By E.F Nicholson 

Over the last few weeks much of the news has been dominated by the crisis of ISIS and the pending referendum for Scottish independence. Obviously these are two very different and unrelated events, yet as you look closer there is a common threat each of these share, which is each pose the very real threat to the established order of things.

Listening to the talking heads on ISIS you would think history began three months ago. The fact that pundits like Bill Kristol, an ardent cheerleader of the Afghanistan  and Iraq wars, has the gall to even show his face in public is beyond me. Yet the war drums start to beat and they bring out the same generals and chicken hawks to just regurgitate the same BS. As now the tough talk is building when it comes to dealing with ISIS. For the crazy far right in the US, Obama isn’t being tough enough. All this, despite his bloodthirsty body count he has to his name. So now Obama talks of aerial strikes and his vice president pledges to “chase them to the gates of hell”. Which is he is not careful means they may end up appearing in a shopping mall in suburban Philadelphia. In addition we also hear talk of destroying them,  much like the twisted interpretation of Iran’s “we will wipe Israel off the map” yet this instance they really mean it. As if you can somehow actual destroy a “feeling” or “sentiment” with bombs and murder. (I assume the guys make these choices to go to war are smart enough to know, more bombs means more terrorist, so it is hard not to think the racket of war just needs a boost to its third quarter balance sheet).

Yet within all of this talk there seems to no awareness in the mainstream media of the fact ISIS is in fact the illegitimate  bastard son of the US, that has come back to vent all its repressed rage and hatred for the sins of their fathers past. That ISIS is ultimately working from the same playbook the USA and UK did in 2003, with the exception that this is at least it’s their own country. So they invade and violently take over area of land formally under the sovereignty of someone else. They ruthlessly start to impose their values and agenda on the population. Doesn’t that sound familiar?

As people are outraged at the beheading of 2 US journalists, which is a brutal and shocking crime. Yet where was the outrage when we had the beheadings of babies, women, children as US bombs were dropped. Where was the outrage as innocent people were burnt alive, incinerated, cut into pieces? As this and even more horror was unleashed as “Shock and Awe” came raining down on the civilian population of Iraq in 2003. It’s estimated that 17,000 civilians were murdered in the few months of US occupation of Iraq. A similar time ISIS has been set up where it is. Yet can you imagine ISIS perpetrating 17,000 beheadings? As the innocent Iraq’s killed in the US invasion and occupation, didn’t go peacefully in to the night. Most likely they died violently and painfully, as they were butchered by the high tech killing machine which is the USA armed forces. So as people talk about extremism of ISIS it seems there is a collective amnesia to our very own, far more deadly extremism.

When l look at the political and medias reaction to the formation of ISIS there is a unquestioned ,unilateral understanding that they “must go” ISIS must be destroyed. The debate is only “how” is the best way to do that?  ISIS “brutal and extremist mind-set” will be the reason given, as somehow they are taking a moral high ground to save the lives of innocents. The same old shtick gets rolled out again, echoed by this propaganda machine that is our current media.  Yet that logic doesn’t way up, as the US props up and funds numerous despots across the region, Saudi Arabia being one that stands out. As far as beheadings go they get the prize. Saudi Arabia would be on of the most medieval, menacing bunch of religious sociopaths you could get.  Shamelessly they dole out beheadings, lashes and the cutting off of hands, for crimes as sinister as sorcery and immoral behaviour (immoral behaviour, Christ the hypocrisy of these guys, you just can’t make this shit up). So when you take that ruse away what is clear is the grassroots of  the disenfranchised and angry extremists that make up ISIS are not allowed to just go ahead and make themselves a state. As the straight-line boarders across the Middle East show, it’s their colonial masters that get to decided what countries do or don’t exist. So with consent, Israel has been allowed to decimate, plunder and murder the Palestine population for decades. The truth is with the “Masters” backing you can pretty much do whatever you want, with the only caveat is it can never threaten US interests. So the audacity and gall of this local population, to go ahead and make their own country without the permission from daddy to do so. As the biggest threat ISIS represents isn’t that land that it controls, it’s the fact it could spread a virus of sovereignty all over the world. This why it’s not enough to defeated ISIS  but destroyed them. As it send a clear message to any others that dare to conceive of something existing outside of agreed status quo.

            Then there is another version of this happening in the Scottish referendum. What is happening there of course isn’t fuelled by bloodshed and violence, thankful it’s a peaceful and a democratic process. Although if the Scottish population has been subject to what the people of Iraq have had over the last 50 years, who knows what going for independence would look like. Whatever the outcome, it’s just astounding witnessing the full force of the establishment coming out to scare people into saying NO to independence .Yet even with the backing of all 3 political parties, the media, business community ,the banking sector and many other powerful forces, the YES vote has gain more and more momentum. To see them panicking and pleading of the Scots to say NO, is glorious sight to see all in itself.  Then to add the UK opposition to YES, you then have it seems the whole world’s upper crust pitching in. As when you get Obama, the IMF, all of Europe, and soon the Pope no doubt, pushing for the NO vote, you have to wonder what is it that so important about Scotland’s relationship to the union, that it would get the backing of so many elites worldwide? Do they have diamond mines no one is aware of? Do they have large deposits of uranium up in the highlands? Is a country of 4 million becoming their own sovereign country, really that bigger deal to the wider world?

The answer I see it, is that it isn’t the actually reality of what will happen if Scotland votes yes, it the broader message it sends through the world. Unlike ISIS this is a resistance people in the west can much more identify with. That with grassroots support and vision, it is possible to have country outside of the current elite’s rules and parameters. Now I know in the end Scotland could just become another normal country, in toe with the expectations of the establishment. So I am not in some fantasy-land of a socialist Scottish utopia, yet just the attempt of moving outside of the current accepted framework, in of itself, seems to freak out the ruling class. Imagine if they actually did it?  It’s this very same fear that “sovereignty may spread” that brought about the murder of millions in Vietnamese and Cambodians. It’s daring to work out a more favourable system that got Grenada bombed and destroyed. You see it  happening time and time again.

As it’s so easy to forget that it’s not ISIS or terrorism that  is the biggest threat to the ruling class, rather it is an informed, energised and united public. Any real examples of that in action, be it  Occupy , ISIS or a vote for Yes in Scotland, is just not acceptable.  So on one hand we see the blowback of the USA’s murderous past coming back to haunt it form of ISIS, as they murder, kill and conquer, a just a daddy shown them how.  Then we have the population of Scotland that have been neglected and not listen to, been forced to take on policies that don’t reflect the community’s wider values of fairness and quality. The YES vote is biting back to say we can have it different, we do not have to do as we are told. Two very different situations but they both represent the same threat. Unless permission is granted you must stay in your corner until told otherwise. These are two defiant and direct attacks to that status quo. One violent and extremist and one peaceful and democratic. As no sane or loving person is would want to take the ISIS route, we are faced with that question of how do we bring about change that bypass violence? We see the answer and its threatening energy ,when enough people passionately oppose the status quo and offer something different. Which I really hope Scotland will take a step in that direction. Also I just want to see David Cameron’s face if Yes wins , that’s going to be priceless. So I sit back and watch both these event unfold and take some faith, more so in Scotland, that despite the outcome something is happening. Precedents are being set and from this I really hope better things can emerge.