Claiming The Peak

فيصل الشمري

 

​There comes moments in history where a window opens and fate grabs a country by the hand. When circumstances such as these presents itself it is unfortunate when one misses the opportunity to embrace fate’s grasp and hold this hand tightly.

 

 

 Various circumstances merge to create the right conditions for a Nation-State to rise. 

 

 

Sometimes this is for the good and other times not so. With it’s victory over Napoleon and The French Empire, Great Britain emerged as the global superpower, master of Europe and steward of what historians and academics call the Pax Britannica. It seemed to be in a position to forever expand it’s destiny to all corners of the globe for over a century. 

 

This state of affairs would last from 1815-1939. With The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the complete collapse of the international financial system the emergence of the gangster powers presented itself with Mussolini’s Italy, Hitler’s Germany and The Japanese Empire. 

 

 

 

These three rising powers were determined to use the window of opportunity to engage in empire building of their own while the previous world order led by Great Britain and France unraveled. Italy wishing to resurrect a “New Roman Empire” in North Africa, Germany wishing to make colonies of it’s neighbors and The Continent of Europe, and Japan in The Western Pacific Ocean and South Seas. 

 

 

 

At the end of World War II despite being a victorious power Great Britain was broke, incapable of holding it’s Empire even if it had wanted to and a junior partner to its former colonies known to all of us as The United States of America. With the defeat of Hitler’s National Socialist Germany, the victors were two new powers: The United States and Bolshevik Russia. 

 

 

More-or-less outsiders to mainland Europe but masters of the continent nonetheless. The United States inherited to some degree the former overseas British bases and with it’s economy, military power and status as having the global reserve currency became the preeminent power of The Western World. 

 

 

Bolshevik Russia through it’s supreme effort in defeating Germany brought Moscow to the summit of global affairs too through it’s occupation of Central and Eastern Europe along with it’s vassal communist allies throughout the globe.  

 

 

The age of the Empire’s had ended and the era of The Superpowers began. This would last until 1989 in which the only Superpower remained. The United States claimed the summit for itself from 1989 until today. 

 

 

 

However today with the 2008 Financial Crisis we can now see with some clarity that this was a watershed moment, and that geopolitical events are once again shifting, like tectonic plates, threatening to bring instability, belligerence and even large war to the global scene. 

 

 

 

Vladimir Putin’s Russia has sensed this to take it’s window of opportunity to seize The Donbass of Eastern Ukraine, and begin too slowly resurrect it’s former territorial empire of Tsarist and Bolshevik Russia. 

 

 

 

 

The global community has all but accepted Putin’s fait accompli in Georgia. 

Does anyone anymore even ask Moscow to leave South Ossetia or Abkhazia? 

It is even bold enough now to nakedly deploy operational capabilities directly into the Syrian battlefield to support the sadists in Damascus in the face of international opposition. 

 

 

Iran too has used uncertainty, indecisiveness and a lack of cohesion from the global community to get a more than favorable nuclear deal on it’s terms, consolidate it’s hold in Baghdad and Damascus, and even begin expanding it’s reach to Yemen and beyond to North Africa. Even Turkey wishes to bring a return to a updated version of The Ottoman Empire which even Ankara calls “Neo-Ottomanism.” 

 

 

 

For the examples of Mussolini’s Italy, Hitler’s Germany, The Japanese Empire, Putin’s Russia and Iran they are gangster powers, who can afford to be opportunist because they are clear about their aims. As long as they sit across the table from a weak opposition, divided and lacking cohesion they can afford to double down on risky bets and look bold for this initiative when the results are more than what they could even hope for. In today’s environment the announcement of The Islamic Coalition to fight terrorism is a watershed moment in that what we have always suspected would happen is now not only happening but being recognized from Mali to Malaysia, the rise of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the clear leader of The Muslim World and the rising hegemonic power in the Arab world. We are beginning our rise before our very eyes.

 

 

 

​Under the leadership of Riyadh The Gulf Council was formed and began this work of confronting head on the scourge of terrorism but Iran as well. Through the unified policy of The Gulf Council it was able to project itself in Libya, help stabilize Egypt through humanitarian aid and provide a concerted effort to keep the state functioning when it was all but abandoned by some, intervene decisively in Yemen as part of a broad military coalition, continue to uphold the rightful sovereignty of Bahrain, forcefully speak out against the butcher of Damascus and his crimes against humanity on every level possible, and take the first steps to take on daesh. Not bad in a few years work. While many have passively watched and been dithering between indifference and indecisiveness we have made our presence responsibility felt. Others nervously look away or choose to neglect reality hoping that somehow things will just go away. 

 

We will not do that, and most importantly cannot afford to do that. 

 

Without this leadership discussed here and prominently displayed the new Islamic Coalition put together to confront all terrorism wherever it appears could not have happened. We are now recognized as the undisputed leader and regional power of The Muslim World. Recently I had written about how once we consolidated our position in Yemen that the eyes of The Kingdom would look out beyond the sands, and that our rise would begin in the firestorm engulfing the lands between The Tigris and Euphrates. Events have proved this right. 

 

 

 

The announcement of The Islamic Coalition definitively proved this. Our friends and partners both inside and outside of the region have acknowledged this as well. We take note of, and enthusiastically congratulate The Sons and Daughters of The Gulf Coalition who have fought bravely in the air over Syria and on the ground in Yemen. 

 

 

We Thank Them and Their Families for their sacrifice and contributions to the region but to humanity as well. We thank His Majesty King Salman bin Abdulaziz, His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman, His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Nayef for their responsible stewardship of The Kingdom in these times of uncertainty. It is through the people mentioned above that we are currently making our rise to the summit as one of the elite powers on the planet. We thank them, keep our hearts and prayers with them knowing the great responsibilities they assume on a day-in-day out basis for not only the all of us, but humanity. They are assuming a leadership role that at the moment some are not willing to claim. It is through the people mentioned above that we will claim our peak.