Everything to do with ISIS

[Kilmer17]

So are we still angry about drone attacks?

I'm so confused

No new stopped being angry when Obama took office

[HogNose]

Best article I've read about ISIS....a good read.

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

 

What 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 State’s 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-Qaeda’s “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 generations—upgrading 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 State’s countless other propaganda videos and encyclicals, are online, and the caliphate’s 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 of—and headline player in—the imminent end of the world.

 

continued at link

 

 

[visionary]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/edc37e3673da4e0f890c534217419c09/iraq-shiite-militias-rush-defend-oil-rich-kirkuk

Uneasy alliance of Kurds, Shiites formed in northern Iraq

 

Shiite militiamen shuttle back and forth to the nearby front lines from a sprawling military base near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk. They hoist billboards of their commander, bellow Shiite prayers from mosque loudspeakers and chant the name of their spiritual leader.

 

All of this unsettles Kurdish leaders and residents who have sought for years to carve out a semiautonomous homeland in northern Iraq and since last summer have been battling the Sunni extremists from the Islamic State to keep hold of Kirkuk.

 

While the recently arrived Shiite fighters have been welcomed by the Kurds to take on a common enemy, the alliance is an uneasy one.

 

When the IS militants swept across northern and western Iraq last year, seizing towns and cities, tens of thousands of Shiite men answered a call to arms by the country's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to defend the nation.

 

Now those Arab fighters have arrived in Kirkuk, long one of Iraq's most disputed territories. They have made a string of bases their home only 10 kilometers (six miles) from the city, where the Kurds have been exclusively in charge since repelling the IS militants.

 

Friction between the Kurds and Arabs feeds the combustible inter-ethnic competition over who will ultimately control of the city.

 

The Shiite fighters, officially known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, were instrumental last summer in helping the faltering Iraqi military stall the IS push outside Baghdad.

 

They have also teamed up with Kurdish peshmerga forces in a number of battles, breaking the siege of the northern Shiite-majority town of Amirli in August, and recently driving IS militants from a string of towns in Diyala province, northeast of the Iraqi capital.

 

But the arrival of the Shiite fighters in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, has provoked deep-rooted sensitivities.

 

Kirkuk, located along the fluid line that separates Kurdish northern Iraq from the rest of the country, is home to Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, and all have competing claims to the area.

[ixcuincle]

Came here to post that Atlantic article which was also linked by CNN And Peter BErgen. They're essentially an apocalyptic cult waiting for the final showdown in Dabiq. 

[Destino]

Apocalyptic Cult. Chopping off heads to bring about the end of the world.

...

ISIS is a real life cheesy horror movie.

[tshile]

i laughed when PeterMP suggested we let countries in the middle east be the ring leaders against islamic terrorism and that we just support them.

not a laugh in his face, like haha you're stupid. a laugh like - hah, that's a good one, sure that'll happen <roll eyes really obnoxiously>.

it appears to be happening. too early to celebrate but people find weird ways to unify when awful things happen, maybe ISIS can unify the middle east and get the ball rolling on stomping out terrorism.

the key is for the rest of the world to support them. give them encouragement. see if we can make this thing happen...

[TheGoodBits]

Came here to post that Atlantic article which was also linked by CNN And Peter BErgen. They're essentially an apocalyptic cult waiting for the final showdown in Dabiq.

So drop off a bunch of troops outside the town, get ISIS all excited for the battle and get them all in one place, then quickly evac the troops and BAM! Surprise nuke, get them all with one bomb. Too easy ***hole terrorists, better luck next time.

[visionary]

http://www.newsweek.com/2015/02/27/jordan-goes-all-against-isis-how-long-306093.html

Jordan Goes All In Against ISIS, but for How Long?

 

One of the most storied units in Jordan’s security forces is the Royal Desert Patrol. Steeped in traditions that go back to the British Mandate days after World War I, the unit’s Bedouin scouts, wearing the distinctive red-and-white kaffiyeh headdress and bandoliers crisscrossing their chests, still ride camels alongside sand-colored Humvees as they track down infiltrators coming across the Hashemite Kingdom’s vast desert expanses. By all accounts, they’re very effective at guarding Jordan’s borders, while King Abdullah’s 110,000-strong military focuses on preserving internal order and, of course, his pro-American monarchy.

