Terrorist Attacks in Paris

Awful stuff.

 

There is some discussion of controlling Boko Haram, but it's quite limited despite the fact that they are aligning themselves with Daesh (as are the Chechnians in the Caucasus Mountains). That said, we know why Boko Haram is largely ignored:

a) they don't sit in a massively oil rich area
b) they are Africans

Always this.

 

I'd be interested in knowing the source of your statistics.

Actually, it goes further back than that. Look to Yemen. It was the power vacuum left by the Iraq war and the Syrian rebellion that gave Daesh the opportunity and means to prosper.

I disagree with you. Yes, we need to eliminate the why, but I am not sure we understand what that is. Many of the radicalized are affluent people from affluent backgrounds. Daesh is bringing in 3 million dollars a day by smuggling oil. They certainly have the means to build infrastructure and create jobs.

Terrorism is a political act. This particular group uses a religious viewpoint to advance a political agenda: the creation of a caliphate and the imposition of their particular brand of "sharia" law (quotes on purpose, these people call themselves Islamic but they're about as Islamic as the KKK is Christian).

What should the response be? War is also a political act. In some cases it is called for. France has responded by bombing targets (note that they have the support of other middle-eastern states, the raid was launched from Jordan and the UAE). My take is that the response most likely to succeed is to destroy their training facilities and their ordinance, as well as any fighting force, and assassinate the leadership.

Edit: In addition, deprive them of their funding, and this will probably require the use of force as well as other sanctions.

However, let's remember the lesson of our experience in Afghanistan and Iraq, and not leave a power vacuum. If we're going to do the job, we need to do the whole job, which includes something akin to a Marshall plan for the affected areas.

 

The problem is that Daesh is very media savvy and they laid the ground work for this attack ahead of time.
First they told the refugees that the host countries were going to treat them like shit, oppress them and that going there was a bad idea.
Then they told the people in Syria that there would be random, evil bombings for no reason by the infidels from the west.
The solution, they say is to join them in their medieval religion (that doesn't resemble anything Islam has been for centuries) and fight back.
So they win whatever we do.

 

No, there are other options. There should be a military response that results in the deprivation of their funding and their ability to fight.

However, we must also fight a propaganda war. I was active duty SF when the Soviet Union fell. A big part of that success was that we got them to commit huge sums of money on weapons and weapons systems, and that caused them to stop spending money on infrastructure. Also, we (the U.S.) constructed huge TV transmitters on the borders of the Warsaw pact countries and beamed in stuff like supermarket adds and news programs. Imagine coming home from your long day as an iron worker, after waiting in line for 3 hours to get into the "grocery store" to leave with some potatoes and a head of cabbage. Meat? Hah. Fresh Fruit? Rarely. Then you turn on your TV and you see that a few miles away the grocery stores are full of the very things you dream about having. When the people inside the curtain realized what life was really like in the west (as opposed to what they had been told) revolution occurred from within.

The same holds true in Daesh. The people have been feed a vision of what life is like "among the infidels" and we need to show them why it would be better "among the infidels" than where they are now.

 

This is a video that's worth watching. It's from Channel 10 Australia's, The Project.

'Isil is weak': TV host Waleed Aly's powerful speech after Paris attack - video | World news | The Guardian

 

Or Anonymous can kick their ass.

Anonymous Declares War On ISIS After Paris Attacks

A 'short' list of their work so far.

#OpIsis #opparis - Pastebin.com

 

Congressional funding could fix that, if they'd stop arguing with each other all the time and work toward the common good.

What am I saying? Congress? Work towards the common good? Hah. Today's ad hominem argument will be....