General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat ISIS Really Wants
What is the Islamic State?
Where did it come from, and what are its intentions? The simplicity of these questions can be deceiving, and few Western leaders seem to know the answers. In December, The New York Times published confidential comments by Major General Michael K. Nagata, the Special Operations commander for the United States in the Middle East, admitting that he had hardly begun figuring out the Islamic States appeal. We have not defeated the idea, he said. We do not even understand the idea. In the past year, President Obama has referred to the Islamic State, variously, as not Islamic and as al-Qaedas jayvee team, statements that reflected confusion about the group, and may have contributed to significant strategic errors.
The group seized Mosul, Iraq, last June, and already rules an area larger than the United Kingdom. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been its leader since May 2010, but until last summer, his most recent known appearance on film was a grainy mug shot from a stay in U.S. captivity at Camp Bucca during the occupation of Iraq. Then, on July 5 of last year, he stepped into the pulpit of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, to deliver a Ramadan sermon as the first caliph in generationsupgrading his resolution from grainy to high-definition, and his position from hunted guerrilla to commander of all Muslims. The inflow of jihadists that followed, from around the world, was unprecedented in its pace and volume, and is continuing.
Our ignorance of the Islamic State is in some ways understandable: It is a hermit kingdom; few have gone there and returned. Baghdadi has spoken on camera only once. But his address, and the Islamic States countless other propaganda videos and encyclicals, are online, and the caliphates supporters have toiled mightily to make their project knowable. We can gather that their state rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger ofand headline player inthe imminent end of the world.
The Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), follows a distinctive variety of Islam whose beliefs about the path to the Day of Judgment matter to its strategy, and can help the West know its enemy and predict its behavior. Its rise to power is less like the triumph of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (a group whose leaders the Islamic State considers apostates) than like the realization of a dystopian alternate reality in which David Koresh or Jim Jones survived to wield absolute power over not just a few hundred people, but some 8 million.
We have misunderstood the nature of the Islamic State in at least two ways. First, we tend to see jihadism as monolithic, and to apply the logic of al‑Qaeda to an organization that has decisively eclipsed it. The Islamic State supporters I spoke with still refer to Osama bin Laden as Sheikh Osama, a title of honor. But jihadism has evolved since al-Qaedas heyday, from about 1998 to 2003, and many jihadists disdain the groups priorities and current leadership.
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
The article is long and I'm still digesting it. I really haven't drawn any conclusions from it yet.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)and its allies. The US and Europeans will be poked and prodded into doing it for them, to the detriment of ourselves. A two-fer.
See - it's really not as complicated as some would want to make it out to be.
Albertoo
(2,016 posts)And pure application of Bronze Age 'sacred' books isn't a good idea.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)And the Koran is on the cusp of midievil.
mwrguy
(3,245 posts)edhopper
(33,580 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)And we never saw this coming??????
After years of murdering civilians in various Muslim countries, we never saw the possibility of an organized opposition,
never understood anything about the importance of Islamic religion as a basic tenant of life?
The price for hubris is very very very high, I fear.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)That's what they claim to be, but that is not what they are.
They are an apocalyptical death cult.
denverbill
(11,489 posts)#1, they aren't currently a threat to the US Homeland unless,
#2, we prevent US citizens from moving to Iraq/Syria and joining ISIS, in which case they are more likely to become lone extremists.
Of course, we aren't protecting the US Homeland with our troops. We are protecting US corporate oil interests and Israel.
Personally, I'd just as soon let any American who wants to join ISIS go after revoking their citizenship and passport. If that's the kind of life they long for, good riddance.