 

But as the U.S.-led war against ISIS drags on in neighboring Iraq and Syria, there are suggestions Jordan’s military might take on a broader role. In the wake of the gruesome video showing ISIS militants burning alive a captured Jordanian pilot earlier this month, Abdullah has been baying for their blood, sending his F-16s to bomb ISIS training camps, ammunition dumps and other targets without pause. And Jordanian officials say this is just the beginning of operations to eradicate the jihadists. “Jordan's history testifies that we do not forget vengeance, no matter how long it takes,” said Lieutenant General Hussein al-Majali, the country’s interior minister.

 

This marks a dramatic about-face—and what some in Washington see as a badly needed boost for President Barack Obama’s war against ISIS from a valued Arab ally. Before the death of their pilot, most Jordanians wanted no part in the American-led anti-ISIS coalition, and a sizable number sympathized with the group. But since the immolation, Abdullah has taken point in the coalition’s seven-month air campaign against the group, and his tribal subjects have rallied behind him. The young monarch’s response has been so fierce that some in Washington now speculate that Jordan could become the new leader of a Sunni Arab alliance against ISIS and even introduce ground troops into the battle. Meanwhile, Egypt joined the battle on another front in mid-February, sending its warplanes to bomb ISIS targets in neighboring Libya after the group released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers on a Mediterranean beach.

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/18/us-egypt-libya-idUSKBN0LM1JK20150218?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Egypt's Sisi tours border with Libya after bombing IS targets

 

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned Egypt would strike back at any militant threats to its security as he toured the border area with Libya on Wednesday, two days after Cairo bombed Islamic State targets there.

 

Sisi, accompanied by Defense Minister Sedki Sobhi, toured an air base near the borders with Libya to oversee measures aimed at securing his country's western frontier.

 

Egypt directly intervened for the first time in the conflict in neighboring Libya on Monday after Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians.

 

"He (Sisi) stressed that Egypt will continue to confront firmly any attempts aimed at compromising its national security," army spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Samir said in a statement posted on his official Facebook page.

 

Egypt said Monday's pre-dawn strike hit militant camps, training sites and weapons storage areas in the neighboring oil-producing country, where factional fighting has created chaos and havens for Islamist militants.

 

The 21 decapitations pushed Sisi into open action, expanding his battle against Islamist militancy in Libya not long after he appeared to be gaining the upper hand against militants in the Sinai Peninsula who support Islamic State.

 

On Tuesday, he called for a United Nations resolution mandating a U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to intervene in Libya.

 

Ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday on the situation in Libya, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri met on Tuesday with ambassadors from the council's five veto-wielding powers - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.

 

 

http://www.vox.com/2014/10/20/6987673/isis-women

No, CNN, women are not joining ISIS because of "kittens and Nutella"

 

You may have seen a viral CNN screencap going around today which claims that women are joining ISIS because of "kittens and nutella." The theory, according to CNN's Carol Costello, is that women see photos on ISIS's social media accounts, are too naïve not to realize that the Islamic State isn't actually a snack-and-pet-filled paradise, and join up.

 

This is ridiculous and infantilizing. It presumes that women, unlike men, do not join ISIS for political or religious reasons. In fact, as I wrote in October when analysts first began pointing out the trend of women joining ISIS, female recruits have complex political and religious reasons for joining ISIS. They are not ending up in Syria after embarking on a misguided Sisterhood-of-the-Traveling-Niqab-style lark.

 

And it's equally important to note that ISIS's approach towards female recruits is driven by a calculating military strategy designed to further specific recruitment, military, and state-building goals — and there are signs that it is working. This serious, complex issue should not be dismissed as just a bunch of silly women being misled by cute cat photos.

 

Just ask Dr. Nimmi Gowrinathan, the expert on women in conflict who spoke to CNN in that very segment. She offered a detailed challenge to CNN's characterization of female ISIS recruits, noting that "the fight for ISIS is a fight for a caliphate. It is a political fight, which goes a bit deeper than social media." It's too bad that her nuanced response didn't prevent CNN from running a chyron in front of her saying that "ISIS lures women with kittens, nutella."

