The Meaning of Life

Tags

grace, sathya sai baba, spirituality

In the Bhagavad Gita, the warrior prince Arjuna is with his charioteer, the divine incarnation, Krishna, on the eve of a great battle against an enemy comprising many of his relatives, friends, and revered teachers. Although fearless and renowned for his skills as an archer, Arjuna says he has no will to fight, since even if he wins the battle he loses it, slaying so many dear to him. This is when Krishna ceases to be a mere charioteer, delivering what amounts to a sermon as his answer to Arjuna’s plight of conscience. The Gita is a small section in what is still the world’s longest poem, the Mahabharata, which recounts a great war in much the same way as Homer’s Iliad does – except that the Gita, one of Hinduism’s most sacred scriptures, is obviously a later addition, barely connected to the main story – which may well be the account of a real conflict from Indian pre-history. Bhagavad Gita was the first Sanskrit text translated into English, by Charles Wilkins in 1785 – which is why I have included a discussion of it in my forthcoming book, Queen Victoria’s Secret, set in the late eighteenth century, when battles were scarcely different from the one Arjuna will fight, and my central character is also a warrior prince ambivalent to the nature of victory, yet cognizant of his obligations to duty.

I am well aware in this blog that I have devoted too much space to politics, particularly strife in the Middle East, when my true concerns are those related to the purpose of life and the realization of one’s immortal identity. I have no doubt that this is why we are born, and will indeed be ceaselessly reborn until the truth becomes clear. Yet the world has many distractions – though fewer since I lost my eyesight – and even the best of intentions can lead us far astray from the straight path we trod after many lifetimes searching for it, and with the guidance of a master whose grace also had to be earned over many incarnations of yearning. I liken the situation to that of Arjuna, since, after personally experiencing the 1991 and 2003 attacks on Iraq, along with numerous other war zones, I became convinced that war was the greatest of all crimes and ought to be eliminated from future human history. But wars invariably lead one into politics, which form a maze there is no escape from, a labyrinth housing the Minotaur of a vested interest that will destroy its critic. I faced that beast after my books A War Against Truth, and Homeland, both of them works of anger and indignation, and both inciting anger and indignation from powers I had no chance of defeating, having now lost all equanimity. Anger causes war, it does not end it, just as war cannot bring peace. Only peace, compassion, and a love for all can bring lasting peace.

Krishna tells Arjuna that he must fight the following day, since fate has already determined the result, and those destined to die will die whether or not he fights. Initially, this seems harsh; but Krishna then reveals truth and wisdom: the soul, or self, is immortal, never born, thus never dying. A body is born, its mind formed by sense-perceptions, and then also memories. Actions performed within time bring identical consequences – good for good, bad for bad – some consequences extending into new lives. But the soul, the real self, exists in a timeless eternity, without beginning, without end, unimaginably small, yet also infinitely large, containing only a consciousness, a unity within which exists all that was, is, or ever can be. One. Poets labour over it; scriptures variously call it by qualities, which are names for the Nameless; or describe it simply as Light, Silence, Peace, Emptiness, God. Oddly enough, and burdened by a monotheism – with the dualistic absurdity of a humankind and a God – it is Moses who asks his Nameless for a name, receiving the immeasurably profound ‘I am that I am’ (which can also be translated as ‘I am that I will be’). In this one phrase is the whole truth, the goal of self-inquiry. Someone born with no senses would know only this one reality: I exist, and I am conscious I exist. There would be no where or why. A baby has never been born without some senses – except possibly the stillborn – yet if one  were born thus science would term it brain-dead, just as many reclusive yogis or holy men, sitting for years in meditational trance, would be diagnosed as catatonic or insane (using of course the latest label preventing physicians from concealing ignorance). The great Sufi Master and sublime poet, Rumi, was widely called mejnun, or ‘mad’. The summation of this is that time is illusory, and life a kind of dream, from which the self awakes at death into Eternity, an unchanging reality of which it is a part, just as a raindrop is itself yet also one with the ocean into which it falls. Such a truth cannot be understood by the mind, which requires a subject-object relationship in order to function; yet this One, this Unity, can be experienced , described sometimes in Sanskrit as sat-chit-ananda, or ‘existence-consciousness-bliss’. Most of us have glimpses of it when the heart aches with compassion for suffering strangers, or is aglow with love, both supreme and temporal. These states are experiences not thoughts, always felt in the heart area, believed by many to be the seat of self or soul. One cannot think about such experiences while experiencing them, although they can be recollected in tranquility, where language will struggle to describe them. Hence metaphor and allegory pervade poetry and scripture, which may inspire a reader to seek for the personal experience, yet cannot provide it. Even austere disciplines, diets, self-denial, chanting and meditation cannot provide it – although they will probably be uplifting, as will the company of spiritually-inclined people.

