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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat ISIS Really Wants
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/What is the Islamic State?
Where did it come from, and what are its intentions? The simplicity of these questions can be deceiving, and few Western leaders seem to know the answers. In December, The New York Times published confidential comments by Major General Michael K. Nagata, the Special Operations commander for the United States in the Middle East, admitting that he had hardly begun figuring out the Islamic States appeal. We have not defeated the idea, he said. We do not even understand the idea. In the past year, President Obama has referred to the Islamic State, variously, as not Islamic and as al-Qaedas jayvee team, statements that reflected confusion about the group, and may have contributed to significant strategic errors.
The group seized Mosul, Iraq, last June, and already rules an area larger than the United Kingdom. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been its leader since May 2010, but until last summer, his most recent known appearance on film was a grainy mug shot from a stay in U.S. captivity at Camp Bucca during the occupation of Iraq. Then, on July 5 of last year, he stepped into the pulpit of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, to deliver a Ramadan sermon as the first caliph in generationsupgrading his resolution from grainy to high-definition, and his position from hunted guerrilla to commander of all Muslims. The inflow of jihadists that followed, from around the world, was unprecedented in its pace and volume, and is continuing.
Our ignorance of the Islamic State is in some ways understandable: It is a hermit kingdom; few have gone there and returned. Baghdadi has spoken on camera only once. But his address, and the Islamic States countless other propaganda videos and encyclicals, are online, and the caliphates supporters have toiled mightily to make their project knowable. We can gather that their state rejects peace as a matter of principle; that it hungers for genocide; that its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger ofand headline player inthe imminent end of the world.
snip
This is a long read.. I think it is very insightful
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What ISIS Really Wants (Original Post)
LiberalArkie
Feb 2015
OP
I don't think it is at all surprising that we do not understand them. We have been fighting people
jwirr
Feb 2015
#1
jwirr
(39,215 posts)1. I don't think it is at all surprising that we do not understand them. We have been fighting people
from the ME for years and we did not understand them either.
pampango
(24,692 posts)2. Very interesting map of the areas they occupy, have freedom of movement and are attacking.
Duppers
(28,125 posts)3. WOW!! ....
...its religious views make it constitutionally incapable of certain types of change, even if that change might ensure its survival; and that it considers itself a harbinger ofand headline player inthe imminent end of the world."
Sounds similar to.... yep, you know the answer.
LiberalArkie, thanks for posting this.