On the Future of ISIS
What exactly has been defeated in the recent battles against ISIS? The relative success of ISIS in recent years has been made possible largely by the failure of its opponents to understand what it is. Its military successes in the Near East and in the worldwide turmoil caused by frequent suicide bombings, shootings, and truck crashings (as we saw in New York this week) can hardly be unknown anyplace in the world. ISIS is often said to be a “terrorist” organization unrelated to or not identified with Islam. Once it is isolated and neutralized, the theory goes, everything can return to normal.
The current military defeats of ISIS will test this thesis. One school of thought maintains that the threat will now largely disappear. Peaceful Muslims will be in charge in what are called their own lands. The other school thinks that ISIS is now free to pursue a more lethal and worldwide expansion in the vast new areas in which the Muslim presence is now being rapidly established. A morally decadent West, in its own areas, will find itself unable to cope with the zeal of this, to it, strange new religion now encamped in its midst.
The Trump administration has been more systematic than that of Obama. It has paid careful military attention to the once-thought triumphant ISIS arms, with its trucks, tommy guns, and black uniforms. Most of its strongholds, now largely in ruins, have been retaken. Millions of locals have fled the area, usually for Europe. A concentrated persecution of Christians and other non-Muslim groups has decimated many of the most famous cities and areas in Iraq, Syria, and Palestine. The White House has just recognized the bias against persecuted Christians when refugee services relied solely on United Nations agencies.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