Another major lesson Arjuna is taught concerns actions detached from their results – a particularly difficult concept for goal-oriented westerners to grasp. The prince in my novel wrestles with it, asking why anyone would do something if they didn’t care about the result. Finally, he sees a comparison between Krishna’s teaching and a soldier’s duty, which is to obey orders and fight as he was trained to fight, dealing only with the moment he is in, and thus necessarily detached from whatever conclusion his actions achieve. Attachment to results breeds inattention to the present moment in that process leading to a result. If one’s task is cleaning toilets well, a moment of inattention will mean some part of the job is less well performed, and the defined goal not achieved. A house ought to be cleaned, not to look clean. The Buddha defined boredom as a lack of attention – so much goes on, yet we fail to notice this, and are now often surprised by a video recording of ourselves containing birdsong, an electric hum, pitter-pattering rain, and many things we failed to notice at the time when we were in the now-digital moment. Awareness is a key to spiritual growth; we must be ever watchful of our actions, speech, thoughts, and the feelings projected by our deep heart. Just as every hair is numbered (an easier task daily in my case), every thought and deed profoundly affects the entire world, which is but a reflection of our collective mind. Five minutes spent in willing peace, compassion, and love to all is worth more than millions given to charity by someone hoping the act will bring rewards in heaven and a community plaque. It is all awareness, and so necessary because negativity is ever waiting for an opportunity to pour out its toxins, as what passes for ‘news’ shows us daily if me make the error of listening to it.

What brings enlightenment? The answer is an ancient one: divine grace, which is attracted, as St. Teresa of Lisieux said, only by love. A yearning for the divine through love is the only answer given by any sage or holy man who has truly attained his, or her, own complete enlightenment.

I have refrained from writing or talking about my own spiritual master, Sathya Sai Baba, until now, besides the superficial mention of him in my book Empire of the Soul, because the 40-year relationship and its qualities are essentially private, personal, and, often, either misunderstood or incomprehensible. But he left his physical body in 2011, and I am now 65, so  I shall do what many have asked me to do over the years, and he has now given me permission to do: write about my time with him, and the many experiences and teachings whereof I was told not to speak, thereof not speaking, even to those closest to me. This blog will henceforth be a rough first draft of that as yet untitled book.

To dispense with my preliminary qualms, I shall state unequivocally those things which most seem to fascinate, repel, outrage, and in general bother people about the person I know as ‘Swami’, and shall refer to as such from hereon. Yes, he was an avatar, born as a divine incarnation, rather than someone who attained enlightenment during their lifetime. This is not a belief, since he proved to me it was true – and I shall describe the manner of this proof in good time. No, I did not worship him, since he told me this was unnecessary, because, “Guru, God, and Self are one, indivisible. For some it is necessary to make their devotion to an external form, an idol, a man, a cow, a tree – the form does not matter if the heart is pure.” Did he possess all the qualities accorded to God in every, or any, scripture? Yes, and I witnessed most, if not all, of them.

