Community Chat

[Joey Heatherton]

I often feel as though I'm Mother to all.....especially the downtrodden, the depressed, the martyrs.......not sure why I feel like that.........I have my own biological kids, as well as those I physically embrace with love, spiritually........May God bless Kenji Goto, his sacrifices, his legacy.......I pray God is real........watch over us ,please.......

[gardenman]

You really have to wonder what the motives of ISIS/ISIL are? There are those in the Muslim faith who believe that there will ultimately be a showdown between the Muslims and non-believers (anyone who's not a Muslim) and that when defeat looks certain for the Muslims that the Mahdi will arise and lead the Muslim forces to victory. The non-believers will be destroyed and all the treasures of the world will be for those who truly believe. One gets the impression that the ISIS/ISIL guys are pushing for that big confrontation and trying to be the spark that lights that fuse.

I'm not so sure starting that conflict is a bad idea. We've now got radical Muslims in control of much of Yemen, Indonesia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, and parts of Iraq/Syria. We're seeing them spread far and wide. The strategy of containment clearly isn't working. Small regions of extremists have become countries of extremists. They're better at recruiting followers than we are at discouraging them. To fight a war against that spread out a mass would require massive international cooperation and agreement that this cancer has to be excised no matter the cost. I'm not sure how much the world is willing to take that step just yet. ISIS/ISIL seems to be intent of provoking just such a confrontation however. The reality is they aren't going away on their own and we can't educate them out of their beliefs. The more land they seize,the more power they gain, the better argument they have to recruit more followers.

I'm afraid we're rapidly heading to the big showdown that some radical Muslims want. I don't doubt that the West will emerge victorious, but much of the world will be shattered and the cost both in terms of money and lives will be enormous. I'm just not seeing much of an alternative anymore though. There are times you just have to fight no matter how much you may not want to fight and I fear we're nearing one of those times. The slaughters perpetrated by ISIS/ISIL in the lands they've taken have been vastly under reported while the deaths of a few individuals have been highlighted. The reality is ISIS/ISIL is already at war with us and our limited response is not working. The world needs to unite against this threat and defeat it.