Madmen of Benghazi

A masked Libyan gunman stands on a street in the eastern city of Benghazi, early on July 29, 2014, as violence flares (AFP Photo/Abdullah Doma)

All inflamatory, all anti-ISIS, all the time. We start with my book report.

The Madmen of Benghazi by Gerard De Villiers

I picked this book up from the bargain shelf at Powell's. It is not a very good book, if fact it was quite awful, but unlike many other bad books that I quit reading after a chapter or nine, I read this one all the through. It helps that it wasn't a long book. In many ways it is similar to a series I read many years ago. This sentence from the back cover might help:

Originally published from 1960 until his death in 2013, his bestselling SAS series of 200 spy novels, starring Malko Linge, has long been considered France's answer to Ian Fleming with Malko as his James Bond.

The book does have several points in it's favor. It's a spy thriller, and I like stories of espionage. It's set predominately in Cairo, Egypt, and Benghazi, Libya, and I haven't seen many stories set in these places. It's semi-current: Qaddafi dies halfway through the story. The names of several known terrorists play outlying roles, and Qatar (the country) is the root of all evil. And then we have the recurring image of the super-model stuffed into a skin tight blue dress. Her appearances in the story covers a multitude of sins, both literary and religious.
      On the downside the reasoning employed by the characters borders on incompetent. Then again, these are spies, and if LeCarre's The Looking Glass War is even remotely accurate then what we have here is a realistic portrayal. That's a scary thought. So it was kind of fun, it provided a little exercise in geography, and it gave a small glimpse of life in North Africa, but it's not what I would call a good book.

P.S. SAS might refer to Special Air Services, except that was a British organization, and this book was originally written in French. On the other hand, there is no mention of any French Intelligence operations. Huh. Wonder how that happened.

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A friend of mine put this up on Facebook:

I may have po'd some people out there.. That was my intent. I feel we all sit back than bitch! Nothing like going to work..unarmed and being cut down..what was more than likely ISIS. I do know in 1982- 86. I lived in Chicago. Met a Syrian here on a work visa. Opened minded at the time.. He scared me with his response to, HOW DO U LIKE AMERICA? He spit and said I hate ALL AMERICANS. I SPIT on YOUR COUNTRY!

It doesn't take many encounters like this to convince people that the only good mussleman is a dead one.

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Dustbury put up a post about a Muslim Anti-ISIS demonstration in Oklahoma City, which included this line:

[T]he majority of signs held by the pro-peace crowd at Northwest Expressway and Pennsylvania Avenue by Penn Square Mall, were to drive the point home that terrorist group ISIS is not a representation of Islam, as some held the sign saying “ISIS DOES NOT REPRESENT ME!”

This is very nice, but it's not what we're really looking for. Being blood-thirsty American Imperialist running-dogs (to use our full third world title), we want to hear something more like "DEATH TO ISIS" or "KILL ALL THE JIHADISTS". Oh wait, that's kind of what being a Jihadist is all about isn't it? How do you tell the good Jihadists from the bad Jihadists? Especially when the only good Jihadist is a dead one? So I can sort of see why they went with their milder slogan.