Although I detest these two words being used together as it is an obvious oxymoron, a Holy War seems to be what our enemy is declaring. I have been thinking a lot about that lately and exactly what it means and how it does, or even if it should affect a strategy for addressing ISIS? Here are some more or less random thoughts I think worthy of discussion in this forum.
To the best of my knowledge the coming conflict with ISIS will be the first war to be fought by our nation on fundamentally ideological grounds. Most if not all previous conflicts that led to war had at their roots the struggle for control of economic resources.
Much has been made of the ISIS manner and means of conducting war as compared to to that of the Nazis. A comparison to the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis and ISIS is obvious, but is only superficial IMO.
The Nazi’s arose as a political party from a hyper-nationalistic fervor to achieve an economic end not an ideological end. Atrocities committed by the Nazis (crimes against humanity) were a means to an end, not the end in and of itself. ISIS, on the other hand, is driven purely by ideology and the manner and means ISIS uses to affect its stated goals are ends in and of themselves. That is to say that the brutal oppression is part of the desired end-state and not merely the manner and means for achieving the end-state.
It seems to me that this is a wholly unique challenge for us and the chosen strategy for dealing with ISIS cannot be predicated on how we have dealt with any other threat in the past. In other words, simply bombing ISIS with the belief that at some point they will cease is not realistic. You simply cannot kill an idea.
I certainly do not have the answer to what strategy will work, but I do know that if we do not clearly and completely understand the enemy and the root motivations that drive the enemy, we cannot truly defeat them. I also know that this is going to be a generational conflict and that if we do not properly understand that fact we will not be able to defeat them either.
My gut is telling me that we are about to enter a struggle like no other – one of good versus evil. Two of the axioms put forth by Sun Tzu are most important here. First, know ourselves. Our weakness is Tolerance. As Thomas Mann said, “Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.” We, as a culture, will need to embrace that.
Second is to know your enemy. By that he meant not just who he is, but what he is, how he thinks, and why he thinks what he thinks. Towards that end I have attached what I think is pretty insightful article into anthropological psychology of the Muslim culture.
As I said none of this provides an answer to the strategic questions, but it is a starting point towards developing a sustainable strategy.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news...al-nakba?all=1
De Oppresso Liber
OK, dog pile
