Be Very Afraid

Two al Qaeda branches urged warring militant factions in Iraq and Syria to stop fighting each other and unite against a U.S.-led alliance preparing to attack the ultra hardline Islamic State armed group, according to a joint statement posted online. The enemy of your enemy is, after all, your friend. Which gets a little confusing, since the enemy of al Qaeda in Iraq is the United States, and one faction of al Qaeda has suggested that they are at odds with Syria, we should be pals with al Qaeda. Something like that, right? But this is how terrorism works, it seems. Just when we feel as though we, as a nation, have a righteous target, somebody shows up and makes it all confusing. In a rare joint statement, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said, "Stop the infighting between you and stand as one rank against America's campaign and that of its satanic alliance that lies in wait for all of us, to break us stick by stick." I like that whole stick metaphor. It's very Greek. But we're getting along with the Greeks right now, so we'll leave that alone for now, but don't think we're not watching you, Greece.

What we really have to watch out for is trouble on our own doorstep. Did you know that ISIL is now actively recruiting from our own coalition of the willing? They are currently touting five jihadists who hail from Britain and Australia. And there are even some Americans who are lining up for a chance to fight for the bad guys. Danger is lurking everywhere. That makes it very difficult to win the war on terror when everything is so very terrifying.

Add to this the truly frightening news that Yusef Islam is going on tour. In the U S of A. Yes, the former and once again Cat Stevens is coming back to rub our collective noses in his Rock and Roll Hall of Fameness. Wasn't he a terrorist just a little while back? Catsef will be rolling into Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Which sort of figures, since those are all hotbeds of liberal Muslim evildoers. It's just not getting any easier. Now I've been happy lately, thinking about the good things to come. Maybe its' time to hop on that Peace Train.