Islamic State: Preventing
the 'Conquest of Rome' (News, Switzerland)
"The goal
of the beheadings is for the Western public to identify with the hostages and arouse
rage against the IS and anything Islamic that happens to pop up. … This technique
succeeds, of course. That's how we're wired, and the IS finds that taking its
hatred out into the world and generously spreading it around justifies the absorption
of significant military disadvantages. … The well-publicized megalomaniacal fantasies of the IS jihadists, allegedly supported by former generals of Saddam Hussein, suggests this: The wet dream of some of these
murderers seems to be the conquest of Rome by the Caliphate. … The calculus is
apparently to provoke an escalation and ultimately, an end-time-style holy war."
Again, the murderous Islamic State has executed a hostage,
and again the reaction in the West has been one of absolute horror. We confront
the proverbial evil - but is that all?
Nothing can justify humiliation and the cruelty of murder. This
must be emphasized again and again. But sometimes it is important that we
swallow our nausea and look past the obvious act of barbarism to analyze our
role in this hideous drama, to say nothing of the roles of the media and the
victims.
It is repeatedly emphasized that the "executions"
are "staged," or "staged for effect" - the implication
being that someone is "directing," someone is playing a role, and an
audience is watching. That one of the participants, a hostage, has to pay for each
ghastly performance with a cruel and humiliating death makes it that much
worse.
IS members seem to love to murder
and torture - but we only learn of most of these murders through second-hand
reports. Hardly any photos of the children or civilians it kills are put on
public display or used for propaganda by IS itself.
In addition, in the case of these atrocities, it can be said
that they serve the stated insane wannabe caliph's aim of creating a "pure"
Caliphate: They are murders committed out of a perverse strategic logic.
This is in contrast to the on-camera beheadings. From a
purely strategic standpoint, these achieve absolutely nothing - quite the contrary,
in fact. It is entirely possible a few frustrated teenagers are thereby
motivated join the "holy" war
and serve as cheap cannon fodder for the IS, which so enjoys sending them to pointlessly
holy deaths. The primary audiences, however, are the governments and people of
the West.
Western governments have already responded, and after the United
States, it is more than likely that Great Britain will answer with air strikes,
and a military-political alliance against the IS will have been forged. It
seems that their populations also stand behind this. But far from the horror in
the sands of Iraq - or Syria, emotions are being stirred. The goal is for the
Western public to identify with the hostages and arouse rage against the IS and
anything Islamic that happens to pop up.
This technique succeeds, of course. That's how we're wired,
and the IS finds that taking its hatred out into the world and generously
spreading it around justifies the absorption of significant military
disadvantages. Perhaps the intent is to provoke attacks on Muslims living here,
thereby bringing an escalation of violence to our civil society.
The motivation for this madness can have only two possible
explanations: complete idiocy or a religiously-driven death wish. These two variants
differ little on the surface, but upon closer examination they do. Because
imbeciles don't act proactively and with purpose, while religious end-time
fanatics certainly do.
The calculus is apparently to provoke an escalation and
ultimately, an end-time-style holy war. After all, the well-publicized
megalomaniacal fantasies of the IS jihadists, who are allegedly supported by
former generals of Saddam Hussein, suggest this: The wet dream of some of these
murderers seems to be the conquest of Rome by the Caliphate. In all likelihood,
that can only be achieved with an all-encompassing war - one that the "caliph"
seems almost to long for.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
To believe that the IS can be finished off with a few air
strikes is naïve, nor will upgrading Iraqi and Kurdish forces be enough to
eliminate this murderous gang. The IS only thrives because it has filled a
power vacuum - first in the Syrian civil war, and from there the way to Iraq
was easy. Iraq's Sunni population was so harassed by the Shiite-heavy Maliki
government and so fleeced by corrupt officials that people living north of
Baghdad and south of the Kurdish regions felt only hatred for the government,
and even the crazies of the IS were considered a more tolerable alternative. What
now presents itself as a military problem is in fact an ethno-political problem
- one that Iraq's new Abadi government has its work
cut out to resolve.
So in parallel with military operations, a political
re-education of these regions must take place as quickly as possible. For this
to occur, the forces in the region - many of which are partly or diametrically
opposed - must find a minimal consensus.
As long as there is still a stage for this insane band of
killers, they will be able to direct their cruel show - with all of us as fascinated
and its disgusted audience.
