Now you see me, Now you don't

Submitted by P. Piper (Saudi Arabia), Dec 9, 2015 at 16:24

I agree wtih Dr. Pipes that ISIS is both a "quashable" and a squashable bug whose barbarous acts have been in direct inverse proportion to its relative insignificance, and whose days are clearly numbered.

Just notice, for example that ISIS has not been invited to today's momentous, even historic meeting in Riyadh of Syrian opposition groups by the barrelful. Everybody who's anybody and against the Assad regime in Damascus is there, being wined and dined (in a manner of speaking). (I also think it's interesting that, as far as anyone knows, only Arab entities are present.)

At the same time, I agree with Prashant that what ISIS purports to be fighting for- a world ruled by Sharia law - is of far greater concern in the long run than any single militant gang of thugs and malcontents could ever be. It is the "ideology" that has to be seen for what it is. The US and the West seem to have a hard time accepting that there is any "ideology" to begin with. What that means, as far as I'm concerned, is that we haven't taken even the first step yet in the struggle.

And "ideology" works in funny ways. Everyone's running around trying to figure out where the San Bernardino killers, Farook and Malik were "radicalized". I don't know about Malik, the wife. But almost surely, Farook was radicalized in the US in Illinois all by himself. The idea that you have to BE radicalized by someone else or by a group is simply not true. Whatever the ultimate cause of his rejection of his birthplace and birthright - family problems (apparently they were big....his parents are no longer married, for example) or taunts and jeers at school, his rage at his American environment, his inability to really fit into US society, was what "radicalized" him. The fact that he was "Muslim" is inconsequential....what did he really know about "Islam"? Probably not very much It was rage, not Jihad that pulled that trigger. Jihad was just the cover - a rationalization that there was a higher cause than simply haughty marginalization adn rejection by his countrymen.

The number of people that feel that way in the US must be legion. Getting rid of ISIS is not going to solve the problem of the Frooks of the future.

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