The insanity of a war without frontiers

I rarely condone war, and the ongoing international war against ISIS must rank among the most stupid wars in history.

As I write, the consensus in the press appears to be that the Russian Metrojet aeroplane which crashed in the Eyptian desert killing all 224 people on board was destroyed by a bomb.  The British government, in the person of Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, has responded by arguing for Britain to launch bombing raids against ISIS.

I have previously made some positive remarks on this blog about Russian president Vladimir Putin.  This was not because I regard him as in any way a hero, but because he is a renegade among world leaders who plays his own game while refusing to bow to pressure from other countries.

The Russian armed forces has recently been unleashing one devastating attack after another against ISIS fighters in Syria, and I expect Putin has enjoyed being able to play the tough guy.  Nevertheless I was not remotely surprised when I read that a Russian aeroplane had crashed in a country with a majority Muslim population.

Quite simply, the war against ISIS is a war without frontiers.  There is no reason to think that there are not ISIS fighters in every major country in the world.  Amost any ISIS supporter anywhere in the world can perpetrate an act of murder, possibly on a large scale, and we must expect aeroplanes to be the prime target.

An ISIS supporter in the UK, for example, could explode a bomb in the centre of London.  Such a bomb might kill a hundred people or kill nobody.  By contrast, a bomb on an aeroplane can reasonably be expected to leave not one survivor.

I was not at all surprised to read that a Thomson flight from Stansted narrowly avoided being destroyed by a missile on 23 August.  David Cameron is well known for his support of war in Syria, as a result of which no British aircraft is safe.

If Britain steps up its illegal war against ISIS, then the main impact will be to increase the danger to the British people, not reduce it.  A war against ISIS cannot be won through armed aggression.  If every ISIS fighter in the world were to be killed tomorrow, then the organisation could be resurrected by the end of next week.  This war is ideological, and needs an ideological solution.

Related previous posts include:
A war against ISIS would be savage and pointless
Emma and Chris are veritaphobic
A triple murder in Syria