 

ISIS reportedly fields two all-female brigades, al-Khansaa and Umm al-Rayan. They do not fight on the front lines of battle, but serve primarily in a policing role. They enforce civilian women's compliance with ISIS's strict rules of Islamist morality, including wearing a full niqab veil and not going out in public without a male escort.

 

There are also reports of ISIS female fighters accompanying male fighters at checkpoints and on home raids, so that they can search women and look for male fighters who might have concealed their identities under a veil and niqab.

 

ISIS's female members and supporters also recruit other women to join the group and to provide assistance in less direct ways, such as by marrying ISIS fighters or becoming involved in recruitment themselves.

[KuNiT21]

Don't worry guys, terrorists/ISIS are just people with legitimate grievances.  Move along.

[Destino]

Don't worry guys, terrorists/ISIS are just people with legitimate grievances. Move along.

Yeah but who knew they were a Cthulu apocalypse cult? Crazies looking to spark the end times don't normally get this big and powerful.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/the-fight-against-extremism--social-media--security-and-terror-at-home-171017296.html

The Fight Against Extremism: Social Media, Security and Terror at Home

 

President Barack Obama gathered police leaders, lawmakers and mayors from around the world Wednesday to address the threat of violent extremism at a White House summit that was far from what Obama originally envisioned.

 

Planned for last October, the summit never happened before the midterm elections. In the months since, the situation has just gotten worse, with the Islamic State group metastasizing and European cities learning firsthand that extremism's reach is not confined to the Middle East.

 

"In just a very short period of time we've come a long way in terrorist organizations' ability to communicate," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Wednesday as he opened the second day of the three-day event. "They have the ability to reach into our communities and attempt to recruit and inspire individuals who may turn toward violence right here in the homeland."

 

As crises boil over in Yemen and Libya, Obama is asking Congress to take a tough vote backing his military plan to defeat IS extremists in Iraq and Syria. But U.S. military action has so far proven the wrong tool to combat a robust social media and propaganda operation whose success at recruiting fighters and jihadists from western communities like Denver and Chicago has been alarmingly impressive.

 

With that threat in mind, Obama is hoping to concentrate the world's focus on the need to combat the underlying ideologies that entice otherwise modern individuals — including many disaffected youth — to behead a non-believer, kidnap a schoolgirl or shoot up a synagogue. During the three-day conference, Obama is working to highlight local models for preventing radicalization that could be replicated in other communities.

 

“Groups like al-Qaida and ISIL exploit the anger that festers when people feel that injustice and corruption leave them with no chance of improving their lives," Obama wrote in an op-ed article Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times. "The world has to offer today's youth something better."

 

The White House finally put a date on the calendar for the summit last month, in the wake of a shooting at a Paris newspaper that shook Europe to attention and earlier attacks in Canada and Australia. In the weeks since, Obama and top U.S. officials have sought to portray the U.S. as at a lower risk because of what they call an American tradition of making immigrants feel like full members of their new society.

 

"We haven't always gotten it right," Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday as he opened the summit. "But we have a lot of experience integrating communities into the American system, the American dream."

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/02/qatar-recalls-ambassador-egypt-isil-row-150219041512741.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Qatar recalls ambassador to Egypt over ISIL row

 

Qatar has recalled its ambassador to Egypt "for consultation" after a row over Cairo's air strikes on targets of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Libya, Qatari state media said.

 

A foreign ministry official said Doha was recalling its envoy over a statement made by Egypt's delegate to the Arab League Tariq Adel, according to Qatar News Agency.

 

Adel accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, according to Egyptian media, after Doha's representative expressed reservations over a clause in a communique welcoming Cairo's air strikes on ISIL targets.

 

The communique was released at the end of an ambassador-level Arab League meeting in the Egyptian capital.

 

Egyptian F-16s bombed ISIL bases in the eastern city of Derna on Tuesday, after the armed group in Libya released a gruesome video showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were in the North African country seeking work when they were captured.

 

In a separate release, Qatar's foreign ministry said Doha had expressed reservations over the raids, stressing the need for "consultations before any unilateral military action against another member state".

