Reprinted from Mike Malloy
Truthseekers, there is little question that the terrorist group ISIS/ISIL/IS is a deadly, destructive, growing threat to global security. Certainly as dangerous that the Taliban and al Qaeda, and many times greater than any threat posed by our former ally Saddam Hussein and his invisible WMDs -- the targets of our recent terror wars.
This week IS vowed to launch an assault on Italy, using its gains in Libya as a springboard to European attacks. Do they have the actual power to carry out these threats? IS certainly has mastered the art of propaganda via social media, and they have captured everyone's attention.
President Obama called for international unity in the fight against IS in an address to foreign leaders at this week:
"We have to confront squarely and honestly the twisted ideologies that these terrorist groups use to incite people to violence," Mr. Obama told an auditorium full of community activists, religious leaders and law enforcement officials -- some of them skeptical about his message -- gathered at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next door to the White House. "We need to find new ways to amplify the voices of peace and tolerance and inclusion, and we especially need to do it online."
"The NY Times reports. But, Mr. Obama said, 'we are not at war with Islam. We are at war with people who have perverted Islam.'
"White House officials cast the conference as a rallying cry and progress report after Mr. Obama's speech on terrorism to the United Nations General Assembly in September, and said it signaled Mr. Obama's desire to play the leading role in assembling an international coalition to fight an ideological war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. They said the battle was just as important as the military campaign Mr. Obama launched against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria last summer, which has shown mixed results."
Ever sine Chucklenuts declared "war on terror," this question remains -- how do you declare war on an ambiguous concept or ideology? Carpet bombing, torture, deposing dictators, and drone strikes hasn't been very successful in recent years. How do you defeat "terror?"
That is the central theme of Robert C. Koehler's piece in CommonDreams.org today, titled "Endless War is Alive and ... Bleeding." Here's an excerpt:
"Good and evil leap from the headlines: 'Egyptian planes pound ISIS in Libya in revenge for mass beheadings of Christians.'
"It's nonstop action for the American public. It's the history of war compressed into a dozen words. It's Fox News, but it could be just about any mainstream purveyor of current events.
"Once again, I feel a cry of despair tear loose from my soul and spill into the void. Our politics are out of control. There's no sanity left -- no calmness of strategic assessment, no impulse control. At least none of that stuff is allowed into the mainstream conversation about national security, which amounts to: ISIS is bad. The more of them we (or our allies of the moment) kill, the better. USA! USA!
"We're in a state of perpetual war and have no intention of escaping it. Certainly we have no intention of critiquing our own actions or -- don't be silly -- questioning the effectiveness of war, occupation or high-tech terror (think: 'shock and awe') as a means to create a stable, secure world. The interests of war have dug in for the long haul, fortified by the cynicism of the media they own. The voices of reason cry from the margins. When a trickle of sanity finds its way into the mainstream, it's mocked until it goes away.
Go read the rest of it, consider it homework for tonight's program. We will discuss the next front in our war on "terror."
