Why ISIS Exists

I’m pilfering the ideas/statements/and feelings from a piece with the same nameas above/written by more knowledgable others on 3/5/15 with more insight than I but My BAD - your LOSS - I am up early, sadden and upset that Paris was “struck” last night. Been there. Took our family (12 of us) for a 4 day Thanksgiving holiday. We’ve walked the whinding streets, prayed at Norte Dame, ate at the Jules Vern restaurant in the Eiffel Tower, looked down onto the Seine and into the reflecting lights, felt the beauty and the art and teared up as we left – and now this morning, tears again. We all have seen Isis as certainly dangerous and lacking in understanding when it comes to democratic principals and thoughts. I see them much like one of our big city, juvenile delinquent, youth/street gangs – using violent tactics to get notoriety and status – “Wanna be’s with Only ONE Means,” wiling to do anything to fill their needs for things, recognition and glory! MURDER is a MUST!

  “The media often depicts ISIS recruits as lost souls in search of a cause or suffering from mental illness. That may be true – in some cases.”  ISIS or the so-called “Islamic State” — is the latest and most horrifying iteration of the modern terror groups that have plagued the region/world in recent years. With 20,000 to 30,000 combatants/recruits streaming in from all over the globe, the group is unlikely to be significantly degraded by U.S. air strikes – some OK! But it’s like bombing to get rid of weeds in your yard  – you’ll get some but they’ll be replaced by others!

Political conditions in the Middle East continue to favor it and those conditions are the blowback from U.S. policies, wars, and historic and cultural turmoil. ISIS and its ilk are one result.  Terrorist organization, don’t survive without support – i.e. passive acceptance up to active assistance, coming from individuals who may view ISIS as either the lesser of many evils or else a righteous group waging the Jihad - a holy war similar to our Christian sponsored crusades.

Each seems to be fueled by decades of Western colonialism plus recent U.S. invasions, drone strikes, and the installation and support of corrupt / often brutal puppet governments. If we hold the hands with dictators to get oil deals which  only benefits the hyper-wealthy,  can you guess the reaction of the contained ,needy and poor!

     I’m not defending any of the committed unspeakable atrocities. Those act are WRONG and should be seen as CRIMINAL and treats as such! But what do we say to the fact that the U.S. invasion of Iraq killed some half a million Iraqis by one estimate — most of them civilians — and wounded another million. They died the sorts of deaths that would inflame any of us if we were they. Arabs and Muslims around the world are no exceptions. Can we now just say “Sorry!” and expect mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children to shake hands and accept our “I’m Sorry!” The invasion is recognized to have brought torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners, in blatant violation of international law and the most rudimentary elements of humanity. Nope, we didn’t do anything even when it was known! Torture, of which we knew, is only part of what happened. The aftermath of  “Our War against Husain”,  only fueled the outrage felt by Iraqis + the rest of the Muslim and Arab world. Our U.S. policies supporting/installing/propping-up puppet government has made corruption a reality in daily life for the non-Shiite populations. The US likes to tout its moral superiority. - YET the bleak contrast between what Iraqis experienced and America’s self-proclaimed exceptionalism led many Iraqi/others to join groups of “local street gang” which made its own set of promises — and morphed into ISIS — and the results have been and most probably will be  - terrifying.

Our Mid Eastern allies have a story to tell - Saudi Arabia beheads over 100 people per year, and its fellow Gulf States fail to respect basic human rights. i.e.: Jordan’s King Abdullah ibn Hussein, now our hero for his newfound resolve to fight ISIS, oversees a government that has no freedom of the press and freely uses tortures on dissidents STOP, THINK and READ the article which I plagiarized – Why Isis Exists –  It makes me wonder how many more painful Parisian nights we have yet to face. Help us God!