You can’t blame them – after all, drones and laser-guided missiles don’t seem to be making much of an impression.
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While the group’s brutal tactics have led even the Syrian rebel movement and the Al Qaeda militant group to officially distance themselves, it remains a threat to governments worldwide and draws a large number of fighters from overseas. Yes, there were occasional dust-ups but, for the most part, things were well in hand.
So far the Islamist group, responsible for last weekend’s deadly attacks in Paris, is known to have used mustard gas and chlorine on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria.
Al-Sham is the historic Arabic name for Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. “They’ve built up quite a bit of excess cash flow in the past year”, he warns.
He said Paris was the first time Europe had witnessed an attack similar to a 2008 assault by militants in the Indian city of Mumbai, combining indiscriminate shooting with suicide bombers. Republicans think it’s a sinister attempt to frame ISIS as bigger than they really are, because they secretly sympathize with radical Islamism. (I must admit that the sight of Islamic language on a terrorist movement’s flag makes me sick to my stomach.) Which gets us to the very point of the article: That Obama calls ISIL “violent extremists, radicals, and terrorists”, and refuses to call them Islamic terrorists, as so many of his Republican opponents insist and demand.
Deprive the bastards of consistent branding! For instance the USA ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman uses the term Daesh instead of ISIL.
It has demanded that Muslims across the world swear allegiance to its leader – Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri al-Samarrai, better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – and migrate to territory under its control. That’s not what a rapid takedown of the Islamic States’s quasi-conventional force would require.
In 2013, Islamic State expanded into the civil war in Syria. They have also claimed responsibility for the bombing of a commercial Russian airliner over Egyptian air space on October 31st. But the USA military says it launched an attack this week that hit the Islamic State right where it hurt.
Bin Laden successfully played on the perception that the United States has been bought off by Israel to let it take over Palestinian land through its aggressive settlement policy. What nation isn’t self-declared?
It is not surprising that media audiences – and journalists – around the world are expressing confusion about the many iterations of the name of the terrorist organization that struck Paris last week, killing 129 people and injuring many others. In contrast to the previous administration, which put American soldiers in harm’s way with little thought for why they were fighting, and what their goals should be, and how they might achieve them, President Obama has been extremely reticent to commit substantial numbers of ground troops to wars that have no clear exit strategy.
His use of the words “we know” may be telling.
Please, NPR, just stop it. We have real interests in middle east and Iraq. Where kurdish fighters are still battling Isis. Last Friday’s attacks demonstrated the financial resources available to ISIS, most of which comes from selling oil on the black market to independent traders. “Isis Pharmaceuticals, a California biotech company founded in 1989, told CNN it is now discussing the same move”, reports the New York Times. (It’s a symbol for pharmacies.) As is, by the way, Volkswagen – named by and founded by Hitler himself.
Among the various conflicts, one where we still have a chance is the Israeli-Palestinian. That fundamentalism is in response to a liberal way of life in the West, they say.
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“This is one of the sad realities”, he said.
