ISIS/ISIL

[7Wannabe5]

The slums of Detroit are worse in many ways worse than the slums of Tehran (even given sanctions.) My recent Ex grew up rather wealthy in Iran but both the son of his nanny who didn't emigrate and the son of his family's gardener who did emigrate to the US are now wealthy men in their 50s so there are also opportunities for upward mobility. It's not just about religion OR economics. It has a lot to do with Identity Politics. The moderate Muslims I know think what this man has to say on the issue makes sense.

http://www.ted.com/talks/maajid_nawaz_a ... anguage=en

[Devil's Advocate]

I realize the thrust of this thread is pragmatic, from a primarily US-centric view point.

I'd spoken earlier of the religious angle. I believe religion is a far reater source of evil than peopple realize. Not just Islam, Christianity no less : the Vativcan edifice is built on blood, no less than the IS. Look at what even purely pacific religions like Buddhism have got up to in Sri Lanka.

But I'll let that pass for now. And move on to another semi-tangent if I may, to talk of another pet peeve of mine : hypocrysy.

[Devil's Advocate]

IS is a criminal organization. Sure. That man in black is the definition of a ghoul.

But someone explain to me why those killing innocent women and babies through drone attacks are not BIGGER ghouls and BIGGER criminals than those killing innocent adult full-grown men.

Someone explain to me why those who destroyed a nation in retribution for non-existent weapons should not face the gallows or the lethal injection, instead of a presidential pension.

The IS are ghouls, but there are beams aplenty in eyes closer home. Some of those eyes merely go with stronger arms, is all "our" righteousness is.

Now let's devise an emoticon for "hanging head in shame".

[jacob]

@DA - Wearing a team shirt eliminates any form of cognitive dissonance. From an Us vs Them perspective, anything Team Us does is automatically justified and anything Team Them does is automatically unjust. A material number of people see the world in those terms compared to more universal terms. It's a matter of moral perspective: whether all humans have the same "rights" or whether 'our humans' have more "rights". For example, compare a morality which focuses on "being nice to friends and family" or a morality which focuses on "following the laws of our country" to a morality where "laws are simply a matter of convention" or "treat others as you would would them to treat you". They're all very different and they all exist in numbers.

Incidentally, I've noticed that many who subscribe to the "us vs them" world-view seem strangely incapable of acknowledging the existence of the same kind of subscribers in the "them"-group.---That those who cheer the loudest for the confrontational view is match by the exact same kind of people on the other side. This is all supremely ironic and speaks to the hopelessness of this particular human condition.

[Scrubby]

But someone explain to me why those killing innocent women and babies through drone attacks are not BIGGER ghouls and BIGGER criminals than those killing innocent adult full-grown men.

ISIS aren't killing civilians by accident, they do it intentionally. If they don't kill the women it's because they are using them as sex slaves (yes, really). Even the al-Qaeda has severed ties with them because they think they are too brutal. It is hard to overstate how much worse than anyone else the ISIS is.

[jacob]

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175908/ ... ddle_east/

Saw this today. In the spirit of "what could possibly go wrong?"

Lately the comments on the JMG archdruid site seems to think of IS/etc. as the "barbarians at the gate", that is, a break down [of law and order] at the frontier of the empire thanks to a war band. It makes sense.

[Chad]

A little progress.

http://www.vox.com/2016/1/20/10798476/isis-salary-cut

[Ego]

What happened to the $425M they took from the Iraqi reserve bank in Mosul? Spendthrift buggers, eh? They need to read YMOYL.

[Chad]

Well, fighting a war against everyone is kind of anti-ERE. You can't keep up with the Joneses, when the Joneses have better jobs and are backed by high tech billionaires. Also, doesn't help them that oil is basically free.

Through all of this we are starting to see more splinter organizations from within ISIS. This still isn't going to end anytime soon, but hopefully people will start to realize that ISIS isn't the boogeyman many wanted them to be. Sustained pressure on all fronts, not massive one off engagements wins this in the end. This isn't the Battle of Kursk.