During Operation Protective Edge, in 50-days of combat, about 2,100 Palestinians were killed – perhaps nearly a third of them appear to have been civilians. The IDF fired 34,000 artillery rounds; 12,000 were smoke, 3,000 were illumination, and 19,000 were explosive; at a cost of about 4,000-5,000 shekels per shell. Hamas extensively uses “Qassam” rockets which cost about 500 dollars each (largely funded by US and European taxpayers). These are blocked by Iron Dome whose rockets cost about 50,000 dollars each. This is now called asymmetrical warfare. Rather an understatement of a new sort.
At the same time, while in what used to be called Iraq, Sunni insurgents (a.k.a. Islamic State) have been moving fighters, weapons and supplies from western Iraq through secret desert tunnels to Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraqi officials have said. (US air-strikes can’t find and bomb them in tunnels.)
Egypt has now destroyed some 1,800 tunnels between Gaza and Sinai. Hamas is complaining that Egypt is damaging their economy. Egypt is complaining that Egyptians are dying by the tens.
Tunnels are growing more ubiquitous.
This article is a ‘Heads up” but not about tunnels, per se, but about one aspect of the war being waged against the West for the past two decades (read that as past 1,400 years – two decades is the ‘present iteration’).
Iran is the global epicentre for the Opium trade and its derivatives, and has been so now for at least ten years. Some ten percent of Iranians are drug users. This has been as large a foreign currency earner for the regime as has oil. The richest man in the world is not Bill Gates or Carlos Slim. It is Ayatollah Khamenai, but Forbes is afraid to tell you that. His net worth now exceeds 90 Billion Dollars; much of that is drug money. Where is Mr. Reagan who had the courage to take out Noriega and put him behind bars?
For well over a decade, perhaps closer to two, Hezbollah has been king-maker, and prime weapons supplier, of Latin American Drug Cartels. They have extensive tunnels throughout the region and under the United States border region. While Iran has an extensive missile infrastructure in place, in several Latin countries, aimed at the US heartland.
Lately, for the first time, we are seeing reports of Sunni activity in Latin America rivalling that of Shia Hezbollah. If there is any surprise here, it is that it took them (the Sunni) so long to get started, where Hezbollah has had a business monopoly for so long.
The Sunnis had a built-in disadvantage in that they had no unity to direct these activities. Business activities over great distance are difficult without smart management. Dr. al Baghdadi, the Caliph Ibrahim, is finally providing that missing management and direction. He’s a smart fellow. He is also getting very rich. Islamic State is building a drug network to rival that of the Shia.
Their first base seems to be Ecuador – but these reports are still unconfirmed.
This is VERY bad news for the United States. This is very good news for the Latin Drug Cartels.
Heads up America, your real war is being fought right in your heart land and your leadership is AWOL.