 

It denounced the "tense" statement by Egypt's representative to the Arab League, saying it "confuses the need to combat terrorism [with] ... the brutal killing and burning of civilians".

 

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=dTxNhQZX

Islamic State militants find a foothold in chaotic Libya

 

Libya, virtually a failed state in recent years, has succeeded in one way: It's providing a perfect opportunity for the Islamic State group to expand from Syria and Iraq to establish a strategic foothold closer to European shores.

 

Extremists loyal to the group have taken control of two Libyan cities on the Mediterranean coast, have moved toward oil facilities and are slowly infiltrating the capital, Tripoli, and the second-largest city, Benghazi. They have siphoned off young recruits from rival militant groups linked to al-Qaida and in some places taken over those groups' training camps, mosques and media networks.

 

Notably, there appears to be strong coordination between the Libya branch and the group's central leadership in Syria and Iraq. One of its top clerics, Bahraini Turki al-Binali, has visited the Libyan city of Sirte to preach: in 2013 and again at the end of last year, soon before it fell into the hands of the group's supporters, according to a rival militia official based there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity for fear for his life.

 

A video released last week showing the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians abducted from Sirte was produced by the IS media branch.

 

About 400 mostly Yemeni and Tunisian fighters are in Sirte, according to Libyan Interior Minister Omar al-Sinki. The militia official said Islamic State fighters have set up headquarters in the city's convention complex, the Ouagadougou Center, built by former dictator Moammar Gadhafi as a symbol of his secular regime's aspirations to be a pan-African leader. An Associated Press reporter who briefly visited Sirte on Wednesday saw masked militants deployed along the main road linking the convention center to downtown.

 

The close connection between the Libya branch and the central leadership around Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi underscores the strategic importance of the North African country to the group. Libya boasts oil resources - something the extremists have exploited for funding in Iraq and Syria. There are vast amounts of weapons, a legacy of the turmoil since Gadhafi's 2011 ouster. Its borders with Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria are porous.

 

And the southern shore of Italy is about 400 miles (660 kilometers) away, a distance Libyans fleeing their country's chaos regularly try to cross in rickety boats. Italy and France favor some sort of international action in Libya, while Egypt is pressing for a U.N.-backed coalition air campaign.

 

Besides Sirte in the center of the country, Islamic State loyalists control the city of Darna, farther east along the coast. This week, Egyptian warplanes struck IS training facilities and weapons depots in Darna in retaliation for the beheadings.

 

In Tripoli, which is controlled by powerful militias, IS militants have infiltrated some neighborhoods, destroying statues they consider forbidden by Islam and distributing pamphlets to spread their message. They also claimed responsibility for a deadly attack at a luxury hotel that killed several foreigners, including an American.

[Fergasun]

That was one long read by the Atlantic and I kept reading, thinking the end of the article is coming.

I see ISIS as more of a Middle East/Europe problem... when they get a foothold across the Atlantic, I will be a bit more worried - but the terrorist attack threat to the US is probably the same as al queda.

These guys are fanatics, and I guesa one of the issues I see is that it is Islam itself that might be torn apart and some of the less inclined to violence Muslims may shrug their shoulders... I don't see how their recruiting strategy will win the hearts and minds battle.

"If you are not like ! us you are our enemy and we will enslave you!"

[visionary]

http://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2425855&language=en

GCC chief rebuffs accusations against Qatar

 

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary General Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani on Wednesday rejected accusations leveled by Egypt's permanent delegate at the Arab League against Qatar charging it with "supporting terrorism." The GCC chief said in a statement that such accusations are groundless and come counter to the fact that Qatar, along with the other GCC states, has been sincerely seeking to fight terrorism and extremism at all levels.

 

Such accusations are unhelpful for bolstering Arab solidarity and have come at a time the nation is facing tremendous challenges threatening its security, stability and sovereignty

Interesting to see them sticking up for Qatar against Egypt.  I guess the rift between Qatar and the others has mostly healed for now.

 

http://www.vox.com/2015/2/19/8065143/obama-isis-islam

Obama should stop pretending Islamist terrorism has nothing to do with Islam

 

Updated by Max Fisher on February 19, 2015, 11:10 a.m. ET

 

President Obama does not have an easy line to walk when it comes to discussing Islamist extremism.

