Thursday 10 July 2014

New ISIS Strategy?

There's been this hint over the past couple of days that this ISIS-crew....the folks taking territory in Iraq and threatening stability there.....might head south and tear apart Mecca, which resides in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis kinda protect Mecca....as the holy spot for Muslims around the world.  If you are Islam.....you are supposed to make one trip in your life to Mecca....for religious purposes.

Why would ISIS destroy Mecca and the holy site there?  Well....there's this little commentary within the Koran that you aren't supposed to allow structures to overcome the religion itself.  When you put up a statue for Islam....it's defying the general rules of the religion.  When you put up a $50-million-dollar mosque.....it's defying the general rules of the religion.  The ISIS folks are going back to the standard Koran definition of a thousand years ago, and making a stand for old fashioned traditional values.

Mecca?  Well.....there's some history here.  You see....around 600 AD...Mecca was a big-name trading center in the Middle East.  If you were a merchant or bartered stuff.....it was on your top ten places each year to go and deal.  You could call it the mega-flea market of the Middle East around this point in time.

Mecca thrived under the free enterprise system and widely known as a open-religious community.  You worshipped as you pleased....just don't antagonize folks was the general rule.

The big deal of the year in Mecca?  There was a religious fest to celebrate all religions, which centered around this black rock that existed there.  Everyone came to trade, barter, and spend money during this festive occasion.

This changed as Muhammad arrived, and eventually threw out the controlling authority of Mecca....then declared that the black rock was only there for his religious group.

What happens when ISIS crosses the border?  My scenario for this runs through three basic steps....with the Saudis in absolute shock as their border guard situation evaporates overnight.  ISIS would have travel roughly 700 miles (figure one entire day at top speed with no stops or minor battles to limit them).

Mecca, upon hearing they'd cross the border....would likely empty out within four hours....heading either west toward Jordan or east toward the sea.  Two million residents in Mecca.....so you can figure the four-lanes leading either way will be clogged and half the folks in town will never have a chance to get out before ISIS arrives.

The curious factor is that if all of the two million residents were armed.....and the ISIS arrival crew (initial stages) would not number over 3,000 in number (my humble guess on the pick-up truck delivery system).  Mecca, if they were logical and thinking....could put down the arrival crew in a matter of hours.  But these are Saudis, and without their military structure....they just aren't the fighters that you'd want for this case.

The Saudis would now turn to the US, and demand absolute help delivered overnight.  The current administration?  It'd take at least ten days for them to form an opinion and get the President's approval to proceed....add four days to get troops into place, and by then.....half of Mecca is destroyed and the black rock structure is non-existent.  I'd also find that all of the banks in Mecca have been emptied out and billions stolen in the form of bills, gold and silver.

Now, if I were ISIS.....I'd move on westward.....toward Jordan, and Israel.

The odds of going into Saudi Arabia?  You turn a pretty negative Iraq episode....into a five-star mess in a matter of a week.  Gas prices will go up by twenty percent.  CNN will surge into first-place as they cover the development.  The President's staff will wake up to discover that they really don't have a plan to fit this, and will want polling data to indicate what the American people suggest....which is mostly to dissolve the Designated Hitter-rule in baseball, get rid of the illegal aliens, and fire Senator Harry Reid.  If we produced all the oil we needed from within the US....then none of this would matter.

Yep, things could actually get worse....if you didn't think it was possible.

No comments: