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August 9, 2014

Obama Calls ISIL "Barbaric Terrorists"

By Rob Kall

Is ISIS/ISIL a terrorist organization? Or is it being labeled as one so Obama and congress can avoid constitutional and legal requirements to authorize war?

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victims killed by ISIL in Tikrit-- June 2014
victims killed by ISIL in Tikrit-- June 2014
(Image by youtube)   Details   DMCA

Is ISIS/ISIL a terrorist organization? Or is it being labeled as one so Obama and congress can avoid constitutional and legal requirements to authorize war?

In a statement today, President Obama called ISIL "barbaric terrorists," as he described the air onslaught and ground materials support being provided to defend Mosul, Iraq.

That's a mistake an intentionally misleading political label.

ISIL is terrifying, deplorable in many ways and murderous and brutal, so brutal that in 2014, according to wikipedia, "al-Qaeda cut all ties with the group, reportedly for its brutality and "notorious intractability".[71][72] But that's not the same as terrorist.

Let's take a look at what Wikipedia has to say about terrorists:

In the international community, terrorism has no legally binding, criminal law definition.[1][2] Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts that are intended to create fear (terror); are perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal; and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (e.g., neutral military personnel or civilians). Some definitions now include acts of unlawful violence and war. The use of similar tactics by criminal organizations for protection rackets or to enforce a code of silence is usually not labeled terrorism, though these same actions may be labeled terrorism when done by a politically motivated group. Usage of the term has also been criticized for its frequent undue equating with Islamism or jihadism, while ignoring non-Islamic organizations or individuals.[3][4]

The word "terrorism" is politically loaded and emotionally charged,[5] and this greatly compounds the difficulty of providing a precise definition. Studies have found over 100 definitions of "terrorism".[6][7] In some cases, the same group may be described as "freedom fighters" by its supporters and considered to be terrorists by its opponents.[8] The concept of terrorism may be controversial as it is often used by state authorities (and individuals with access to state support) to delegitimize political or other opponents,[9] and potentially legitimize the state's own use of armed force against opponents (such use of force may be described as "terror" by opponents of the state).[9][10] At the same time, the reverse may also take place when states perpetrate or are accused of perpetrating state terrorism.[11] The usage of the term has a controversial history, with individuals such as ANC leader Nelson Mandela at one point also branded a terrorist.[12]

ISIS has stated that it's goal is to create a caliphate that rules the world. It identifies itself as a caliphate, in other words, a nation or state. It was relatively dormant while the US was present in Iraq, and grew considerably in Syria, for all we know, with the help of extreme fundamentalist Sunni interests and possible even with the help of the US and Europe, as a way to erode the power of Syria's Assad.

ISIL is a concrete manifestation of very extreme religious fanatics. Wikipedia states,
"In its self-proclaimed status as a caliphate, it claims religious authority over all Muslims across the world[46] and aspires to bring much of the Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its direct political control,[47]beginning with territory in the Levant region, which includes Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus, and an area in southern Turkey that includes Hatay.[48][49] The group has been officially designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council,[50] the United States,[51] the United Kingdom,[52] Australia,[53] Canada,[54] Indonesia[55] and Saudi Arabia,[56] and has been widely described as a terrorist group by Western and other media sources.[17][57][58][59][60][61]

I would argue that all of the nations classifying it as a terrorist state are choosing to muddy the water on the use of the word and idea of terrorism. Terrorists do not claim to be nations. They do not assemble armies. Terrorists operate using asymmetric warfare. Some nations do too, but ISIL brings something new to the table-- an intention and approach that is brutal, which threatens the very existence of the western world and way of life.

Was Nazi Germany a terrorist state? Would it have been called one today?

Was Japan, upon attacking Pearl Harbor a terrorist state? The label wasn't used much back then. Would it have been used today? Would that have been a useful frame for characterizing Germany, Japan, Italy, even Vichy France?

One thing is clear. ISIL has already taken such a hold over major parts of Iraq that Obama, in the Q & A session after his press conference, stated that it was necessary to "Create a safe corridor so these people can move." That indicates that ISIL already has control over major swathes of Iraq. That makes it more than a "barbaric terrorist" group. That makes it a conquering nation. In the past, instead of terrorist, the worde "horde" was used, as in "conquering horde," which was pejoratively used to suggest barbarian, non-civilized forces.

My point is that the idea of terrorism and terrorists is one used to justify massive funding to the tune of billions of dollars. Calling it terrorism instead of war, which is what happens when one nation is in conflict with another allows the president and congress to evade the responsibility for declaring war, for getting official authorization.

ISIL is bad news. Mis-labeling it is also bad news. It further worsens the fog of war and perpetuates the failure to hold the president and congress accountable.





Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.


Check out his platform at RobKall.com


He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity


He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com


more detailed bio:


Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.


Rob Kall Wikipedia Page


Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel


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Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.


Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.


To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.


For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.


Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..


To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.


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