The Black Flag rises.

It isn't a good idea to go out interfering with foreign wars as a rule. Best thing is to keep up good security and intelligence and just keep an eye on things. It's a pity the English channel isn't rather wider, all that digging of tunnels and so forth is a mixed blessing.

The world could do with a 'policeman' to stop criminals using chemical weapons and committing atrocities, but it needs to be something a bit sharper than the american army.

Power corrupts. Absolute power - - -etc. A World Policeman and I give you 1984 by G.O.

A World Army, one funded by the UN and controlled along the lines of the Federation in Star Trek might be better than the fragmented Blue Hats of today. There would have to be restrictions on national armies both in size and capabilities in order that 'order' could be kept in whatever nation the troubles were occurring. Quite a thought don't you think? Not inconceivable. Eminently better that anything we have at present. Our present arrangements produce little better than a toothless tiger - although it is safe to say that with the will and agreements it can be effective as in Serbia in the mid 90's.

Perhaps in the future artificial intelligence will police humanity, with self replicating supercomputers sending out swarms of drones and nanobots to administer justice and punishment.

Then let me hear the claim 'my human rights'!

It is a scenario that has every possibility of coming to being. I (thank God - who's he?) will not be around to see it. And God won't be helping anyone who gets into that situation either.

A UK military leader is in the news today saying the west should be planning and preparing for war with I.S.

War is never good, but, effective defence is.

The first casualty of war is truth, in other words we can expect a lot of misinformation. Islamic State apparently runs a large scale propaganda system. The western media either doesn't know or is not telling the full story.

Two systems at odds with each other, with completely different world views.

ISIS hasn't a chance. Too many others railed against it. But meanwhile it will be bloody and expensive. No winners in this one - or any other for that matter.

Bit of a bad day today with tourists massacred in Tunisia, beheading and apparently attempted chemical attack in France, plus other attacks by Islamic fighters. Something to do with Ramadan say the commentators. Certainly making Europe, it's people and politicians a bit edgey about what's going on.

We deserve to be edgy. It is our politicians that 'in our name' made a complete hash of our foreign policy over the last two decades which 'allowed' this situation to gain hold.
What idiot fights a war to win without having first decided upon a course of action to win the peace thereafter. What sort of idiots give that sort of crass advice? Doesn't that show the calibre of our generations progeny? I thought we had left all that behind after the First World War. Obviously not.
As we sow so shall we reap. I'm not quoting the scriptures - just logic and common-sense.
The Iraq War was the catalyst for ISIS. All they (the bright ones) had to do was read their history and the way forward, after a victory, was all laid out for the taking thereof - ref: Potsdam and the progressive thinking beforehand. Had they all been mentally challenged they couldn't have but failed to foresee the ramifications for their actions. Pathetic doesn't even cover it.
And so we will have to take the consequences with the 'century' of the 'Terror Wars'.

Yes, not very clever of the west. The consequences are all very problematical.

Life is problematical. Man makes it so. So what's new pussycat?

Mr. Camerons' response to this massacre seems rather slow. There was the museum massacre in Tunis not long ago. A quick glance at the regional situation shows it's hardly a surprise that I.S. intends to destabilise Tunisia.

I.S. is no longer "Nothing to do with Islam', as he described it a few days ago. Now it's a perversion of Islam, an "existential threat" to the west, and an RAF plane will be sent to collect the injured.

Arguably, a slow and steady political response is a sensible one, but those who have lost freinds and relatives or are lying injured in Tunisia may not be impressed.

In his statement today, Mr. Cameron said that I.S. is planning terrible attacks in Britain. Well, in general terms of course they are, nothing new there. In more specific terms, it does sound like a warning of specific known, and possibly imminent attacks. The mind boggles a bit at the prospect.

Tip of the iceberg. Most people haven't woken up yet to the 'niggers in the woodpile' ( not PC but a very apt way of describing something lurking and waiting to cause mischief).

We are all victims of our religions and politics. We have, in the West, sat here comfortably in our little cocoons taking the prizes (because we can) and ignoring the rest of the world (apart from the odd gift-aid at Christmas) and expecting everything in the dove-cote to be lovely. Well now the rest of the world are saying 'stuff you mate we've had enough'. The mischief makers seeing their chance are rabble-rousing the rest and surreptitiously mind-bending the few amongst them who are the most vulnerable.

We have many decades to travel before this particular 'dark entity' is finally run to earth. I did say 2100c - The Terror Wars. I wasn't kidding.

We've had lots of Islamic people living amongst us for long enough to get to know them, their ideas and attitudes. It's remarkable how little interest so many people have taken in Islamic culture, as for many, it's a part of daily life. If there had been more policies for integration, more people today might have understood the troubles brewing and not be taken so much by surprise as events have unfolded. I hesitate to further discuss, as I am very uncertain how to spell parallell.

