Boreal

Mecca in the Crosshairs

Deterring a Nuclear Attack on the United States by Islamists

To discourage the former Soviet Union from launching a nuclear attack, the United States promised retaliation in kind. How do you deter al-Qaeda or a like-minded terror organizations whose members revel in mass murder and, unlike the leadership of the former USSR, have no fear, even wish for death in Allah's Cause, not only from acquiring nuclear weapons, but using them to kill on a biblical scale?

Promising retaliation in kind against the country from which the attack is launched or which facilitated, sheltered or rendered assistance will have no dissuading effect; it will only increase the likelihood of massive American deaths in a nuclear fire by creating an opportunity for martyrs to enter Paradise in droves via a punitive nuclear strike.

The only retaliatory target that could have a dissuading effect on Islamic terrorists detonating one or more nuclear device on U. S. soil is Mecca.

Mecca is central to Islam. Its importance for the believers cannot be overstated! Promising to turn the city into a radioactive wasteland if any Islamist terror cell anywhere in the world attacks you with nuclear weapons may be America's best hope of avoiding the unthinkable.

It may also be in everyone's interest, including Islamic State and al-Qaeda, for the American leadership to make the threat against Mecca explicit.

It is not outside the realm of possibility that elements within the military, with nuclear weapons at their disposal, would seek revenge for a devastating nuclear attack on the homeland and incinerate Mecca, and maybe Medina for good measure, with or without Presidential approval.

The question remains, however, what is to stop a holy warrior with an extra BOMB or two, after Mecca has been incinerated in retaliation for a terrorist nuclear attack on the United States, from doing the same to the Vatican.

Islam is, at its core, a ritualistic materialistic religion. This is reflected in what defines it as a religion, it's so called Pillars of Islam (four of which are about worshipping a god who cannot be worshipped enough and the zakat) and how it rewards those who seek, via the sword, to make this world that of Allah exclusively.

Narrated Abu Huraira:

I heard Allah's Apostle saying, "The example of a Mujahid (Muslim fighter) in Allah's Cause — and Allah knows better who really strives in His Cause—is like a person who fasts and prays continuously. Allah guarantees that He will admit the Mujahid in His Cause into Paradise if he is killed, otherwise He will return him to his home safely with rewards and war booty."

Bukhari 52.46

Christianity is in the hearts and minds, and what defines it as a religion are the Ten Commandments, six of which are moral imperatives, with the other four about worshipping God and not requiring any religious infrastructure or divinely ordained process to fulfil.

The believers could destroy every church on earth, but unless they kill or convert every Christian on earth, as they have been doing since Islam busted out of the deserts of Arabia, they will not succeed in eradicating those whom Allah considers perverts for their associating a son with His Magnificence.

5:75 The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a Messenger before whom other Messengers had gone; and his mother was a godly woman. They both ate [earthly] food. Look how We make clear Our Revelations to them; then look how they are perverted!

Le Point (France's Time Magazine equivalent) fears that we are in the early stages of an ultimate confrontation which will decide whose vision for humanity will prevail, Jesus or Muhammad.

Islam's scriptures, religious infrastructure, and its rituals are very much geared to transforming ordinary men, women and children into committed believers and cold-blooded executioners when needed.

People who fight and die for other than hedonistic rewards will find it hard to think strategically about what the other considers normal i.e. killing as a means to an end. But, with not only Christians but every lesser believer's life hanging in the balance, is there any other choice.

MAD in a World Gone Mad

The 9/11 hijackers expected a medium-size harem as reward for killing three thousand innocent men, women and children. What kind of out-of-this-world reward could the ultimate suicide bomber; the suicide bomber with the BOMB expect? How could he resist setting the world on fire?

The only experience we have in avoiding annihilation in the atomic age is the Mutual Assured Destruction doctrine, MAD for short. You try to annihilate me, I annihilate you, we annihilate each other. The ultimate Pyrrhic victory!

MAD worked because people on both side of the nuclear standoff valued their lives, the lives of their children and grand-children above all else. Killing your enemy, only for you and your family to be melted in an atomic fire in a retaliatory attack was not an option.

Can MAD work its magic in a world where religious sociopaths with a death wish have the BOMB? I don't think so. It may be back to square one.

Looking Forward to Armageddon

Bernard Payeur