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Pakistani attorney and author Rafia Zakaria wrote an op-ed in Al Jazeera America about the Islamic extremists' war on fun, including sports, music, even dining in a fine restaurant. Zakaria points out that this apparent obsession predates the existence of ISIS by several decades (at least); he suspects this is a big reason why the attackers chose Paris, renowned worldwide for its brilliant culture and joie de vivre.
Terrorism’s targeting of the merry is universal and indiscriminate, a division of the world between those who wish to live and laugh and hope and those who kill and destroy. The latter are deadly and relentless, and they have already squeezed out the mirth from too many of the world’s cities, from Karachi, Kabul and Baghdad to Nairobi and Beirut.
Zakaria experienced this aspect of terror firsthand. A high school friend had just passed a big exam, and was out celebrating with his family at a restaurant in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists struck.
Al Jazeera America provides a separate analysis warning that military action alone cannot defeat ISIS (aka ISIL), which of course is not a "nation" in the traditional sense, but more of a guerilla outfit like Al Qaeda, that opportunistically seized a stronghold in chaotic regions of Syria and Iraq. The piece's author, political scientist Rami G. Khouri, recommends that both the West and Muslim nations of the Middle East spend more resources on addressing economic and political problems facing impoverished youths who are potentially attracted by the ISIS' recruiting pitch:
If the underlying threats to ordinary citizens’ lives in autocratic Arab-Islamic societies remain unaddressed — from jobs, water and health insurance, to free elections, a credible justice system and corruption — the flow of recruits to movements like ISIL or something even worse will persist and even accelerate.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday November 16 2015, @01:27PM
The first thing to remember about terrorist groups is that they aren't stupid. They're violent, they will kill innocent people if they can, but there's no indication whatsoever that they're stupid.
One of the more interesting bits of evidence left behind by one of the attackers was what appeared at least to be a Syrian passport. Now, if you're going to engage in some good old-fashioned mass shooting, why would you bring along a document that identifies exactly who you are and where you came from?
And there's an answer: The terrorists want France and other European nations to respond by closing their borders to Syrian refugees. They know that many in Europe would really rather not have them, and making it an expensive process where they have to vet everybody for terrorist ties might well convince France and Germany and Sweden and other countries currently accepting refugees to change their mind.
And why would they want that? Because they want the people living in the area they control to stay there and survive by paying protection money to Daesh rather than leave for Europe. One of Daesh's major challenges is that they have exactly 0 experience governing anything, and are lacking a civilian workforce, economic base, and bureaucracy with tax collection and the like to pay their soldiers. When you don't pay your soldiers, you can last a while by fanatic belief in the cause and threatening deserters with death, but sooner or later the army melts away because unpaid soldiers will say "why bother?" and go home.
The reason that the new Iraqi government couldn't control its own territory is also the exact same reason: A lack of a civilian governing infrastructure brought about by the US "de-Baathification" process, because to be a government bureaucrat in Saddam's Iraq you had to join the Baath Party. The biggest reason Iraqis didn't support the Baghdad government was that they couldn't keep the streets safe, couldn't keep the power running, and couldn't keep the roads repaired (which prevented a lot of areas from getting food reliably).
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday November 16 2015, @02:15PM
there's no indication whatsoever that they're stupid
Given how few of them succeed, and how easy it is to attack most of their targets, I'm not sure that I agree with this.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday November 16 2015, @03:19PM
There are three reasons there aren't a lot more successful terrorist attacks:
1. There really aren't that many terrorists out there. If there were, we'd have random people routinely walking into completely undefended shopping malls with legally owned and carried AR-15's and slaughtering hundreds of people until the police kill them. And as it turns out, the vast majority of people don't want to do that, either for moral reasons (every popular belief system on the planet - including mainstream Islam - believes killing innocent people is wrong) or practical reasons (to do this is suicidal, and most people are not suicidal).
2. Working with explosives requires some training to ensure it doesn't blow up when you didn't want it to (e.g. a bunch of truck bombing attempts were thwarted by the truck blowing up on the road while driving to the target). Oh, and you can't just order a bunch of dynamite without at least some questions being asked.
3. The police catch and stop would-be terrorists long before they attempt to carry out their plot. This is probably the least-important reason, but it's there. The cops can catch wind of it a lot of different ways, but the most likely one is a terrorist leaking information about what they're planning on doing to somebody in their social circle (e.g. telling their mom to prepare to deal with their upcoming demise). For example, the authorities were told about the underwear bomber because his father had gone to the US consulate and warned them.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 16 2015, @02:44PM
One of the more interesting bits of evidence left behind by one of the attackers was what appeared at least to be a Syrian passport. Now, if you're going to engage in some good old-fashioned mass shooting, why would you bring along a document that identifies exactly who you are and where you came from?
That was my initial thought. But consider this: if you are on your way to a mass shooting then you've got a car full of guns and ammo. If you get pulled over by the police for something stupid like running a red light or a fender bender you don't want to do anything to give them a reason to search your vehicle. So everybody in the car should be as squeaky clean as possible and that includes carrying identity documents.
Now that doesn't mean the passport wasn't stolen from a guy who looked close enough to the terrorist to pass. That would serve both purposes and probably wouldn't be that hard to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 16 2015, @06:47PM
Sorry but this is off:
The fundies are very good at motivating and coordinating people and they have an international network of experienced businessmen, NGOs, and government officials to fall back on for support. ISIS got the oilfields up and running again quickly and they are swimming in cash. They might turn society into a stone age hellhole with rifles but they are easily strong enough to consolidate power, train soldiers, and project force outside their territory.