Thomas Wictor

In the US, the child’s game of Cops and Robbers is self-explanatory. Americans have a very ambiguous attitude toward criminals. In many ways, we idolize them.

I think it’s the same in the Middle East. People romanticize jihadists for the same reasons that Americans admire gangsters. The rebel with a gun makes his own rules. He refuses to allow society to control him. Finally, he’s famous. Apparently fame is the quality that people most desire.

However, the reality of the gangster is different from the movies. Humphrey Bogart also starred in an agonizing film called The Desperate Hours. Escaped convicts arbitrarily choose a house as a hiding place, holding the family hostage.

Bogart is like the Islamic State in that movie. He tortures because he enjoys it.

How kids see cops

When we used to play Cops and Robbers, the fun part was being able to gun down the criminal. My goal was to become a police officer in real life. I had a cousin who was a Deputy US Marshal.

Filbert was a dashing figure who carried a .357 magnum revolver.

The stress of his job—especially seeing the bodies of murdered children—compelled him to smoke and drink heavily. He died of a heart attack at the age of forty-nine. After Filbert’s death, I realized that I was unfit to join the cops. Due to my own inability to tolerate suffering, I couldn’t be a police officer.

Robbers more fun than cops

In the west, we put great emphasis on words. People complain about “dangerous rhetoric,” racial slurs, religious proselytizing—anything that makes people feel uncomfortable. Actions don’t seem to matter much.

One of the ways that the Arab League is bringing peace to the Middle East is by concentrating on actions instead of words.

And letting people play Cops and Robbers.

It’s very difficult to find authentic footage of close combat. Below is a video of Free Syrian Army rebels attacking a Syrian Arab Army checkpoint. There is no gore.

Because of the poor marksmanship, my guess is that almost nobody was hit in that gun battle. Even so, the intent was to kill.

In comparison, below we have a Cops and Robbers show that the Islamic Army produced.

The men are actors who can barely handle their weapons. And the tank is a prop.

Most males enjoy shooting. The Islamic Army shot at nothing. There were no casulaties. This is all part of the strategy to win.

Cops made new rules

The Arab League is persuading people change to their behavior. More and more Islamist rebel groups in Syria are playing Cops and Robbers. My guess is that after the war, groups will continue to say certain things. The difference is that people will no longer act on their words. The best commandos who ever lived can now strike anywhere at any time. And they operate in secrecy.

This is the most effective psychological warfare ever invented. The results speak for themselves. In the Islamic Army video, the man in the gray hat forgets to put the safety lever of his rifle into the “Off” position before he fires.

He isn’t trained. The market for jihadist rebels is shrinking.

This man on the lower right fired into the ground.

STOP SHOOTING AT MY HEAD!

They were all firing into the fog. It was a waste of ammunition.

But they had fun.

Cops provided the tank

This T-72 fires one live round.

Something with a machine gun is following the tank. The machine gunner can’t shoot at all.

“He hates that tree! Stay away from that tree!”

They saved the best for last. The tank fires a dummy round. It’s the type of ammunition used for training. Compare the muzzle blast it produces with that of the live round.

This is the third video I’ve seen of Syrian Islamist rebels using practice rounds in their tanks.

Someone has taken away the Syrian jihadist rebels’ most dangerous weapons. The Islamists are sent into empty parts of cities and allowed to go crazy for the cameras.

I hadn’t noticed it before, but someone pointed out to me that they’re obviously on drugs.

They fire their weapons for the sheer joy of doing so.

It’s a solution that would never have occurred to me.

Cops are much smarter than I am

I was completely stumped as to how the Arab League would control the most violent of the Syrian Islamist rebel groups. The plan is to essentially let them engage in theater. They’ll also continue to say the things they’ve been saying. Therefore they become JINOs: Jihadists In Name Only.

Tonight I had dinner with someone who recently completed a three-year stint in the US Army. His experiences were very depressing to hear. The US military is now like any other American institution—top heavy with tyrannical bureaucrats, politically correct, risk averse, and hostile to unorthodox thinking.

Everybody who reads these posts needs to take some time to fully appreciate the stunning genius of the Arab League and its allies. My prediction is that after the wars in the Middle East are won, the region will again become a center of learning and progress.

My dinner guest tonight said that superior officers in the US Army don’t trust their subordinates to carry out orders. The reason is that if the subordinates make a mistake, their superiors are held accountable. Consequently, nothing gets done.

Cops don’t think only of themselves

The decline of western civilization is the result of social engineers abolishing the concept of accountability. I showed my dinner guest the video below.

It shows that a Republic Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthog” just made a strafing run. The line of gray smoke is where the 30mm rounds hit. You can hear the roar of the GAU-8 Avenger cannon.

After the strafing run, a special operator fired a rocket at the target.

The commando who fired that rocket called for the strafing run to almost hit him. My guest dinner guest agreed with me that the US Army, Marines Corps, and Air Force would never allow such a mission. If the commando were accidentally killed, someone would be held accountable.

Therefore somehow the Arab League has gotten its hands on A-10 Warthogs. Or built their own. Pilots of the United Arab Emirates Air Force specialize in close-air support (CAS). In Afghanistan, the US gave UAE pilots the CAS missions that carried the most risk of fratricide.

And I have no doubt that if an Emirati pilot accidentally killed allied troops, his superiors would not scapegoat him.

That’s why Arab League strategic special operators fight so well. They’re trusted. As a result, they come up with ideas that win wars. Spectacularly.