Thomas Wictor

You can judge the quality of a fighting force by the psyops (psychological operations) that it undertakes. Well, Islamic State propaganda is worse than Pallywood. I’ve been saying for a long time the Terrorists Formerly Known as ISIL or ISIS are not as much of a threat as people make them out to be. Now that I’ve watched their video of the completely insane, ill-advised, suicidal missile attack they made on Israel, my impressions have been confirmed.

The Islamic State has no air force or navy. They possess lots of captured ground equipment that the Iraqi army abandoned when it raised its skirts and ran in terror from a few thousand men in pickup trucks. However, the Islamic State simply can’t fight. Let me prove it to you.

On June 17, 2014, several hundred Islamic State fighters attacked Iraq’s largest oil refinery, located at Baiji. They assaulted the refinery at 4:00 a.m., using mortars and heavy machine guns. The regular-army battalion assigned to protect the refinery fled, leaving behind just seventy-five Iraqi commandos.

The soldier on the left is an Iraqi commando. He’s exchanged shoulder badges with the American paratrooper on the right.

I’ve read that British Special Air Service (SAS) considers the Iraqi commandos their equals.

Those seventy-five Iraqi commandos held off ISIS assaults for over a month. In early July, it seemed as though the commandos were doomed. But reinforcements finally arrived, and the refinery was saved.

The Islamic State used tanks and other armored vehicles in the assault. They also have artillery left behind by skedaddling Iraqi troops. But even with all that firepower, they couldn’t defeat seventy-five fearless men. Later, you should put aside twenty minutes to watch the Iraqi commandos in action.

At 2:19, they’re attacked by an Islamic State suicide bomber.

You can clearly see the vest, and he holds the detonator aloft in his right hand as he absorbs bullets. This is the caliber of Islamic State fighters. Only a genuine idiot would think that a suicide vest full of ball bearings could harm troops inside armored Humvees.

The inevitable result.

A pointless explosion. The moron blew himself up, wasting a weapon and his own life.

The main reasons the Islamic State has made so many gains in Iraq are that the Sunnis welcomed the Wahhabist fanatics, the Shi’ites didn’t want to fight for “non-Shi’ite land,” and the central government didn’t help the Kurdish Peshmerga, extremely capable but lightly armed fighters. Only a few days ago did Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki authorize air support for the Peshmerga.

Like Iraq, Syria is a nearly incomprehensible mess of divided loyalties, lies, tribalism, sectarian craziness, and duplicity. For one thing, the Islamic State and Bashar al-Assad are cooperating, even though they’re sworn enemies.

Today, Der al Zour’s city center is divided into areas controlled by the al Qaeda-affiliated al Nusrah front, the Islamic Front, and the Syrian regime, which controls the airport and the high ground outside the city from which they shell the opposition areas relentlessly. ISIS and the regime are working together, and ISIS controls the suburbs without any fear of attacks from the Syrian Arab Army.

As that’s happening, the western powers are supporting and opposing both sides simultaneously.

According to media reports, several Western intelligence agencies have contacted the Syrian regime in Damascus over the past year. In 2013, German broadcaster ARD reported that one of them was the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) - but this has not been officially confirmed.

Additionally, the Lebanese newspaper “The Daily Star” reported that high-ranking Syrian representatives had attended secret talks in Norway. Such accounts suggest Western agencies are already cooperating with the Syrian regime, even if Western governments are still publicly calling for Assad to be replaced.

Stupidity, shortsightedness, weakness, and magical thinking have benefited the Islamic State.

And then they picked on the wrong people.

The beginning of the end for the Islamic State

Drunk on slaughter, money, sexual enslavement, and their own mythology, the Islamic State fired rockets at Israel.

I always turn off the sound when I watch jihadist propaganda videos. The singing is enough to make me projectile vomit. Fast-forward to 1:29 to see the rocket launches.

Several of the rockets go straight up. Where do you think they’re going to land?

What if that rocket had an explosive warhead? All those vertically fired Islamic State rockets did.

I’m not saying that the Islamic State doesn’t pose a threat. But they’re imbeciles who’ve been spoiled by fleeing armies, corrupt armies, incompetent armies, and under-equipped armies.

Welcome to the big leagues, boys. The Israeli Defense Forces are like nobody you’re ever encountered. They’re not confused, they have no divided loyalties, they’re not tribal, they’re not corrupt, and they’re certainly not incompetent. What’s more, because they love life, they’ll be more ruthless in defense of it than you can imagine.

As an Israeli said to me, “We’re not angry, so you shouldn’t be angry. But when Israelis are afraid, the world should be terrified.”

Enjoy hell, believers.

be·liev·er /biˈlēvər/ noun

slang term used by American troops in the Vietnam War to describe a dead enemy