Was he different in private than he was in public? Yes, very. Free will is a cosmic law, and knowledge of the Divine must be arrived at, or earned, not forced upon people by witnessing acts which permit no doubt. What I experienced alone with him was even different from things witnessed in small gatherings in his house. Did he sexually molest children? Not to my knowledge. I am aware, however, that he occasionally cast out devotees to whom he had once been close, causing some of these people to turn against him, spreading malign rumours stemming from a single unreliable source. Tal Brooke is a good example:  close to Swami, loaded with privileges, and then one day ignored, treated like anyone else. He decided Swami was Satan, writing a spitefully silly little book called Lord of the Air. This was back in the early seventies, but its circumlocutions, innuendo, and embellished rumours were seized upon by the group perpetuating slander and unsubstantiated allegations thirty years later. Professional skeptics were also, I believe, provided by Swami with deliberate acts of stage-magic – which were what they sought. He seemed to give everyone what they wanted, saying, “Few come for what I am really here to give them.” This was grace, the actual experience of divine love, which emanated from him like a perfume of the heart. Did he acquire vast wealth? Not personally, but his trust did, opening countless schools, hospitals, and providing various forms of help for the poor. He lived very simply, ate little, and his daily routines were unvarying. The Trust was run by a committee, some of whom I found obnoxious, as I did other officials at the ashram, once asking Swami why he kept so many awful people around him. He replied, “If they were not here they would be doing far more harm out in the world.” Why did he seem to favour wealthy or powerful devotees? If one believes in the laws of karma, people are born into lives they have merited by past actions; therefore it is logical to assume such people are more deserving of attention than others. There were also many such people he ignored or refused to see, including Indira Ghandi. He would rarely accept gifts, either, and many wealthy people I knew there were distraught to find their offers refused. Although he appeared to have an organization around him its chief officials were no closer to him than anyone else. He had no one approaching a ‘friend’ in any sense, and all behaved like children in his presence – even those who were otherwise haughty, bullying officials. He was unlike any person I have met, tiny, yet able to seem plump at times, with eyes revealing no one behind them. Not one photograph of the thousands existing conveys him remotely. Even his skin changed colour, from as pale as mine, to blue-black, and everything between. At times he would stand stock-still, writing in the air with a forefinger, his other hand revolving as if spinning a small disc, and his gaze seeming to be in other dimensions. He once told me, “All worlds come for my darshan (public presence), so I cannot ignore them just for you, can I?”

 

[To be continued]

 

Paul William Roberts

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The Arab Street

Tags

egypt, egyptian word on the street, ISIS, Middle East, politics, syria

First let us clear up one irritant: the name by which these terrorists ought to be known. They are not a ‘state’, by any stretch of the term, for their talent lies in destroying people and things; they could not build up, less still run, an atoll in the South Pacific, even if they had one. I shall henceforth refer to them as PC, an abbreviation of ‘Psychopathic Criminals’, which more accurately defines them, and, by inference, the treatment they merit. The term Daesh, currently favoured by French and other media – which, for some reason, is imagined to contain an insulting double entendre,if omly because gaesh can mean ‘small donkey’ – has been commonly used for them by Egyptians since they first crawled from their holes, and essentially refers to a swathe of land incorporating Iraq and Syria – both, very long ago, once seats of the Caliphate, much as Wessex was once the ruling kingdom of England, or Rome the world’s capital. According to someone on CBC radio, the wisely reclusive PC leader, al-Baghdadi – who failed acceptance by a university to study Economics, admitted by a lesser institution for Islamic Studies – had, among his favourite tomes, Paul Kennedy’s masterly Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a self-explanatory study from 1500 to 2000. Conceivably, Baghdadi imagined the book would teach him how to make great powers fall; but more likely he ceased his perusal after discovering that economic history entailed a fair bit of economics, with many statistical charts similar to those nixing his ambitions as an economist. If he actually read the book, one wonders which tyrannical butcher he most identified with. Even the bone-headed bully, Mussolini, and his Abyssinian catastrophe, is a dictatorial Titan compared with the PC Fuhrer – sorry, wannabe Caliph. Kennedy’s opus demonstrates that economic factors – like production or manufacturing – bring down nations. Gun and bomb-toting fanatics, backed by mentally ill death-wishers, achieve little more than their own demise. Bakunin – ubi est? Surely the PC Mastermind must have asked himself what economic factors he and his demented crew even possessed? Perhaps the Balkans gave him hope? After all, two-thirds of PC’s armed rabble in Syria are from Chechnya, and elsewhere in Russian Central Asia, a crew weaned on war, and with a hatred of Russia far exceeding their determination to terminate Assad. To Baghdadi, economic prosperity involves whatever can be stolen, and how much Saudi Wahhabite clerics hand over for the cause – which is, let’s be clear, an attempt by allegedly Sunni Muslims to rid Arabia of the Shia, declared by Wahhab himself to be non-Muslims. Assad is a Shia sectarian, which is why Iran, sole Shia theocracy, supports him. Czar Putin’s backing, obviously not theological, concerns the build-up of battle-hardened Balkan militants on his doorstep (a map will show you how surprisingly near Syria is to recalcitrant remnants of the Russian empire).

