ISIS, the Mongol option and fighting another day

Submitted by Michael S. (United States), Oct 13, 2014 at 07:56

In the Thirteenth Century, the Mongols were at the height of their power. Their modus operendi was to swoop down upon a country with assymetric warfare (mounted cavalry vs. castles), rape, pillage, kill just about everyone, then leave the place so the remnant of inhabitants could plant crops for them to steal the following year. The ISIS methond of warfare resembles this somewhat. Eventually, the Mongols divided the spoils among themselves, then became assimilated by the civilizations they conquered.

You argued, Daniel, that Iraq wasn't defeated in its own eyes because Saddam wasn't taken out the first time. In the 2001 war, this was remedied and he was hung. Also, Qaddafi was lynched and Osama bin Laden was whatever happened to him. Indeed, Iraq was defeated with Saddam's death, Libya was defeated with Qaddafi's death and I suppose it's safe to say that Afghanistan was defeated with bin Laden's death. Syria, also, would definitely be defeated with Assad's death: It would become a lawless mess like Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan, prey to whatever local power fancied rampaging over it. Gaza could also be defeated this way, and Lebanon, etc.

Germany was defeated with the death of Hitler, and Italy with the shooting of Mussolini. In Italy, we left a lot of the Mussolini and Mafia people in charge, so we could press on with the war on Hitler and not be distracted. Japan kept its Emperor, but he was force to abase himself. In all these cases, the irritating system was quashed -- Naziism, Fascism and State Shinto. To this day, we reap the benefits of this and all three are Western allies.

Defeating an enemy has its pros and cons. The Mongols so thoroughly defeated the Chinese, the latter became, in some cases, little more than slaves:

"Mongol society in China had four classes. A small number of Mongols was the privileged group, followed by the special status of Turks, Muslims, and other non-Chinese; northern Chinese ranked third, and the multitudinous southern Chinese were fourth, above only a considerable number of slaves. Mongols and other foreigners (mostly from Persia) replaced most of the Confucian aristocrats in government, and the civil service exams were abolished."

-- http://www.san.beck.org/3-6-Mongols.html

The Mongol (Yuan) dynasty lasted only 74 years (about as long as the Soviet Union, in modern times); and today, the Chinese are so overwhelmingly more powerful than the endangered people called Mongols, one wonders how such a small, weak nation ever came upon the world stage.

Israel says they won, and the Gazans say they won: a "Win-Win" situation; except that both claims are baloney, so it was really "Lose-Lose". Maybe that's not so bad -- both sides live to fight another day, and almost certainly will.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".