies for the world to recoil over.
Killing a bunch of tourists on the beach is just another day at the office for these callous, dead-eyed, twisted vermin. They love nothing better than concocting gruesome new snuff movies for the world to recoil over.
Killing a bunch of tourists on the beach is just another day at the office for these callous, dead-eyed, twisted vermin.

They love nothing better than concocting gruesome new snuff movies for the world to recoil over.

In the last week alone, ISIS operatives have drowned victims in a cage in a swimming pool, blown them to pieces in a car with a grenade launcher, and chained them together with an explosive 'necklace' which they then detonated.

On the same day as the Tunisia atrocity, a member of the French ISIS 'brotherhood' beheaded his boss in a factory, sending a selfie of himself with the severed head to a friend; In Kobani, Syria, ISIS killed 146 in a massacre; and in Kuwait, 25 were bombed to death in a mosque.

These monsters chuck gays off tower blocks, set fire to people, chop off their heads, hands and feet.

All beautifully filmed on high-quality video for the salacious delectation of the horrified yet irresistibly curious public.

They're a non-discriminatory terror group, they'll kill you whoever you are – black, white, Muslim, Christian, old, young, gay, straight.
In the last week alone, ISIS operatives have drowned victims in a cage in a swimming pool, seen here, blown them to pieces in a car with a grenade launcher, and chained them together with an explosive 'necklace'. These monsters chuck gays off tower blocks, set fire to people, chop off their heads, hands and feet. All  filmed on high-quality video for the salacious delectation of the horrified yet irresistibly curious public
In the last week alone, ISIS operatives have drowned victims in a cage in a swimming pool, seen here, blown them to pieces in a car with a grenade launcher, and chained them together with an explosive 'necklace'. These monsters chuck gays off tower blocks, set fire to people, chop off their heads, hands and feet. All filmed on high-quality video for the salacious delectation of the horrified yet irresistibly curious public

And they're undeniably winning: militarily, geographically, psychologically.

I'm not going to pretend I know the answer to all this mayhem.

The world's finest military leaders have been wrestling with the ISIS challenge for several years and come up spectacularly short in successful strategies.

We have to trust that they will eventually work out a plan that prevails.

But I do know this; Britain, like America, has been through worse than this.
In the last 100 years, we've fought two world wars, in which our very future as a country was at stake.

In more recent times, we came through three decades of relentless bombing by IRA terrorists intent on a similar civilian death toll.

They killed little children, young women, horses, pub-goers – any vulnerable target they could find to prove their political point. The only difference was they didn't have the guts to kill themselves. In that specific area, ISIS wins the terrorist bravery award. First prize: a one –way ticket to eternity of burning fires in Hell.

So we should not be cowed by ISIS, a rag-bag assortment of ideologically warped, medieval goons.

The best answer to the worst terrorist attack in Britain since the 7/7 attacks in 2005 is the one that came from a young man called Ben Milton.

The 25-year-old civil servant from Cardiff in Wales was on the beach in Tunisia with his girlfriend Shelley Hay when the shooting started.

She had strolled to the water's edge as the bullets exploded around her.

'The whole beach was running,' Shelley said, 'it was like a stampede, I've never seen anything like it in my life.'

The couple raced back to their hotel, and locked themselves in their room.
Shelley Hay, 25, and fiancÈ Ben Milton, 24, of Cardiff,  got engaged after escaping the gunman.  'I wanted to show my love for Shelley and I didn't want the terrorists to win,' he explained. 'I thought, 'Screw them, they are not going to stop us'. It was an act of defiance against what happened'
Shelley Hay, 25, and fiancÈ Ben Milton, 24, of Cardiff, got engaged after escaping the gunman.  'I wanted to show my love for Shelley and I didn't want the terrorists to win,' he explained. 'I thought, 'Screw them, they are not going to stop us'. It was an act of defiance against what happened'
What Shelley didn't know was that Ben had been secretly planning to propose to her that very day.

It was her 25th birthday and he wanted to make it extra special.

The natural thing to do would be to forget the plan and do it another time.

But Ben decided to go ahead anyway and asked her to marry him just hours after the massacre.

'I wanted to show my love for Shelley and I didn't want the terrorists to win,' he explained. 'I thought, 'Screw them, they are not going to stop us'. It was an act of defiance against what happened.'

That, right there, is the attitude of mind which will, in the end, defeat ISIS.

It's the British way.

One which invokes the very same spirit of collective revolve and determination which enabled America to come through the 9/11 attacks.

We may not be the biggest, most powerful country in the world like America.
But when it comes to the strength and depth of our spirit, I'd back the Brits to stand firm against anyone.

This war is a war of the mind as much as the bullet.

ISIS want to defeat us mentally through violence and fear.

They want us to stop going on holiday, stop going to bars and restaurant, stop boarding planes and trains, stop attending churches – in short, stop doing anything they have decided we shouldn't do.

Well, as Ben Milton said: 'Screw them.' 

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