Parallel - Ah yes. You added an extra 'l' (hell). Very clever. Beautiful in context considering the subject matter.

Well who's fault is that? Not the peoples. People cannot be expected to integrate within one or two generations. It just isn't done. (Ref: British in Spain par ex - and others). To enable rapid integration requires planned application. The best and quickest method being children at schools and removing the differences by religion and politics as being inconsequential to the end product. Those that play together will learn to live together - if left alone.
With the older end it would have been almost impossible to make the changes and thus two to three generations working through the children would have been the quickest answer to the problem - BUT. Nobody made the effort. Nobody thought it important enough. Nobody wanted the race card raised in their direction etc etc. And so we have what we have - a big problem. It will now take ten generations. Meanwhile we suffer the cretinous, jelly-boned, self-serving hypocrisy of the last 50 years politicians lack of 'care' for the people.

Interfaith dialogue is being conducted in terms of murder within Syria and Iraq. A video in the news today by Jaysh Al-Islam shows Islamic State fighters being executed en masse, with the message "There is no disease for which Allah does not provide a cure." All extremely horrendous as usual, but the message about healing catches the attention.

Certainly not directed at the educated then! A video for the ignorant masses (of which there are too many already).
IF we are to get the march on these despicable violent thugs we have to fight fire with fire. Our problem (and of course that of our peers) is we do not understand what we are dealing with. A bit like the Nazi's in the 30's - we could see it didn't look right but didn't know what to do about them - until it was too late.
The powers that be need to hire some disenchanted IS converts and put them to work across the internet and throughout the Muslim areas with the same message - There is no disease that personal Freedom cannot cure -. The message of Allah works both ways.

The number of people travelling to Syria and so on to join I.S. is estimated to be huge and increasing. Rather bizarre for civilians to be heading into a war zone, taking their children and elderly relatives with them. There was something similar in medieval history, the 'childrens crusade'.

Yes but the reasoning was entirely different. Given that the 'Children's Crusade' was factual in the telling (and there are grave misgivings in parts) the focus was on converting Muslims to Christians in the Holy Lands, not an exodus to a 'Utopia of Islam State' formed in the Middle East for 'true' Muslims and where only the absolute true Moslem faith reigns.

History - as told by the victors or by the shakers and movers tends to have been corrupted in the process and is invariably suspect for ulterior motive. It's knowing the whey's and wherefores to be able to get to the real truth when learning the facts that's important. That's one reason why I write the books I write.

Arriving at the facts, understanding how they fit together and what they mean is so unlikely and difficult as to be improbable. People make assumptions or guesses about situations and what may lie behind them. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they aren't, but these ideas stick. If an author can write a book that provides insight into the truth, with dependable facts to base an understanding on, it's something worth doing.

Indeed. But such can only be done given space and time after the events to abstract the lies and disinformation and substitute the real facts in their place. Not as easy as many think as the true facts (which are always written down - God knows why) are securely hidden by the State or the offspring of the participants of the time. Which leaves 'common-sense'/ logical interludes as the only road to take towards the truth. Fact and I repeat, fact is always stranger than fiction - as much as many would disagree with that, nevertheless it is another truth.
One method is to read as much on the subject, from all quarters, as one can lay one's hands on. Every now and then somebody somewhere makes the mistake of telling a lie badly or fictionalising the moment in order to cover up. Others tell the story they have been given not realising that some instance of the events gives away the lie that has been appropriated in the place of the truth. These are known as 'Eureka' moments and are rare but wonderfully satisfying to 'we' writers who are seekers of the truth. We do however suffer, and always will, from the deniers,conspirators and the revisionists who for whatever reason constantly muddy the waters. Such is life - - -

It's nice to have a hobby.

I suppose you could call it a hobby!!! I prefer the word 'crusade'. It's certainly not done for money. Nor to keep myself occupied. The last book - published two weeks ago - was started in 2011 then left whilst I went back to the railway in the vain hope of 'putting it (the railway) back together'. Having finally given up on that in 2014 I went back to the book finishing it last month. It's the 16th published (20th written) since the turn of the millennium. Approx one a year - hmmm. Reasoning - my father's generation deserved the truth behind what they 'had' to do and I have a great distaste of conspiracy theorists and revisionists - not to mention deniers and last but not least unnecessary secrets that are kept to save reputations. Stand up and be counted you spineless bastards - or words to that effect. Atlas D'four.

I haven't read any of your books yet, Atlas, so can't comment.

Shame on you. However they are a specialists taste. You must have an interest in history, war, political intrigue, sex, - depending on which of them you read. They could be boring otherwise.