I want now to share with you what my Egyptian sources tell me of the varied rumours, theories, and sound convictions found today on the streets of Cairo and elsewhere along the Nile. I do not necessarily endorse these views, nor necessarily dismiss them. It just strikes me as important to hear widely-held beliefs not broadcast by NBC, CNN, or Fox Ne…well, it’s Opinion, isn’t it, not news. I could name my sources, but they will be happier if I do not. I shall list the street-speak in no particular order.

1. The Muslim Brotherhood was paid $ 8 billion by the US to hand government back to a Washington-controlled military dictatorship.
2. Slaughter of Christians across the region is hardly ever mentioned by western media.
3. A plan exists to turn the Sinai into a Palestinian state.
4. CIA blew up that Russian plane over the Sinai to assist the above plan by destroying foreign tourism to Sharm el-Sheikh, the most popular Egyptian resort for Europeans, and, until now, considered safe from terrorism.
5. US Intelligence is failing badly in distinguishing combatants in the region, seemingly unaware of the vital role tribal leaders could play if approached respectfully.
6. Saudi oil and thus cash will run out within five years, resulting in a Wahhabite coup and theocratic state, armed to the teeth with top-notch US weaponry and likely to wage a war on Iraq, ousting the Shia-dominated government and seizing the vast southern oilfields. This will ignite a war with Iran over disputed territory in the Hormuz Straits, and possibly PC-Wahhabite attacks on the Emirates, which have plenty of oil yet few military defenses.
7. An Israeli-Saudi accord – existing for years now – could divide Syria between Israel and the new Arabia.
8. Egypt will secure territories the US wants secure, and it does possess nuclear weapons – as does Israel, and possibly Saudi Arabia.
9. Russia will support Iran in this conflict, supplying nukes if the need arises.
10. Wahhabite clerics will dispose of PC elements easily, allying with Iraqi ex-Republican guard fighters, who have backed PC for tactical reasons but hate their fanaticism. They will argue that a Caliphate ought to be run from Mecca, and not interfere in social or political concerns. The Saudi clerics may regard this as equitable, but only if they have rid themselves of their own and the Yemeni Shia they’ve recently bombed with impunity.
11. The map of West Asia will be redrawn, and the new powers may next fight over Africa, or else agree to divide it between themselves.
12. Wahhabism has been spread through free schools across the undeveloped world, providing a potential army to fight for the heresy if called upon to do so.
13. If war erupts, Iran will block the Straits, cutting off oil supplies to much of the world. If oil is suddenly priced in a non-US dollar currency, the American economy will collapse as dollar values fall, leaving Washington no alternative but war on a massive scale, and one also facing the old foe, Russia.
14. Those on the spot claim that the Russian jet shot down by Turkey was in fact downed by unmarked US fighter planes, to create strife between Ankara and Moscow, because Turkey is the main conduit for Saudi funds to the PC, and Russian ambitions in Syria are suspect.
15. Egypt’s only dollar-earning business is tourism, which has collapsed due to continuing unrest, leaving unemployment at inordinate levels, further weakening resistance to the army dictators, in order to return the place to the relative tranquility of Mubarak’s reign, when Israel was free from fear of Egyptian and/or Syrian attacks.
16. The diluted new Intifada will make the Sinai seem increasingly attractive as a Palestinian state, especially when Israeli forces crack down harder, since no one is left in a position to object, and Egypt will be as responsible for peace-keeping there as Jerusalem will be at the old Gaza border.