 

On the one hand, the US is at war with ISIS, an Islamist extremist group, which has murdered American citizens; it has been fighting al-Qaeda ever since it murdered thousands on September 11. Americans are understandably concerned and want to hear that their commander in chief understands the threat of Islamist extremism and takes it seriously.

 

On the other, Obama is clearly wary of worsening the wave of Islamophobia that ISIS has inspired in the US. Unduly emphasizing the role of religion could inspire more backlash against Muslims, of whom there are 2.6 million in the US. It could also indulge ISIS's view (also endorsed by some Americans, unfortunately) that the US is at war with Islam. Obama also surely wants to push against dangerous arguments, made by both ISIS and some prominent American voices, that ISIS represents true Islam.

 

Balancing these goals would be extraordinarily difficult for any president. George W. Bush struggled with it throughout his administration. But Obama is faltering. He has veered so far into downplaying Islamist extremism that he appears at times to refuse to acknowledge its existence at all, or has referred to it as violent extremism. While he has correctly identified economic and political factors that give rise to extremism, he has appeared to downplay or outright deny an awkward but important fact: religion plays an important role as well.

 

This is backfiring. Obama's conspicuous and often awkward attempts to sidestep the role of religion in Islamist extremism end up only drawing more attention to it. By refusing difficult questions about the role of religion in violent extremism, Obama is ceding those conversations to people like Bill O'Reilly, who has called Islam a "destructive force" and on Tuesday announced the US was in "a holy war."

 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/18/u-s-won-t-back-egypt-s-attacks-on-isis.html

U.S. Won’t Back Egypt’s Attacks on ISIS

 

Two longtime allies are attacking ISIS—and growing frustrated with one another. That’s good news for the so-called Islamic State.

 

The Obama administration was given multiple chances Wednesday to endorse a longtime ally’s airstrikes on America’s biggest enemy at the moment, the so-called Islamic State. Over and over again, Obama’s aides declined to back Egypt’s military operation against ISIS. It’s another sign of the growing strain between the United States and Egypt, once one of its closest friends in the Middle East.

 

This shouldn’t be a complete surprise; Cairo, after all, didn’t tell Washington about its strikes on the ISIS hotbed of Derna, Libya. Still, Wednesday's disconnect was jarring. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest passed on a reporter’s question about an endorsement of Egypt’s growing campaign against ISIS. So did State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

 

“We are neither condemning nor condoning” the Egyptian strikes, is all one U.S. official would tell The Daily Beast.

 

In other words, these once-close nations are now fighting separate campaigns against their mutual foe. And that could prove to be very good news for ISIS. The rift between U.S. and the region’s most populous country portends of another division that ISIS could exploit, this time for its expansion into northern Africa and the broader Middle East.

 

U.S. officials privately said they do not have a better idea for confronting the threat and the ongoing strains between the two nations has led to a breakdown of trust.

To the U.S., the ISIS threat may feel far away, in Iraq and Syria, where the U.S.-led air campaign is entering its seventh month. For Egypt, this is a danger that’s alarmingly close to home. ISIS is within its borders and in neighboring Libya. Extremist fighters have come from and travel through the Sinai. And many ISIS and jihadi fighters and weapons arrive in places like the Sinai from Libya.

 

Because of that, Egypt refused to join the 60-plus coalition formed last summer to confront ISIS. Instead, Egypt asked the U.S. for more weapons to confront its ISIS threat. But the U.S. has been largely hesitant, citing what it considers troubling political developments in Cairo. All the while, it appears ISIS has expanded its grip in the region.

 

On Monday, Egypt unilaterally launched an airstrike campaign on the restive Libyan city of Derna in response to a gruesome video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christian Egyptian workers along Libya’s shores in the city of Sirte.

 

Egypt did not inform the United States, its longtime ally, before the operation. And the United States stopped far short of backing Egypt’s effort. Rather, the U.S. called for a political solution in Libya, which is divided between two rival governments, each backed by different militias. Egypt’s call Wednesday for the United Nations to create a naval blockade to stop weapons transport to Libya was met with relative silence by the United States. And at the Pentagon, the military campaign against ISIS remains centered on Iraq and Syria.

