ISIS's strength

Submitted by Anon (United States), Dec 7, 2015 at 01:36

Unfortunately I think ISIS also feeds on its successes and this is its greatest danger. There are many semi radical Muslims sitting on the fence who feel emboldened and encouraged to join the movement at least in spirit with every new attack. The San Bernadino attacks were likely inspired by the Paris attacks even though they had no physical connection to either ISIS or the Paris attackers as far as we know. If ISIS were just limited to carrying out attacks from its miserable base in Syria then we could all breathe easy. But if with every new attack ISIS succeeds in inspiring an ever increasing number of people into buying into the notion of a Caliphate and end of days doomsday scenario then we do have a very dangerous threat. We know they are shopping desperately for dangerous weapons.

People are right to worry about Iran but in the long run shia extremism does not have the same bite as radical sunni extremism. This has been manifestly clear in the last few decades. Even the so called apocalyptic leaders in Iran seem to care a great deal about their survival and well being. It would be a lot better for everybody involved if Iran can be convinced to disarm its nuclear ambitions without the usual insults and humiliating threats like "axis of evil" etc. In many ways I think a normalizing and secularising of Iran would be a terrific blow to Sunni extremism.

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