 

As said, I make no comments, beyond this being grim stuff. I will say, however, as I have before, that Iraqi and Syrian Christians are by far the safest bet as refugees – indeed, any Christians in the region ought to be offered asylum if they seek it. They recognize one another very easily, and would identify a PC imposter at 100 paces. They are also not terrorists, and have been abused in the lands they first inhabited – and where the world’s oldest churches are being demolished by PC imbeciles, a fact rarely heard on western media, which seem to regard innocent Muslims as more innocent and deserving than innocent Christians. Over ten years ago I said Iraq Christians needed help badly, and would be sponsored here privately by a large Eastern Orthodox community. No one cared or listened then; I hope they do now, particularly since Christian refugees would make processing so much simpler. Educated, middle-class, they would blend into Canada like snow. Americans are disastrously sick of politicians, arriving at Donald Trump the way a starving mass would fall on MacDonald’s’ dump. I hope the reliance on bureaucrats and professional paper-jockeys doesn’t have the same effect here. If US Intelligence is bad – because intelligent people don’t want to get involved with such bungled duplicity – I hate to think what Canada’s is like. The country is full of knowledgeable people, who don’t want to be ensnared by government, but do not mind answering questions occasionally. A vote does not signify intelligence, but there are other things that do. Use them, for God’s sake, before the Mess gets messier.

 

Sincerely with love,

 

Paul William Roberts

Canada, ISIS and Refugees

Tags

Canada, France, ISIS, Middle East, politics, refugees

 

                ^{Like the US attack on Afghanistan after September 11th, 2001, the French bombing} of a Syrian city was rash, emotional, and unplanned, resulting in possibly hundreds of innocent civilian deaths. It is worrying to find a government reacting like any other thug on the street, except for the military at its command to be ‘merciless’ – a declaration no civilized leadership ought to voice. As outlined in my previous blog-post, there is only one way to eliminate ISIS, and it involves accurate intelligence, and then the active presence of a tri-lateral army, particularly that of Special Forces, trained and able to differentiate civilians from the enemy.

Prime Minister Trudeau’s vow to disengage Canadian warplanes from the conflict is laudable, yet his promise to assist in other ways – like training of Syrian and  Iraqi troops – is flawed, and will still result in this country being viewed as a combatant. My previous blog explains why this West Asian catastrophe should be left to those nations responsible for it. The money saved will help us in the truly Canadian task of assisting refugees fleeing this nightmare.

Of course we must take great care in whom we admit, and I wonder how many are suited to the task of separating potential terrorists from genuinely displaced people. If lie-detectors are used – more as a deterrent than for their questionable accuracy – how many inquisitors will know the right questions to ask? A detailed knowledge of the Koran will be required, as well as of the apocryphal texts, and the versions utilized by Wahhabite clergy, and the websites on which these perversions of Islam appear. A familiarity with Arab tribal affiliations is also vital. Indeed, every Arabist in the country ought to be consulted, asked to suggest the questions posed to aspirants for asylum here. But the less involvement we have in the military struggle, the fewer terrorists will regard Canada as a deserving target. A glance at non-involved nations will alone drive this point home. ISIS is at war with countries viewed, historically and currently,  as enemies of, exclusively, Sunni Islam – or their distorted Wahhabite concept of it. To ignore this is to remain ignorant of what is really happening, both there and in the West.

