There are rumours that Isis are planning mega attacks in Europe and in this country. I’ll believe it when I see it in this country . They’d like to, and there’s probably a lot of encrypted phone traffic between Libya — to which the headquarters of Isis have reportedly moved — and this country. They’ve achieved several notorious attacks in France, of course, but police controls there are sloppy (initially they even sent police without guns to the Bataclan Theatre massacres!). Belgium appears to be similarly disorganised.
Despite the fear that Isis has engendered they’re a primitive and crude organisation, mainly relying on opportunism. They don’t have much by way of expertise, only that which is offered to them — penny numbers of individuals who can design blog=sites or make suicide vests or road-side bombs. And, on the ground, they’ve been defeated several times now by Kurdish peshmeeger troops with more nous and discipline regarding ground-fighting strategy.
Mad episodes like Isis tend to run their course fairly quickly and I wouldn’t be surprised if Isis starts to lose a lot of ground in the Middle East now, particularly since Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and the Emirates have decided to mount a joint force. The problem here is that if this predominantly Sunni army mops up Isis — which it ought to be able to do — they might decide to turn against the Shia of Iran. Sunnism versus Shiaism is a 1,400 year-old enmity that has, if anything, got worse since then.
All is Status 