 

Privately, some U.S. officials told The Daily Beast they worry that Egypt’s decision Monday to hit Libya—and its vows to do more—could do more harm than good. And yet they concede there is little they can do about it.

[Kilmer17]

Im sure there is a logical reason for us to NOT back Egypts attacks on ISIS.   Can someone post it?

[SkinsHokieFan]

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/19/the_atlantics_big_islam_lie_what_muslims_really_believe_about_isis/

 

A very good analysis of the Atlantic article

 

 

 

The Atlantic’s big Islam lie: What Muslims reallybelieve about ISIS

 

Imagine a group of people who rape.  Enslave.  Maim.  Murder.  Ethnically cleanse.  Extort.  Burn.  Behead.  But then imagine this—they don’t lie?  Can’t lie.  Won’t lie.  That’s what Graeme Wood’s recent Atlantic essay, “What ISIS Really Wants,” really wants us to believe.

 

That a movement that has earned the world’s nearly universal opprobrium for its grotesque violence and wickedness is nevertheless honest in describing why it does what it does.  I beg to differ.  The only Muslims who think ISIS represents Islam, or even Muslims, are ISIS themselves.

That’s the first thing everyone needs to know about “the Islamic State.”  And the second?  If you want to know why ISIS exists, don’t bother searching Islamic texts, or examining Islamic traditions.  The real reason ISIS happens is because of what keeps happening to Muslims.

The Incomparability of Civilizations

There’s almost no comparison between Islam and the West.  For one thing, Islam is a religion.  The West obviously is not.  But even the countries of the world that are Muslim-majority don’t compare to the West.  For all this fearful talk of a global Muslim Caliphate, it’s the West that has made real progress in creating transnational institutions.

There’s no Muslim counterpart to the European Union, the Schengen Treaty, NATO, the G-20—a Western initiative—or the many bilateral and multilateral agreements and processes that make the West what it is.  Nor is this exclusively a mark of the Muslim world: You think China, Brazil or India enjoys the alliances we do?  The kinds of integration that make our societies so prosperous and powerful?

The world’s Muslim-majority societies are remarkably diverse—much more so than the West, I’d argue.  Which is all fine, in theory, until you get to the practice.  These very different peoples are going through our equivalent of the dark ages, the consequence of centuries of colonialism, occupation, authoritarianism and extremism.

As Muslim societies struggle to find their way forward, everything is up for grabs.  What kind of government should they have?  What role should religion play?  How should power be divided?  Very little is agreed on.  One of them is this: Among an incredibly diverse, astonishingly fractured and contentious community, ISIS is anathema.

 

[twa]

 

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/19/the_atlantics_big_islam_lie_what_muslims_really_believe_about_isis/

 

A very good analysis of the Atlantic article

 

 

 .< I beg to differ.  The only Muslims who think ISIS represents Islam, or even Muslims, are ISIS themselves.>

 

 

What religion does he think their followers come from?

 

it is good to see them disavowed, but ......

[Destino]

So Egypt, Jordan, the US and others are actively bombing ISIS and they remain defiant and slaughtering people for the delight of sickos on the internet. Is the plan here to make it seem like ISIS is frighteningly powerful and capable of taking on all challengers? The fact that they continue to hold on is probably doing wonders for their recruitment globally.

[twa]

well ignoring them didn't work out well,and since the dogs of war remained muzzled....

 

someone else will obviously take care of the dirty work

[tshile]

What religion does he think their followers come from?

 

it is good to see them disavowed, but ......

 

They slaughter innocent people, including children in school.

 

They're nuts. What religion they claim to "come from" is irrelevant.

[twa]

Their recruits are obviously not irrelevant.....a certain kind of crazy most certainly

 

How big is the pool and why 

[Slateman]

They slaughter innocent people, including children in school.

 

They're nuts. What religion they claim to "come from" is irrelevant.

No, it's not. It's important to understand the motivations of your enemy. In this case, their motivations are not really religion, but they use it as an excuse.