 

Sincerely, with love,

 

Paul William Roberts

How to Deal with ISIS

Tags

France, Middle East, politics, Saudi Arabia, terrorism, Wahhabism

       ^{At the so-called Peace Conference held at Paris in 1919, T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) arrived with Sheik Faisal, leader of the Arabs who had acted as vital British allies in the war against Ottoman  Turkey, and were promised, in return, a nation of their own. Lawrence and his friend were kept waiting for several weeks before Faisal was allowed to speak on behalf of his people and the lands they had been promised – which included Palestine [see documents in the British Arab Office archives]. Faisal was allowed only a brief time to speak, since by then the secret Sykes-Picot agreement had already divided up the major Arab territories, like Syria and Iraq, between Britain and France. Faisal left empty-handed, and Lawrence eventually committed suicide out of shame for the deceit he had, unwittingly, played a major part in perpetuating. The harsh treatment of Germany by major powers at that conference led directly to the rise of Hitler, who was persuaded by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, leading Muslim authority in Palestine, not to deport European  Jews there, since it would cause a severe conflict. This led directly to the Holocaust.}

                ^{In 1955, President Eisenhower in Washington was informed at an intelligence briefing that the hostility towards America displayed by the average Arab was a direct consequence of US support for tyrannical dictators in the region who effectively dashed the hopes of the masses for a semblance of democracy. Eisenhower, a decent man [see his last address on the dangers of a Military-industrial complex], was disturbed by this news, yet the CIA assured him the situation in West Asia was just as it should be. The US and UK destroyed Iran’s first democratically-elected government in the fifties, too, replacing it with a puppet Shah, whose mandate was to crush communism in any form, and in any way necessary. His Savak secret police used this excuse to eradicate all varieties of resistance, leading directly to the 1979 Revolution. Always favouring dictatorships, and craving light sweet crude oil – the finest – first the UK, then the US, backed Saudi Arabia – now the worst and most backward tyranny on earth – for its oil. No one knew, or else no one cared, that, traditionally, half the Saudi state’s income – hundreds of billions – went to the princes, while the other half went to an hereditary clergy. These clerics subscribed to what is, essentially, an Islamic heresy concocted by a self-proclaimed prophet in the 18th century named Wahhab, whose primary goals were to please the old King Ibn Saud, and to make himself Caliph of a vast Islamic state. To please the King, whose main desire then was to raid rich Persian caravans – forbidden in Islam, where a Muslim may not fight another Muslim – Wahhab declared the Shia, a sect ruling Iran, to be non-Muslims,, thus their caravans could be raided. Similarly, he banned the Sufis, Ismailis, and everything not orthodox Sunni Islam; also banning music and dancing while he was at it. In effect, he reduced the magnificence of Islam to a prison code. His descendants now rule Saudi religion with an iron hand, executing homosexuals, oppressing women, and so on; also using their share of the oil billions to establish free schools in poor countries, where their hate-filled perversion of Islam is taught, with an emphasis on Jihad as war against all infidels – an easy thing, since the Koran in Arabic is impossible to definitively understand, and all translations are merely interpretations. The Wahhabite clergy finance numerous websites which attempt to radicalize impressionable minds, often by quoting spurious apocryphal prophetic texts predicting a kind of End Time war, which will be fought in Iraq and Syria – although their strategic and tactical advice is designed for 9th century tribal war, not the 21st century variety, no matter that the countries mentioned still exist. It does not take a genius to work out that Saudi clerics, and some royalty, are behind the so-called Jihadist movement, and are funding the fantasised Islamic State, which is really just the resurrection of pseudo-prophet Wahhab’s monomaniacal dream 200 years ago. It is telling that the deranged kid, who shot a guard  and tried to invade Ottawa’s Parliament, told his mother he wished to study Islam in Riyadh, where all he would learn would be the heresy of Wahhab. A serious student would aim to study at al-Ahram in Cairo, the heart of Sunni orthodoxy.  To me, at least, this proves he was radicalized by Wahhabite websites, which need to be  identified, traced, and shut down. The financial affairs of Saudi clerics also need to be examined, and all funds frozen. Their schools in the undeveloped world need to be monitored for inciting hatred and distorting Islam, and then, ideally, replaced by UNESCO with real schools. The Saudi tyranny also needs to be dismantled, liberating women, as well as paving the way for real democratic elections.}

