Fishlore
Silver Member
To dismiss ISIS as "just a gang" is a mistake that, if we continue to make it, is going to cost the lives of thousands of Americans at home and abroad. The historical origins of a movement don't explain its subsequent development. Christianity, after all, was just a dozen or so fisherman in the Galilee at the beginning.Step back and take a satellite view of the conflict over the centuries. ISIS is the latest brand of Muslim resistance to Christian aggression, an aggression that has been going on since the Christian team got the ball back at the Battle of Tours with quarterback Charles Martel.The "moderate" opposition are Sunni supporters of the Chechens.
Until the Russian jet was brought in Sinai by ISIS the "moderates" were target number one with a bullet and quite rightly so.
ISIS is trying to set up a caliphate in the traditional Islamic homeland of the first four Caliphs which does not include Europe or Russia. The downing of a passenger jet in that area by ISIS while annoying should have been anticipated by the Russian Foreign and/or Defense minister. It was not.
The attack in Paris changed things and moved ISIS higher up the target list.
The Russian bomber was fired upon and hit while it was Syrian airspace and that according to the Turks.
ISIS is a cash cow for Turkey and that was the reason for the attack.
Turkey now either gives up its cash cow or gets its butt kicked by Russia and France.
And that is the situation now.
It is a cultural blindness of the West to see that while ISIS has used a bloody-minded theology to justify resisting Western encroachment, we have done exactly the same thing. It is a very human pattern to fight outsiders and to explain and justify the defense by an ideology that has religious roots.
France rejected Turkey's entrance into the EU because Turkey is not a Christian nation. The pope led the rejectionist effort. Denied the opportunity (very rare in history) to switch sides, Turkey is returning to its Muslim roots.
Bottom line: if you don't want war and terrorism, stay out of the other guy's yard.
ISIS is just a gang formed by Saddam's former Iraqi Republican Guards or whatever they were called, that Bush was too weak to eradicate; they're just Baathists with a nifty new title. The major 'problem' in the ME now is the Iranian axis; bombing ISIS doesn't do much of anything. Getting rid of Assad, Hezboolaboola, and provoke a coup in Iran and the most of the rest of it just fades away.
Pretending 'da Evul Xians iz just as bad' gibberish is of course just ridiculous propaganda nonsense only cranks buy into.
ISIS has spread far beyond western Iraq, exerting influence and projecting force as far away as Libya, Nigeria and Somalia. Much more important than the original founders are the factors which have caused it to spread like wildfire. It has replaced Qaeda. If all we do is kill off its leaders, it will be replaced in turn. But much more important, as long as the reasons for its success are not addressed, it will continue and it will grow. Scratching doesn't cure poison ivy either.