[visionary]

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=128208&source=GovDelivery

Centcom Official: Mosul Fight Could Begin Within Weeks

 

Preparations are underway by coalition and Iraqi forces to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists, an operation that could begin as early as April and will require an Iraqi-led military force of at least 20,000 troops, a U.S. Central Command official said today.

 

The official, who briefed Pentagon reporters on background, said military planners would like to see the battle for Mosul begin in the April or May time frame, but said the timing will be dependent upon Iraqi and Kurdish forces being adequately prepared for the fight. Later than that, he said, the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the onset of hot weather in the region could complicate matters.

 

The official said discussion continues at the highest levels of the U.S. government over whether U.S. military advisors could be deployed to frontline battlefield positions to assist Iraqi and Kurdish fighters.

 

The fight to retake Mosul would be the biggest battle since the start of Operation Inherent Resolve, which began with U.S. and coalition airstrikes on ISIL targets last August, after the terrorist group swept into Iraq from neighboring Syria. ISIL seized wide swaths of territory, executing non-believers as well as hostages and members of minority groups, all in an effort to establish a caliphate across the Iraqi-Syria border.

 

U.S. and coalition forces have been working to train thousands of Iraqi fighters to reclaim territory ahead of the battle for Mosul, the official said. Efforts are also underway to train moderate opposition fighters in Syria.

While there have been setbacks, the Centcom official said the coalition military campaign has succeeded in putting ISIL on the defensive, with the terrorist group losing territory in Iraq as well as the ability to govern and adequately regenerate forces.

 

“There is no organization in the world that can suffer those kinds of casualties and not have a tremendous impact on their ability to achieve their long-term aims,” the official said.

Iraqi forces have retaken at least 700 square kilometers of territory, according to the official, who said the military campaign against ISIL is going well but it will take time to defeat the terrorists.

 

“Mosul will not be easy,” he said. “It’s going to be a difficult fight.”

[visionary]

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/us/politics/fbi-chief-not-invited-to-meeting-on-extremists.html?referrer=&_r=0

F.B.I. Chief Not Invited to Meeting on Extremists

 

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

FEBRUARY 19, 2015

 

WASHINGTON — The White House did not invite the most senior American official charged with preventing terrorist attacks — the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey — to the three-day conference this week on countering violent extremism in the United States and abroad because, senior American officials said, they did not want to place too much focus on law enforcement issues.

 

But Mr. Comey’s Russian counterpart — Aleksandr V. Bortnikov, the director of the Russian Federal Security Service, the post-Soviet K.G.B. — was at the meeting, even though international human rights groups have repeatedly accused the Russian security service of unjustly detaining and spying on Russians and others.

The official said that the administration did not specifically invite Mr. Bortnikov. Instead, it had sent a general invitation to the Russian government, which chose Mr. Bortnikov, along with others, to come to Washington. The administration did not try to prevent Mr. Bortnikov, who rarely visits the United States, from attending, said the official, who did not want to be identified discussing internal White House deliberations. Mr. Bortnikov is on the European Union sanctions list in response to the crisis in Ukraine, but he is not subject to American sanctions.

 

The official said that the administration’s efforts to counter violent extremists “are premised on the notion that local officials and communities can be an effective bulwark against violent extremism, and most of the participants — spanning community leaders, local, law enforcement, private sector innovators, and others — reflected this bottom-up approach.” A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment.

 

The programs intended to prevent Americans from becoming extremists are led by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Obama administration said in a news release on Wednesday that the effort to counter violent extremism “encompasses the preventive aspects of counterterrorism as well as interventions to undermine the attraction of extremist movements and ideologies that seek to promote violence.”

 

It also said there was a need to combat the militants’ ideas by “directly addressing and countering violent extremist recruitment narratives, such as encouraging civil-society-led counternarratives online.” Community leaders should be empowered “to disrupt the radicalization process before an individual engages in criminal activity.”

[Zguy28]

Unfortunately, us bombing ISIS is like the Red Coats trying to stop the Revolutionary War. Sure the Red Coats won a few pitched battles in conventional combat, but in the end, unconventional guerilla warfare succeeded and we see how it turned out for the crown.

 

Simplistic, but still. And no, I'm NOT comparing IS's barbarity to our Founding Fathers.