                ^{As the above snippets of history show, the originators of this current chaos in West Asia are the UK, France, and the US. Canada has no responsibility in the matter, which ought to be left to the three nations involved.}

^{Since the fanciful Islamic State, or ISIS, has now, contrary to Koranic teachings, declared war against innocent civilians – some even Muslims – in the West, the only possible response is massive retaliation. Between them, the UK, France, and the US need to put a million boots on the ground, backed up by drones, Stealth Bombers, Cruise  Missiles, and accurate intelligence. Attack, as we know, is the best method of defense. The ISIS leaders – not idiots in the least – need to be identified and, ideally, captured. To drive home the point, after a proper trial, I would not object to these poisonous individuals being publically guillotined in the Place de la Concorde, the video also posted on U=Tube, just to show that a liberal democracy does not mean weakness. If ISIS commanders, as is their wont, hide in public places or World Heritage sites, like Palmyra – which I know well and fear is now gone forever – Special Forces need to go in and take out only the enemy. I have seen the SAS and others in action, and know their extraordinary capabilities at such clean operations. A coalition of those three countries perpetrating this current mayhem, whether in the past or in the present, would symbolize much to the majority of Arabs who yearn only for peace. A million men on the ground would tell ISIS that their game was over.}

^{It will mean scouring Syria, removing Assad – let the Iranians or Russians have him if they’re so fond of him – sorting rebels from ISIS interlopers, and installing a provisional government until such a time as free and fair elections are feasible. Access to the important Shia shrine, the tomb of Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter, must be guaranteed for all Shia pilgrims – which is the main reason Iran is backing the sectarian Shia leader, Assad. Should the empire-hungry, and increasingly militant, Czar Putin object, he ought to told to back off, and take a salutary lesson from the military might displayed, realizing no Russian winter could save his country from a similar assault, if was  provoked.}

                ^{In Iraq, the situation would be different. Although the author of ISIS Apocalypse attributes the collaboration of Iraqi tribes to an al-Quaeda innovation, it is in fact a technique Saddam Hussein deployed whenever he sought mass-support, which shows that much of the ISIS insurgency there consists of skilled fighters from the old Sunni Republican Guard, which has a legitimate grievance relating to the current Shia domination over Baghdad’s parliament. Since the uninformed idiocy of US Intelligence services was responsible for creating this unthought-out mess, it behooves America to fashion a new Iraqi government in which Sunni, Shia, and others are are equally represented, and Kurdish loyalty is appropriately rewarded with a sovereign state. In the new Iraq, those all-important oil revenues must be equitably shared by all. If Iraqi Sunnis were convinced of such a bright future they would themselves rid the country of ISIS fanatics, whose whereabouts and strategies they will know well. Tribal leaders, if approached with the respect they warrant – not summoned to US HQ, as they were in 2003 – would also be of invaluable assistance. US Intelligence seems to have no understanding of tribal ways, possibly dating back to their brutal mistreatment of Native Indians after 1776?}

