THE OTHER PROBLEM IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, THE SUEZ CANAL

American Aircraft Carrier Transiting The Suez Canal, Image from Wikipedia Commons

9/09/2014  UPDATE: The threat to the canal continues from the same sources. But Now The ISIS has published that Egypt is on their 5 year Acquisition plan.

 We have noticed increased interest in this post of late. The basic situation on the Canal appears stable though threatened. The greatest threat to the canal and its contribution to the world economy and naval mobility is the ISIS, still consolidating gains in Syria and Iraq, acquiring oil and more funding and now calling themselves simply the "Islamic State".

  In 1956 the world came to the brink of WW III over the "Suez Crisis". If present forces threatening the Canal, and the present government of Egypt are both over thrown, a new Egyptian regime may well decide to run the canal in a business like manner. But the ISIS wants to rule the world as the Islamic State, the global Caliphate. The ISIS has already announced its intention to march on Rome within 5 years. The ISIS is worse than the Nazis in terms of cruelty and far weaker militarily than the Nazis of the 1930s. They could and should be wiped out now. Its going to be a lot harder 5 years from now when they have real funding. They claim to be a state. They exercise forceful control over territory and they have published their plans to acquire more including Rome in the near future and eventually "New York".  The "Islamic State" has declared war on the West. Its time that NATO responds by wiping them off the face of the earth while it would still be relatively inexpensive to do so. It does not appear that action is so much as even in the planning stage. 

First published 9/1/2013

REUTERS REPORTS A TERRORIST ATTACK ON A SHIP IN THE SUEZ CANAL

Editor's Note: We've reported several times about the threats to the Suez Canal caused by the general unrest in Egypt where there is a violent movement to over throw the nation's first freely elected president. So far the canal; has been kept in operation and traffic has passed more or less normally. Recently Reuters reported on a rare terrorist attack on a transiting merchant ship. A lead in and link to the full story is below. Syria and Southern Iraq is not the only hot spot on the Mediterranean. This should make the U.S. wonder about letting the Sixth Fleet slip into a mostly notional element. Italy has more than 50 seriously capable war ships in the region including a carrier. Italy doesn't leave its own coast exposed either backing up this serious regional navy with a large well equipped distinct Coast Guard. Frankly the rest of  Mediterranean Europe is under spending on naval defense. But if the U.S. is going to continue its leadership of the West, the sixth fleet must be beefed up. The trick is how to do that in an era of tight budgets and not send a signal to Mediterranean Europe that they are getting a bigger American umbrella and can cut naval defense even more. Navies don't win legislators reelection, social programs do. But social programs don't do a nation any good if it loses its soverignity. The obama administration plans more cuts in the U.S.Navy budget this fall.

(Reuters) - A "terrorist" staged an unsuccessful attack on a container ship passing through the Suez Canal on Saturday, in an attempt to disrupt the flow of ships through the waterway, the head of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Memish said.

The Suez Canal is a key global shipping line which is secured by the armed forces.

"One of the terrorist elements has carried out a failed attempt to affect the movement of ships in the Suez Canal by targeting one of the passing ships, Cosco Asia," Memish said in a statement about the Panama-flagged ship.

"The attempt failed completely and there was no damage to the ship or the containers it carried. The situation was dealt with strictly by the armed forces," he said, adding that the traffic of ships is moving normally.

The statement did not specify what kind of attack it was but shipping sources told Reuters they heard the sound of two explosions as the ship passed through the waterway.

For the complete story: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/31/us-egypt-protests-suez-idUSBRE97U0FG20130831