                ^{As for Saudi Arabia, my preference would be for a UK-US invasion of liberation, ousting the royalty, and rounding up those clerics most responsible for fomenting terrorism, and, if found guilty, offered – as Saudi law rarely offers – a choice between execution or a videotaped denunciation of their own distortions of Islam, including the admission that murder and terror are nowhere endorsed in the Koran, nor are killers or suicide-bombers promised rewards in paradise. If necessary, a videotaped debate between orthodox Islamic scholars and Wahhabite clergy should be arranged, to show Muslims worldwide that they have been wantonly misled, and often by the use of spurious texts written long after the Prophet’s death, in direct contradiction to his teachings. Even the Hadith states that Mohammed’s last words were an order for his followers not to schism and to take care of women’s rights. Nowhere does he sanction a priesthood, either, so the injunctions from Imams or Ayatollahs have no validity whatsoever for any devout Muslim. It rests upon the shoulders of Saudi clerics to undo the damage they have done to a faith they profess to uphold. Such a liberation of Saudi Arabia would also need to confiscate all oil revenues to be put in escrow and then be equitably divided up amongst the people by an elected government. Furthermore, the Saudi military should be deprived of all the sophisticated aircraft and weaponry supplied by the US, thus preventing any more attacks on Shia communities in the Yemen and elsewhere, which, to date, have been carried out freely.}

                ^{As opposed as I am to the two-state solution for Israel-Palestine’s eternal conflict, I think a Palestinian state is probably the only answer – but it ought to comprise parts of Jordan, Iraq, and Syria, with access to holy sites, like Hebron or Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, common to three religions, guaranteed under international law as neutral zones, with the proviso that any violence perpetrated by any member of any religion will result in all members of that faith being denied access to the site or shrine for many years. Similarly, any hostility from a new Palestinian state towards Israel would result in severe penalties, including a military purge and international embargoes. Israel must accept the same conditions, and receive funding for helping build infrastructures and agriculture – thus good relations – with the new Palestine. Any peace talks will now stall over the question of Jerusalem; this plan overcomes the problem by making all holy sites neutral, weapons-free areas, supervised by Israelis with oversight by UN peacekeepers. A glance at the map shows clearly those areas of Jordan, Iraq and Syria, largely empty now, that could easily become Palestine without threatening Israeli security.}

                ^{Since the UK and France drew the map – thank you Winston Churchill – and the US solidified its irrational borders, the three nations can just as easily redraw it along more rational lines to serve new needs.}

                ^{Canada, however, cannot be blamed for the Mess, and ought to have no military involvement. It is not hard to observe that most terrorist attacks are against the three imperialist culprits responsible for deceiving the Arabs or imposing military dictators in the region – as is yet again the case in Egypt, whose brief democracy displeased Washington, much as the one in Iran did sixty years ago. Dictators are so much easier to deal with: they do what they’re told, or else they’re replaced. A democracy does not jump so readily when the ringmaster cracks his whip.}

                ^{ISIS has to go. The appalling attacks in Paris alone are an act of war; and wars are won by overwhelming force and grim determination. Land a million troops pledged to erase ISIS from history, and the Arab tribes will  swiftly get the message. They admire enormous strength and ruthless retribution. The Hydra may have been able to grow more heads endlessly, yet ISIS will not be so endowed. The body of its leadership gone – ideally on U-tube – the many-headed networks or foreign cells will wither and die, especially when told they are violating Islamic principles rather than furthering them.}

^{The Caliphate was an early medieval dream, and even then it did not last long – besides having no sanction in the Koran. Those whose imperial hubris caused these problems ought now to correct matters in every way, and then, having done their very best, leave these new nations to shift for themselves peacefully and through their own form of democratic processes. Canada’s ‘allies’ have only ever summoned us to help fight their wars. Americans know nothing about us, except for the igloos; and the English scorn us privately as just another colony renamed. As Pierre Trudeau often said, our real friends are the Scandinavian countries, with which we have most in common, and which stay well away from neo-imperial adventures. Justin Trudeau should take his father’s advice, and let those who broke West Asia mend it. Canadians have no wish to be a super-power, nor do we have the means. An alliance with the neighbourhood bullies only brings you more trouble when you’re caught alone. Besides, we are going to need all that money spent on machines of death to fulfill all those rash election promises for which we voted.}

 

^{Sincerely with love,}

^{Paul William Roberts}